Name

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FXBCREATE

Purpose

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Open a new binary table at the end of a FITS file.

Explanation

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Write a binary table extension header to the end of a disk FITS file,
and leave it open to receive the data.
The FITS file is opened, and the pointer is positioned just after the
last 2880 byte record. Then the binary header is appended. Calls to
FXBWRITE will append the binary data to this file, and then FXBFINISH
will close the file.

Use

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FXBCREATE, UNIT, FILENAME, HEADER

Inputs

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FILENAME = Name of FITS file to be opened.
HEADER = String array containing the FITS binary table extension
header.
  Opt. Inputs :
None.

Outputs

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UNIT = Logical unit number of the opened file.
      EXTENSION= Extension number of newly created extension.
  Opt. Outputs:
None.

Keywords

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ERRMSG = If defined and passed, then any error messages will be
returned to the user in this parameter rather than
depending on the MESSAGE routine in IDL. If no errors are
encountered, then a null string is returned. In order to
use this feature, ERRMSG must be defined first, e.g.
ERRMSG = ''
FXBCREATE, ERRMSG=ERRMSG, ...
IF ERRMSG NE '' THEN ...

Calls

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FXADDPAR, FXBFINDLUN, FXBPARSE, FXFINDEND
  Common :
Uses common block FXBINTABLE--see "fxbintable.pro" for more
information.

Restrictions

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The primary FITS data unit must already be written to a file. The
binary table extension header must already be defined (FXBHMAKE), and
must match the data that will be written to the file.

Side Effects

---

None.

Category

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Data Handling, I/O, FITS, Generic.
  Prev. Hist. :
W. Thompson, Jan 1992, based on WRITEFITS by J. Woffard and W. Landsman.
W. Thompson, Feb 1992, changed from function to procedure.
W. Thompson, Feb 1992, removed all references to temporary files.
  Written :
William Thompson, GSFC, January 1992.
  Modified :
Version 1, William Thompson, GSFC, 12 April 1993.
Incorporated into CDS library.
Version 2, William Thompson, GSFC, 21 July 1993.
Fixed bug with variable length arrays.
Version 3, William Thompson, GSFC, 21 June 1994
Added ERRMSG keyword.
Version 4, William Thompson, GSFC, 23 June 1994
              Modified so that ERRMSG is not touched if not defined.
Version 5, Antony Bird, Southampton, 25 June 1997
Modified to allow very long tables

Version

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Version 5, 25 June 1997
Converted to IDL V5.0 W. Landsman September 1997
      Added EXTENSION parameter, C. Markwardt 1999 Jul 15
      More efficient zeroing of file, C. Markwardt, 26 Feb 2001
      Recompute header size if updating THEAP keyword B. Roukema April 2010