Index Page
INSPEKT User's Guide

Table of Contents


   INSPEKT User's Guide
      Abstract
      About INSPEKT's Built-in Help System
         Related Topics

   Autoadjust

   Collecting Commands In Files
         Related Topics

   Column
         Related Topics

   Column and Table Abbreviations
         Related Topics

   Columns
         Related Topics

   Combining Tables
         Equi-joins
         Ambiguous Columns
         Joining a Table to Itself
         Using Aliases
         Combining More than Two Tables

   Conditional Operators
         Related Topics

   Current Settings --- SHOW

   Custom Formats
         Related Topics

   Default Floating Format
         Related Topics

   Default Integer Format
         Related Topics

   Default Time Format
         Related Topics

   Deluge Warning
         Related Topics

   Display Area
         Related Topics

   Echoing Translated Commands

   Editing Commands
         Related Topics

   Environment Variables

   Errors
         Related Topics

   Example Time Formats
         Related Topics

   Example Where Clause

   Flagged Format

   From Clause

   Getting Too Much Data
         Related Topics

   Headers

   Kernels --- LOAD

   Limits

   Looking at Data --- SELECT
         Related Topics

   Making Help Wait
         Related Topics

   Numeric Formats

   Order By
         Related Topics

   Pattern Matching

   Patterns

   Query

   Reports
         Related Topics

   Sampling Data

   Saving Work --- SAVE TO

   Select Clause
         Related Topics

   SET COLUMN ...

   SET FORMAT ...
         Related Topics

   SET FORMAT MARK ...

   SET HEADER ...
         Related Topics

   SET PAGE ...
         Related Topics

   SET TIME ...
         Related Topics

   SET TITLE ...
         Related Topics

   Setting The Editor

   Setting up Inspekt --- SET

   Short Cut to Topics

   SHOW COLUMN ...
         Related Topics

   SHOW COMMENTS ...

   SHOW ENVIRONMENT ...
         Related Topics

   SHOW FORMAT ...
         Related Topics

   SHOW INDEXED ...

   SHOW KERNELS ...
         Related Topics

   SHOW PAGE ...

   SHOW SUMMARY ...

   Special Symbols --- Queries

   Specifying Strings
         Related Topics

   Specifying Times
         Spacecraft Clock
         ISO Formats
         Generic
         Related Topics

   Symbol

   Syntax Description Language
      Keywords
      Class Templates
         number
         int
         word
         name
         calendar
         Template Quantifiers
         Numeric Qualifiers
         Character Qualifiers
      Combining Quantifiers with Qualifiers
      Switches
         Nesting Switches
      Examples

   Syntax Summaries
         Related Topics

   Table

   Tabular Format
         TABULAR
         MARKED TABULAR
         SPACED TABULAR
         Related Topics

   Tabular Format Mark
         Related Topics

   Time Formats

   Titles

   Typing Commands

   Using Symbols
         An Example
         Creating Symbols
         Removing Symbols
         Symbols Used in Other Symbols
         Suppressing Symbols Substitution
         Examining Symbols

   Verbatim Format
         Related Topics

   Where Clause
         Related Topics

   Problems, Suggestions




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INSPEKT User's Guide





Last revised on 2002 DEC 13 by W. L. Taber.



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Abstract




INSPEKT is an interactive program that examines the contents of an events component (ESQ) of an E-kernel.



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About INSPEKT's Built-in Help System




You've already discovered the basics of Inspekt's Help system. When you type "help;" (or "HELP;") a menu is displayed such as the one below:

   (Q) Quit Help
   (1) About Help
         ...
   Option: _
At the prompt (Option: ) type the number or letter shown in parentheses to the left of the topic of interest and hit RETURN. You will be presented with a screen of text that describes the topic.

After a full screen of text has been displayed, a left justified short vertical line will be displayed. Just to the right of this line will be the cursor. This indicates there is more text or related topics associated with the current topic. Hit a carriage return to display the additional information. If there is more text on the topic, you will see another screen of text followed by the same short line and prompt. If there is no more text for the current topic, another menu of options will be displayed allowing you to exit the help system; return to the main menu; or move on to topics related to the current topic.



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Related Topics



Short Cut to Topics, Making Help Wait



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Autoadjust





The "page" on which reports are displayed is often too narrow to hold a tabular report. However, by adjusting the width of some columns it may be possible to fit the report in the available space. If this is true, Inspekt will ask whether or not it should temporarily (for the duration of the report) adjust column widths so that the report may be printed. This feature is called "AUTOADJUST". By default, AUTOADJUST is set up so that Inspekt asks you whether or not it should adjust some column widths to fit a report on the current page. This default action can be modified by using the SET AUTOADJUST command. You can set the automatic action to

    1. Prohibit display of reports that are too wide.

    2. Ask whether or not a columns should be narrowed to accommodate a wide report (default)

    3. Automatically adjust column widths and display reports.

The syntax for this command is:

      SET AUTOADJUST (1:1){ OFF | ASK | ON }
To see the current status of AUTOADJUST type the command

   SHOW FORMAT
Note: AUTOADJUST does not affect the widths of numeric or time columns. Only character columns are affected by AUTOADJUST.



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Collecting Commands In Files





Inspekt allows you to collect frequently executed sequences of command in files called Inspekt Procedure Files.

To create a procedure file, simply type in a sequence of commands as you would type them when entering them in Inspekt. End each command with a semi-colon. Start every new command on a new line.

