NAME

Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPar - a header parameter

SYNOPSIS

use Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPar;

DESCRIPTION

An Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPar object encapsulates an Astro::STSDAS::Table header parameter. The following attributes exist for a parameter:

idx

The unary based index of the parameter in the list of parameters.

name

The parameter name. It is stored in all upper case.

value

The parameter value. It is always stored as an ASCII string.

comment

An optional header comment. This is available only for STSDAS format text tables.

type

An optional type. This is somewhat meaningless as the header value is stored as an ASCII string. It is available only for STSDAS format binary Tables.

Accessing attributes

Each attribute has an eponymously named method with which the attribute value may be retrieved. The method may also be used to set attributes' values for modifiable attributes. For example:

$oldname = $col->name;
$col->name( $newname );

Modifiable attributes are: name, value, comment, type. If a set of header parameters is being managed in an Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPars container, it is very important to use that container's rename method to change a column's name, else the container will get very confused.

Other Methods

new

$column = Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPar->new(
           $idx, $name, $value, $comment, $type );

This is the constructor. It returns an Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPar object. Attributes which are inappropriate for the column may be passed as undef. See above for the definition of the attributes. This is generally only called by a Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPars object.

copy

This returns a copy of the parameter (as an Astro::STSDAS::Table::HeaderPar object).

EXPORT

None by default.

LICENSE

This software is released under the GNU General Public License. You may find a copy at

http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html

AUTHOR

Diab Jerius (djerius@cpan.org)

SEE ALSO

perl(1).