Creates a tablefrom one or more vectors (one-dimensional arrays).
A vector (one-dimensional array) variable. If additional vectors are specified, they must contain the same number of elements as vari. The input variable(s) can be of any data type.alias
(optional) Specifies a new name for the table column. By default, the input variable's name is used.
A table containing n columns, where n is equal to the number of input variables.
A scalar string expression that specifies the name of a PV-WAVE structure to use to create the result table. This structure can either be defined by the user, or obtained from the Out_Structure keyword from a previous BUILD_TABLE call. If user-defined, the tag definitions of this structure must meet the requirements for PV-WAVE table variables. If no value is specified by In_Structure, PV-WAVE creates a new named structure, based on the types of the column variables specified in the parameter string. The purpose of this keyword is to allow you to append new rows to an existing table variable.
A string variable which receives the name of the PV-WAVE structure that was used to create the result table. The purpose of this keyword is to allow you to append rows to the result table with subsequent calls to BUILD_TABLE. In this scenario, Out_Structure is used to save the name of the structure created during the first BUILD_TABLE call. This same structure name is used (with the In_Structure keyword) to append rows to the result table.
A table is built from vector (one-dimensional array) variables only. You cannot include expressions in the BUILD_TABLE function. For example, The following BUILD_TABLE call is not allowed:
result = BUILD_TABLE('EXT(0:5), COST(0:5)')
EXT = EXT(0:5)
COST = COST(0:5)
result = BUILD_TABLE('EXT, COST')
NOTE: ASC and DESC are reserved words (used by QUERY_TABLE for direction) and thus are not allowed to be used as variable names or aliases.
phone_data = BUILD_TABLE('DATE, TIME, ' + $
'DUR, INIT, EXT, COST, AREA, NUMBER')
INFO command to view the new table structure, for example:
INFO, /Structure, phone_data ** Structure TABLE_0, 8 tags, 40 length:
| DATE | LONG | 901002 |
| TIME | LONG | 93200 |
| DUR | FLOAT | 21.4000 |
| INIT | STRING | 'TAC' |
| EXT | LONG | 311 |
| COST | FLOAT | 5.78000 |
| AREA | LONG | 215 |
| NUMBER | STRING | 2155554242 |
The QUERY_TABLE function can be used to retrieve information from this table. For example:
res = QUERY_TABLE(phone_data, ' * Where COST1.0')
phone_data1 = BUILD_TABLE('DATE Call_Date,' + $
TIME Call_Time, DUR Call_Length,' + $
'INIT, EXT, COST Charge, AREA Area_Code,'+ $
'NUMBER Phone_Number')
INFO, /structure, phone_data ** Structure TABLE_0, 8 tags, 40 length:
| CALL_DATE | LONG | 901002 |
| CALL_TIME | LONG | 93200 |
| CALL_LENGTH | FLOAT | 21.4000 |
| INIT | STRING | 'TAC' |
| EXT | LONG | 311 |
| CHARGE | FLOAT | 5.78000 |
| AREA_CODE | LONG | 215 |
| PHONE_NUMBER | STRING | 2155554242 |
For more information on BUILD_TABLE, see Chapter 9, Creating and Querying Tables, in the PV-WAVE User's Guide.
For information on reading data into variables, see Chapter 8, Working with Data Files, in the PV-WAVE Programmer's Guide.