You can insert a "comment" line in the procedure file by starting the line with a semi-colon (;).

To start a procedure file enter the command:

   START filename;
where "filename" above is replaced by the name of your procedure file.

Procedure files may start other procedure files. Procedure commands may not use any of the following commands:

   EDIT
   DO
   RECALL
or a command that evaluates to one of these commands as a result of symbol substitution.

If there is information that a procedure needs, you can pass that information to the procedure by creating one or more symbols that evaluate to the needed information.



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Related Topics



Using Symbols



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Column





When we collect data about events (or any other set of objects) a decision must be made about what aspects of the event shall be recorded. Usually some of these aspects (attributes) of events will change from one event to the next. It is the variation in these attributes that allow us to distinguish one event from another. An individual attribute of the event is called a column of the event. This term arises from the common way in which data is presented on a page. If we list all of the events we have recorded on a sheet of paper (or a terminal) so that the attributes for each event are always listed in the same order from left to right, then the attributes for different events appear in columns on the page.



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Related Topics



Column



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Column and Table Abbreviations





When someone creates a table and column names for the table they are presented with the following problem. The various names should be meaningful and they should be easy to type. If an easy to type name is not meaningful, it won't be very useful in describing the table or a column. Since tables and columns are usually meant to exist for a long time, table producers often err on the side of creating names that are meaningful but are a bit difficult to type.

Inspekt helps you deal with the problem of minimizing the amount of text you have to type to specify a table or column by allowing you to use a pattern instead of the full name. For example suppose that a column has the name EMPLOYEE_SALARY. If there are no other columns that start with "EMP", you can specify this column by typing "EMP*". If there are several column names that start with "EMPLOYEE_" but only one column name ends with "SALARY" you can specify the column by typing "*_SAL*". As long as only one name matches the pattern, Inspekt will recognize the name and treat the pattern as if you had typed the full name.

For example suppose that you have loaded an E-kernel that contains two tables "EMPLOYEE_DATA" and "DEPARTMENT_DATA". Moreover suppose that the first table contains the following columns: "EMPLOYEE_NAME", "SUPERVISOR", "HIRE_DATE", "SALARY", "DEPARTMENT". Suppose the second table has the following columns: "DEPARTMENT_NAME", "OPERATING_EXPENSES", "MANAGER", "LOCATION".

Then the following query

   SELECT EMP*, SAL*, DEP* FROM EMP* WHERE SAL* > 30000;
is equivalent to the much longer command

   SELECT EMPLOYEE_NAME, SALARY, DEPARTMENT
   FROM EMPLOYEE_DATA
   WHERE SALARY > 30000;
You can patterns only for column and table names. You may not use them to abbreviate other words of the Inspekt command language. If some language words or phrases seem to be a bit long to type you should consider creating a symbol for those words or phrases.



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Related Topics



Column and Table Abbreviations, Pattern Matching, Using Symbols, Special Symbols --- Queries



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Columns





To see a list of all columns that are currently available in Inspekt, type the command

   SHOW SUMMARY
You will be presented with a list of column names in the form "table_name.column_name" where "table_name" is the name of the table to which the column belongs and "column_name" is the name of the column. To see attributes for a particular column, type

     SHOW COLUMN column_name
   or
     SHOW COLUMN table_name.column_name
The second form is required only if there are two or more loaded tables that have the same column.

To see a list of indexed columns type:

   SHOW INDEXED


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Related Topics



Column and Table Abbreviations, Pattern Matching, Using Symbols, Special Symbols --- Queries, SET COLUMN ..., Reports, Time Formats, Autoadjust



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Combining Tables





Data in one row of a table can be connected with data in a row of a second (possibly the same) table by a process called "joining" the tables.

The "join" of two tables is the cartesian product of the two tables. For example suppose that the tables MUSIC and PEOPLE have been loaded into Inspekt. Table MUSIC has two columns SONG and COMPOSER, Table PEOPLE has columns NAME and COUNTRY. Below is a sample of the data in these two tables.

   Table MUSIC
 
   SONG              COMPOSER
   --------------------------
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY
   LIVE AND LET DIE  MCCARTNEY
   BLOODY SUNDAY     HEUSSEN
   ONE TREE HILL     HEUSSEN
   SATISFACTION      JAGGER
   BOYS OF SUMMER    HENLEY
 
 
   Table PEOPLE
 
   NAME             COUNTRY
   --------------------------
   MCCARTNEY        ENGLAND
   HEUSSEN          IRELAND
   JAGGER           ENGLAND
   HENLEY           USA
The two tables have sufficient information to tell us the names of all the songs written by Irish composers. But, how do we get Inspekt to tell us this information.

We "join" the two tables so that everything is in one large table. Below is the join of the tables MUSIC and PEOPLE. (We've included blank lines to help illustrate how rows are combined to make the join table. Also for purpose of illustration only, we've presented the data from the second table in lower case. In the actual join the case of data does not change.)

   Join of tables MUSIC, PEOPLE
 
   SONG              COMPOSER   NAME       COUNTRY
   -----------------------------------------------
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  mccartney  england
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  heussen    ireland
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  jagger     england
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  henley     usa
 
   LIVE AND LET DIE  MCCARTNEY  mccartney  england
   LIVE AND LET DIE  MCCARTNEY  heussen    ireland
   LIVE AND LET DIE  MCCARTNEY  jagger     england
   LIVE AND LET DIE  MCCARTNEY  henley     usa
 
   BLOODY SUNDAY     HEUSSEN    mccartney  england
   BLOODY SUNDAY     HEUSSEN    heussen    ireland
   BLOODY SUNDAY     HEUSSEN    jagger     england
   BLOODY SUNDAY     HEUSSEN    henley     usa
 
   ONE TREE HILL     HEUSSEN    mccartney  england
   ONE TREE HILL     HEUSSEN    heussen    ireland
   ONE TREE HILL     HEUSSEN    jagger     england
   ONE TREE HILL     HEUSSEN    HENLEY     USA
 
   SATISFACTION      JAGGER     mccartney  england
   SATISFACTION      JAGGER     heussen    ireland
   SATISFACTION      JAGGER     jagger     england
   SATISFACTION      JAGGER     henley     usa
 
   BOYS OF SUMMER    HENLEY     mccartney  england
   BOYS OF SUMMER    HENLEY     heussen    ireland
   BOYS OF SUMMER    HENLEY     jagger     england
   BOYS OF SUMMER    HENLEY     henley     usa
To select something from this join of two tables you construct your SELECT command as shown here:

   select item, ... , item
   FROM   MUSIC, PEOPLE
   where ...
The tables we want to join are specified in the FROM clause of the select command. They must be separated by commas.

Notice that every row of the first table, MUSIC, has every row of the second table, PEOPLE appended to it to produce a new row. This table becomes useful when we apply constraints to it. In our case we want to find out which songs were written by Irish song writers.

The country of origin of the composer is present in a row of the join table if the NAME and COMPOSER columns have the same value. The SELECT command

   select song, composer, name, country
   from music, people
   WHERE COMPOSER = NAME
gives us the following rows.

   SONG              COMPOSER   NAME       COUNTRY
   -----------------------------------------------
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  MCCARTNEY  ENGLAND
   LIVE AND LET DIE  MCCARTNEY  MCCARTNEY  ENGLAND
   BLOODY SUNDAY     HEUSSEN    HEUSSEN    IRELAND
   ONE TREE HILL     HEUSSEN    HEUSSEN    IRELAND
   SATISFACTION      JAGGER     JAGGER     ENGLAND
   BOYS OF SUMMER    HENLEY     HENLEY     USA
This report is a lot closer to what we want.

To see just the titles of songs written by Irish song writers we add modify the SELECT command as shown below.

   select SONG
   from music, people
   where composer = name
   AND   COUNTRY  = 'IRELAND'
This results in the following report.

   SONG
   --------------
   BLOODY SUNDAY
   ONE TREE HILL


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Equi-joins



In the previous example we had the condition

   WHERE COMPOSER = NAME
This is a common condition when selecting data from a join of two tables. The general situation looks something like this.

   SELECT ...
   FROM   table_1, table_2
   WHERE  column_from_table_1 = column_from_table_2
When you join two or more tables and add an equality a condition to the rows from different tables, the join is called an "equi-join". You will almost always create equi-joins when joining tables.



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Ambiguous Columns



Suppose in the following example the table PEOPLE had the columns COMPOSER and COUNTRY instead of NAME and COUNTRY. The simple view of the join now becomes:

   SONG              COMPOSER   COMPOSER   COUNTRY
   -----------------------------------------------
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  MCCARTNEY  ENGLAND
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  HEUSSEN    IRELAND
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  JAGGER     ENGLAND
   YESTERDAY         MCCARTNEY  HENLEY     USA
   LIVE AND LET DIE  MCCARTNEY  MCCARTNEY  ENGLAND
           .            .           .        .
           .            .           .        .
           .            .           .        .
If I want to talk about the column first column COMPOSER how do I distinguish it from the second column COMPOSER? The first column comes from the table MUSIC the second comes from the table PEOPLE. To unambiguously specify either prefix the column name by the name of its parent table as in MUSIC.COMPOSER or PEOPLE.COMPOSER. The select command would then be issued as:

   select song
   from music, people
   where MUSIC.COMPOSER = PEOPLE.COMPOSER
   and   country  = 'IRELAND'


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Joining a Table to Itself



Sometimes it is useful to be able to join a table to itself. This is particularly true if the table contains some kind of hierarchical information such as in child-parent pairs. For example here is a list of family members and their parents

   Table RELATIONS
   CHILD    FATHER   MOTHER
   ------------------------
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA
   GEORGE   WILLIAM  MARGARET
   ALICE    JOHN     KATHERINE
   MARTHA   ROBERT   CONSTANCE
The grandparents in this table are parents of parents. We can join the table to itself to get a list of all the grandfathers. The join is simple enough. Here it is.

   Join of RELATIONS, RELATIONS
 
   CHILD    FATHER   MOTHER     CHILD   FATHER    MOTHER
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      CINDY   GEORGE    ALICE
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      SALLY   GEORGE    MARTHA
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      ALICE   JOHN      KATHERINE
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      MARTHA  ROBERT    CONSTANCE
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     CINDY   GEORGE    ALICE
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     SALLY   GEORGE    MARTHA
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     ALICE   JOHN      KATHERINE
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     MARTHA  ROBERT    CONSTANCE
   GEORGE   WILLIAM  MARGARET   CINDY   GEORGE    ALICE
   GEORGE   WILLIAM  MARGARET   SALLY   GEORGE    MARTHA
   GEORGE   WILLIAM  MARGARET   GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   GEORGE   WILLIAM  MARGARET   ALICE   JOHN      KATHERINE
   GEORGE   WILLIAM  MARGARET   MARTHA  ROBERT    CONSTANCE
   ALICE    JOHN     KATHERINE  CINDY   GEORGE    ALICE
   ALICE    JOHN     KATHERINE  SALLY   GEORGE    MARTHA
   ALICE    JOHN     KATHERINE  GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   ALICE    JOHN     KATHERINE  ALICE   JOHN      KATHERINE
   ALICE    JOHN     KATHERINE  MARTHA  ROBERT    CONSTANCE
   MARTHA   ROBERT   CONSTANCE  CINDY   GEORGE    ALICE
   MARTHA   ROBERT   CONSTANCE  SALLY   GEORGE    MARTHA
   MARTHA   ROBERT   CONSTANCE  GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   MARTHA   ROBERT   CONSTANCE  ALICE   JOHN      KATHERINE
   MARTHA   ROBERT   CONSTANCE  MARTHA  ROBERT    CONSTANCE
But this table has a clear problem. If I want to select a CHILD from this table how do I specify which CHILD column I'm talking about? It clearly is not enough to simply type RELATIONS.CHILD because both CHILD columns come from the same table. We handle the problem of ambiguous columns names by creating a unique alias for the table when you specify the join. Thus if I want to be able to select a column from this table I specify the join in the from clause as shown below.

   select ...
   FROM   RELATIONS X, RELATIONS Y
   where  ...
This join creates the following table.

   Join of RELATIONS X, RELATIONS Y
 
   X.CHILD  X.FATHER X.MOTHER   Y.CHILD Y.FATHER  Y.MOTHER
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      CINDY   GEORGE    ALICE
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      SALLY   GEORGE    MARTHA
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      ALICE   JOHN      KATHERINE
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      MARTHA  ROBERT    CONSTANCE
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     CINDY   GEORGE    ALICE
     .         .       .          .        .        .
     .         .       .          .        .        .
     .         .       .          .        .        .
As you can see in the example FROM clause above, an alias is specified by following the name of a table by a second word and a comma. The second word is the alias for the table. Thus the alias for the first copy of RELATIONS is X, the alias for the second copy of RELATIONS is Y. There is nothing special about the aliases X and Y. We could just as easily have used EGG and SPAM respectively. The letters X and Y are just easier to type. Aliases are case insensitive. The names X.FATHER and x.FATHER refer to the same column.

To select columns you simply use the aliased names as presented in the table above. Thus to find all of the grandfathers in our original table RELATIONS we would issue the following command

   SELECT  Y.FATHER
   FROM   RELATIONS X, RELATIONS Y
   WHERE   X.FATHER = Y.CHILD
   OR      X.MOTHER = Y.CHILD
Here is how the conditions narrow down the join.

   Join of RELATIONS X, RELATIONS Y
   WHERE   X.FATHER = Y.CHILD
   OR      X.MOTHER = Y.CHILD
 
   X.CHILD  X.FATHER X.MOTHER   Y.CHILD Y.FATHER  Y.MOTHER
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   CINDY    GEORGE   ALICE      ALICE   JOHN      KATHERINE
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     GEORGE  WILLIAM   MARGARET
   SALLY    GEORGE   MARTHA     MARTHA  ROBERT    CONSTANCE
We get all the names in the Y.FATHER column where the CHILD appearing in the Y copy of RELATIONS appears as a parent in the X copy of RELATIONS.

To find every child that is a grandchild, we can simply pick out the children whose mothers are listed as children in the second copy of RELATIONS.

   SELECT X.CHILD
   FROM RELATIONS X, RELATION Y
   WHERE X.MOTHER = Y.CHILD


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Using Aliases



Even if you do not join a table to itself, you may wish to use an alias for a table name. For instance, in the second example where the tables MUSIC and PEOPLE had a column name in column, you can use an alias as shown below in order to simplify the typing.

   Original Select Command Without Aliases
 
   select song
   from music, people
   where MUSIC.COMPOSER = PEOPLE.COMPOSER
   and   country  = 'IRELAND'
 
   Same Select Command but with Aliases for the Tables
 
   select song
   from music M, people P
   where M.COMPOSER = P.COMPOSER
   and   country  = 'IRELAND'


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Combining More than Two Tables



You may join more than two tables if the need arises. The result is the cartesian product of the contents of the contributing tables.

The syntax for specifying such a join is:

   FROM  TABLE_1 [alias_1],
         TABLE_2 [alias_2],
         ...,
         TABLE_N [alias_N]
Inspekt and the E-kernel system require that N be no more than 10. As you might imagine, the join of many tables has the potential for creating an enormous table from which data will be selected. As a result Inspekt's speed may degrade significantly if you join many tables. \subsection Related Topics

From Clause, Looking at Data --- SELECT



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Conditional Operators





Normally, when you select data from an events kernels, you place conditions upon the various columns that will be displayed. This is done via conditional operators (also called relational operators).

The following conditionals are supported by the E-kernel system.

   Operator       Usage in a condition
   --------       ---------------------------
   LT             column LT   expression
   LE             column LE   expression
   EQ             column EQ   expression
   GE             column GE   expression
   GT             column GT   expression
   NE             column NE   expression
   <              column <    expression
   <=             column <=   expression
   =              column =    expression
   >=             column >=   expression
   >              column >    expression
   !=             column <>   expression
   <>             column !=   expression
   LIKE           column LIKE expression
   NOT LIKE       column NOT LIKE expression
 
   BETWEEN        column BETWEEN expression
                         AND     expression
 
   NOT BETWEEN    column NOT BETWEEN expression
                         AND         expression
where "column" is the name of some column and "expression" is the name of a column or a literal value such as 1 or "A Literal String".

Conditions listed above are true if:

LT or <

the value column is less than the value of expression.
LE or <=

the value of column is less than or equal to the value of expression
EQ or =

the value of column is equal to the value of expression. Note that for strings, the case of characters is significant. The strings 'A' and 'a' are not equal.
GE or >=

the value of column is greater than or equal to the value of expression.
GT or >

the value of column is greater than the value of expression.
NE or != or <>

the value of column is not equal to the value of expression.
LIKE

the value of column matches the value of expression when expression is interpreted as a pattern.
NOT LIKE

The value of column does not match the value of expression when expression is interpreted as a pattern.
BETWEEN

The value of column is greater than or equal to the smaller of the two expressions AND less than or equal to the larger of the two expressions.
NOT BETWEEN The value of column is less than the smaller of the two expression OR greater than the larger of the two expression

A WHERE clause is composed of the word "WHERE" followed by a logical expression made up of conditions connected by AND's, OR's and NOT's and grouped using parentheses.



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Related Topics



From Clause, Specifying Strings, Specifying Times, Where Clause



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Current Settings --- SHOW





Inspekt can display any of it's current setting. However, these settings are grouped together in various groupings. To see one of these grouping you type

   SHOW item
See the help topics below for more specific descriptions. \subsection Related Topics

SHOW COLUMN, SHOW COMMENTS, SHOW ENVIRONMENT, SHOW FORMAT, SHOW INDEXED, SHOW KERNELS, SHOW PAGE, SHOW SUMMARY, Columns, Deluge Warning, Headers, Time Formats, Titles, Other Settings, Setting up Inspekt --- SET



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Custom Formats





To create a custom time format for a column, enter the command:

   SET COLUMN <column_name> FORMAT <format>;
where <column_name> is the name of the column and <format> is the custom format you desire.

Custom formats work as follows. Given a time, there are associated with it the current year, month, day, day of year, hour, minutes, seconds, current julian date, current number of seconds past the epoch of J2000, etc. When a time is to be displayed, the custom format you have provided is used as a recipe for constructing the time string. Reading from left to right the string formatter looks for special substrings (listed below). Unrecognized substrings are simply copied into the output string. (This allows you to add any label you might like to the output times.) However, when a recognized substring is found, the time formatter determines the corresponding component of time and appends this to the output time string that is under construction.

NOTE THAT TIME FORMATS ARE CASE SENSITIVE. To get a particular component of the time into the output string you must use exactly the substring given in the list below. For example, if you wish have the 3 letter abbreviation for the month appear in your output times, you must use "MON"; the string "mon" will simply be copied as is into any of your time strings.

(Substrings beginning with "::" do not affect the appearance of the format only the time system or rounding)

UTC,TDB,TDT

use the time system UTC, TDB, TDT respectively (default UTC)
RND, TRUNC

Round or Truncate time respectively (default truncate)
YYYY

year
MON, MM

3 letter abbreviation, 2 digit number for month resp.
DD, DOY

day of month, day of year respectively
WKD

3 letter abbreviation for day of week
HR, MN, SC

hour, minutes, seconds respectively
JD,SP1950, SP2000

Julian date, seconds past 1950 or 2000 respectively
Decimals

when the characters
                             ###
follow a decimal point, they indicate the number of decimal places to use in the representation of the preceding numeric component. For example
                             'SC.###'
indicates that the seconds component of a time should be presented with 3 decimal points.


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Related Topics



Example Time Formats



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Default Floating Format





When printing a double precision number in a report, Inspekt first examines the column attributes to determine if you have specified a particular format for that column. If you have that format is used to create the text that is presented in the report. If you have not specified a particular format, Inspekt looks up the "default floating format" and uses this to create the text to be used in the report. You may adjust the default floating format. To do this issue the command

   SET DEFAULT FLOATING FORMAT format;
where "format" is the format you'd like Inspekt to use when you have not specified a particular format for a column.

If you've specified a format for a double precision column, and would like to return to using the default floating format issue the command

   SET COLUMN column_name FORMAT DEFAULT;
Until you change the format for the specified column again, the format used when presenting its values in a report will be the default floating format.



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Related Topics



Numeric Formats, Default Integer Format, Default Time Format, SHOW FORMAT



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Default Integer Format





When printing an integer in a report, Inspekt first examines the column attributes to determine if you have specified a particular format for that column. If you have that format is used to create the text that is presented in the report. If you have not specified a particular format, Inspekt looks up the "default integer format" and uses this to create text to be used in the report. You may adjust the default integer format. To do this issue the command

   SET DEFAULT INTEGER FORMAT format;
where "format" is the format you'd like Inspekt to use when you have not specified a particular format for an integer column.

If you've specified a format for an integer column, and would like to return to using the default integer format issue the command

   SET COLUMN column_name FORMAT DEFAULT;
Until you change the format for the specified column again, the format used when presenting its values in a report will be the default integer format.



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Related Topics



Numeric Formats, Default Floating Format, Default Time Format, SHOW FORMAT



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Default Time Format





When printing a time in a report, Inspekt first examines the column attributes to determine if you have specified a particular format for that column. If you have that format is used to create the text that is presented in the report. If you have not specified a particular format, Inspekt looks up the "default time format" and uses this to create text to be used in the report. You may adjust the default time format. To do this issue the command

   SET DEFAULT TIME FORMAT format;
where "format" is the format you'd like Inspekt to use when you have not specified a particular format for a column.

If you've specified a format for a time column, and would like to return to using the default time format issue the command

   SET COLUMN column_name FORMAT DEFAULT;
Until you change the format for the specified column again, the format used when presenting its values in a report will be the default time format.



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Related Topics



Custom Formats, Default Floating Format, Default Integer Format, SHOW FORMAT



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Deluge Warning





To see the current data-deluge warning level type the command

   SHOW FORMAT
To set the deluge warning level, type the command.

   SET DELUGE WARNING integer
If you take no action the warning level has value 100.



Top

Related Topics



Getting Too Much Data, Sampling Data



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Display Area





The area of the terminal or terminal window where reports are displayed is called the output page. Reports may span several output pages. Inspekt allows you to adjust the shape of the output page and to control the titles and headers that appear on the page. The commands that allow you to manipulate the output page are shown below.

      SET PAGE WIDTH number
      SET PAGE HEIGHT number
      SET PAGE TITLE title
      SET TITLE JUSTIFICATION justification
      SET TITLE FREQUENCY frequency
      SET HEADER FREQUENCY frequency
The output page is described in terms of printable fixed size characters. By default it is 80 characters wide and 24 characters tall. The output page is a subset of a page region that is between 40 and 132 characters wide and at least 22 characters tall. (The maximum page height allowed is the maximum positive integer that your computer supports)

The page width is used to determine how much text can fit across your terminal window. The page height is used to determine how many lines of text can be written before displaying a page title or report header.



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Related Topics



Reports, SET TIME, SET HEADER, SET PAGE

|endliteral



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Echoing Translated Commands





Although symbols can be a big help when used well, they can also interfere with what you think you've typed. Usually you discover this problem as the result of an error message.

You may want to see how Inspekt translated what you typed before it gets around to acting on the command. To do this you can "turn on" command echoing. Do this by typing

   ECHO
Having issued this command, when a new command is issued that contains symbols, Inspekt will "echo" the translated command so that you can see how Inspekt has interpreted your command.

To disable the echoing of commands type:

   NO ECHO
You can see the current status of command echoing by issuing a show environment command.

   SHOW ENVIRONMENT


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Editing Commands





Inspekt maintains a "stack" of the twenty most recently entered commands. Each new command is placed on "top" of the other commands. Once a command has twenty or more commands on top of it, it is lost and can not be retrieved.

Commands in the stack are numbered from 1 to 20. The most recently issued command (the one on top) is number 1. The command issued just prior to number 1, is number 2, and so on.

You can manipulate this stack with the commands below. Most "stack" manipulation commands require that you specify a particular command. You can do this by specifying the number of the command (the number provide by RECALL) or by specifying a pattern. If you specify a command via a number, the number must be between 1 and 20. If you specify the command via a pattern, you are specifying the last command whose first line matches the pattern. As a convenience, the wild card '*' is automatically appended to the specification pattern. You can not suppress the appended wild card.

RECALL

displays the commands in the reverse order from the way you have entered them. The commands are numbered so that you may easily refer to them. The stack is left unchanged.
RECALL number \crcr RECALL pattern

displays a specific command. The stack is left unchanged.
DO number
DO pattern


re-executes the command specified. The re-executed command is placed on the top of the command stack.
EDIT number
EDIT pattern


invokes your system editor and allows you to use the editor to modify the command. When you exit the editor, the new command is executed and placed on the top of the command stack.


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Related Topics



Pattern Matching, Setting The Editor



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Environment Variables





Inspekt recognizes two environment variables: LEAPSECONDS and SCLK. If you want to make them available to Inspekt, you should create one or both of them prior to running Inspekt.

LEAPSECONDS

should point to a SPICE leapseconds kernel.
SCLK

should point to a SPICE Spacecraft Clock kernel.
Inspekt looks for these environment variables at program initialization. If they are present, Inspekt will load the kernels pointed to by the environment variables. This is the only time these variables can be used by Inspekt. You may not use them in a LOAD command.

If you should decide to use these environment variables make sure that they evaluate to the full path name of the kernels. You may set these variables with C-shell command "setenv"

   setenv LEAPSECONDS (full path of leapseconds kernel)
   setenv SCLK        (full path of spacecraft clock kernel)
In DCL you use logical variables instead of environment variables. You set the logical variables using the define command.

   DEFIND LEAPSECONDS DISK:[DIR.ECT.ORY]leap_file.ker
   DEFINE SCLK        DISK:[DIR.ECT.ORY]sclk_file.ker


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Errors





Every now and then, you will type a command that Inspekt cannot process. There are several causes of such errors: typos, misunderstanding of commands syntax, or inadequate preparation of Inspekt's environment. Inspekt attempts to diagnose errors and provides two levels of error diagnosis. All error diagnostics are written to Inspekt's log file.

When an error is detected, Inspekt will display a message and then prompt for a new command. If the error message does not seem to explain what went wrong, you can get the second level of error diagnosis by entering the command "?;". If second level of error diagnosis is not available, you will get a message stating that there is no more information available. If a second level is available, the diagnosis will be displayed. This second level will usually list the chain of subroutine calls that led to the error diagnosis and other information. If you can't determine the cause of the error, send a description of what you were attempting to do along with the Inspekt.log file to:

   btaber@spice.jpl.nasa.gov
and I will do what I can to help out.

   -Bill Taber


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Related Topics



Typing Commands



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Example Time Formats





Below is a collection of sample time formats and the time strings that would be formed for noon on the fifteenth of February 1993.

   Format:  YYYY-MON-DD WKD HR:MN:SC
   Result:  1993-FEB-15 MON 12:00:00
 
   Format:  Day of year DDD, MON-DD YYYY HR:MN:SC.####
   Result:  Day of year 046, FEB-15 1993 12:00:00.0000
 
   Format:  YYYY-DDD.### ::RND
   Result:  1993-046.500


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Related Topics



Time Formats, Custom Formats



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Example Where Clause





The WHERE clause in the SELECT command below narrows down a selection to those events that occurred later than 1 Jan 1993 but before 1 MAR 1993. It further restricts the selection to those events that have "PLATFORM" occurring in a substring in the SUBSYSTEM column of the event.

   select time event_type subsystem notes
   from  events
   WHERE TIME GT "1 JAN 1993"
     AND TIME LT "1 MAR 1993"
     AND SUBSYSTEM LIKE "*PLATFORM*";
Note that the times used in the TIME condition and the pattern used in the SUBSYSTEM condition must match is enclosed in double (") or single (') quotes.



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Flagged Format





Flagged formats are presented as shown here

   First Column : Value of column for first event
   Second Column: Value of the second column with
                  the output wrapped if it will
                  not fit on a single line of text.
   Third Column : Value of the third column
                  possibly wrapped in an uneven
                  fashion due to
                  the means of specifying an event.
 
   First Column : Value of this for second event
         ...            ...
There are two forms of flagged format. PRESERVED and un-PRESERVED (default). If a format is a preserved, each component of a column is begun on a new line of the report. Otherwise it is considered to be simply FLAGGED format. Note a blank line is inserted between consecutive events in the output. \subsection Related Topics

Reports



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From Clause





An E-kernel may contain many different tables. Moreover, different tables may have columns having the same name. For this reason when you select items to be displayed in a report via a SELECT or SAMPLE ... SELECT statement you must specify which table the report is to be drawn from. You do this via the FROM clause of the SELECT statement

   select  ...
   FROM    TABLE_1 [alias_1]
        [, TABLE_2 [alias_2] ...]
   where   ...
   oder by ...
The simplest commands involve only one table. In such cases there is usually no need to supply an alias for the table specified in the FROM clause. \subsection Related Topics

Combining Tables, Looking at Data --- SELECT



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Getting Too Much Data





We anticipate that E-kernels may become quite large. As a result the number of events that satisfy some matching criteria given in a SELECT command might be very large. Since Inspekt does not yet support a UNIX-like "more" function and does not allow you to interrupt some task (via a key sequence such as CTRL-C), Inspekt has a user adjustable DATA-DELUGE WARNING level. Reports will be generated automatically in response to a SELECT command only if the number of matching events is less than the data-deluge warning level. If the number of matching events is greater than this level, you will be notified and given the option of producing the report, viewing a subsample of the report, or cancelling the report.

To set the deluge warning level, type the command.

      SET DELUGE WARNING integer
If you take no action the warning level has value 100.

To see the current data-deluge warning level type the command

   SHOW FORMAT


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Related Topics



Sampling Data, SHOW FORMAT



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Headers





The only attribute that you can set that globally affects headers is the header frequency. To see the current frequency type the command

   SHOW PAGE;


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Kernels --- LOAD





SPICE data is stored in data files called kernels. To make the data in these kernels available for retrieval and manipulation by Inspekt, you need to "load" the kernels. When you load a kernel, Inspekt opens the file, reads the file, and stores some (or all) of its contents in Inspekt's memory.

E-kernels can be "unloaded." When an E-kernel is unloaded, Inspekt "forgets" about the existence of the kernel. Data in the kernel can not be retrieved or manipulated without first re-loading it.

To load or unload an E-kernel, type

   LOAD EK (filename of E-kernel)
   UNLOAD  (filename of previously loaded E-kernel).
The filename used in the UNLOAD command must be the same as the filename used to load it.

Two other files may be loaded: a leapseconds kernel and an SCLK kernel. These are loaded using the commands:

   LOAD LEAPSECONDS (filename of leapseconds kernel)
   LOAD SCLK KERNEL (filename of SCLK kernel)
You can avoid having to load leapseconds or SCLK kernels by setting up the environment variables SCLK and LEAPSECONDS to point to the corresponding kernel prior to starting Inspekt.

Leapsecond and SCLK kernels cannot be unloaded. However, you can load a different leapseconds or SCLK kernel. When a new SLCK or leapseconds kernel is loaded Inspekt behaves as if you had never loaded the previous SCLK or leapseconds kernel. Only the data in the freshly loaded kernel will be used by Inspekt.

There are two commands for determining what kernels have been loaded.

   SHOW KERNELS;
displays which E-kernels have been loaded

   SHOW ENVIRONMENT
displays which leapseconds and SCLK kernels (if any) have been loaded along with other information about the current Inspekt settings. \subsection Related Topics

Environment Variables



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Limits





Listed below are the limits for various aspects of Inspekt.

Loaded E-kernels

a maximum of 20 E-kernels may be loaded at once.
Total number of columns

a maximum of 500 columns may be present in all of the loaded kernels
Page Width

the page must be at least 40 characters wide and no more than 132 characters wide.
Column width

a column must be at least 8 characters wide and no more than 80 characters wide.
Command Size

A command can contain no more than 1760 character (it should fit on one 24 by 80 character screen).
Events per Report

A default limit of 100 rows will be presented in any report. You can override this limit with the SET DELUGE command or at the time a report is ready for output.


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Looking at Data --- SELECT





To view events in a report, you need to issue a "SELECT" command. The form of this command is shown below ("WHERE" and "ORDER BY" clauses are optional).

   SELECT a comma delimited
          list of unambiguous
          column names
   FROM   a comma delimited
          list of tables-alias pairs
   WHERE    condition_1
      AND/OR condition_2
      ...
      AND/OR condition_n
   ORDER BY a comma delimited
            list of unambiguous
            column names
All but one of the conditions in the "WHERE" clause have the form:

   [NOT] column <relation> value
If the column is a character or time column, the value must be enclosed in either single (') or double (") quotes. Allowed relations are EQ NE LT LE GT GE and LIKE (used for pattern matching).



Top

Related Topics



Column and Table Abbreviations, Select Clause, From Clause, Where Clause, Order By, Combining Tables, Reports, Getting Too Much Data



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Making Help Wait





When you select a help topic for which there is some text that should be displayed, the help system begins sending this text to your display. If there is a lot of text, some of it may scroll by before you have a chance to read it. There are two ways to deal with this.

    1. You can hit CTRL-S on your keypad to cause output to your display to be temporarily disabled. Hit CTRL-Q to restart the output. This works on most terminals and terminal emulators.

    2. You can tell Inspekt to wait once it finishes displaying a page full of text.

To do this at the Inspekt prompt type:

   Inspekt> SET HELP WAIT;
The Inspekt help system will now pause after each page of text it displays and wait for you to hit a carriage return before it displays the next page or related topics menu.

To return to the original help system behaviour, type the command

   Inspekt> SET HELP NO WAIT;
Note that the size of a page is also under your control. You may set the number of lines that will fit on a page by using the command "SET PAGE HEIGHT". This command is described in the "SET PAGE ..." help topic.



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Related Topics



SET PAGE



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Numeric Formats





A numeric format is specified by creating a picture of the format. For example to specify that a number should start with 3 digits and be displayed to 3 decimal places use a picture such as this:

   ###.###
If the first character of the picture is a minus sign, the first character in the output string will be a blank if the number is non-negative, a minus sign if the number is negative.

If the first character of the picture is a plus sign, the first character of the output string will be a plus if the number is positive, a blank if the number is zero, and a minus sign if the number is negative.

If the first character of the string is NOT a sign (plus or minus) the first character of the output string will be a minus sign if the number is negative and will be the first character of the integer part of the number otherwise.

The integer portion of STRING will contain at least as many characters as appear before the decimal point (or last character if there is no decimal point) but after a leading + or -. There will ALWAYS be at least one digit output in integer portion of STRING.

If the picture begins with a any of the following

      '+0', '-0', or '0'
it is said to have a leading zero. If a picture has a leading zero and the integer portion is not large enough to fill up the integer space specified by the picture, the output will be zero padded from the sign (if one is required) up to the first character of the integer part of the number.

If picture does NOT have a leading zero and the integer portion is not large enough to fill up the space specified by the picture, output will be blank padded between the sign (if one is required and the first character of the integer part of the number.

If a decimal point ( '.' ) is present in the picture it will be present following the integer portion of output. Moreover, the decimal portion of the output will contain the same number of digits as there are non-blank characters following the decimal point in the picture. However, if the picture contains more than 14 characters following the decimal point, the characters in output that follow the 14 position to the right of the decimal point will be zeros.



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Order By





You may control the order in which events are reported by a SELECT command through use of the "ORDER BY" clause that is an optional part of all SELECT commands. The default ordering is by the TIME column that is present in every E-kernel. To order your output based upon some other column issue the SELECT command with the clause

   ORDER BY column(s) of choice
as part of your command. Column names should be separated by commas (,). Note that the "ORDER BY" clause works faster with indexed columns. To see which columns are indexed you can use any of the commands:

   SHOW INDEXES
   SHOW KERNELS
   SHOW SUMMARY


Top

Related Topics



Looking at Data --- SELECT



Top

Pattern Matching





It is often easier to describe a set of character by specifying some common pattern shared by all of the strings of interest. For this reason you can use a LIKE relation in the WHERE clause of a SELECT command. You specify a like condition as shown below:

   column_name LIKE "pattern"
where "pattern" is a pattern that the column must match for the LIKE-condition to be satisfied. Note that the pattern must be enclosed in quotes ("). There are two special characters that may appear in a pattern. The asterisk '*' matches any substring. The percent mark '%' matches any character. If a pattern does not begin/end with the asterisk, the column value must begin/end with the pattern character in order to match the pattern. pattern matching is case insensitive.

   Examples:  SPECIAL          matches S*C%%L
              SPECIAL does not match   S*C%%L%
              SPECIAL          matches %PE%%AL
              SPECIAL          matches S*L


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Patterns





Patterns are sequences of characters that are used to select a word or phrase from some list of words or phrases. The pattern begins at the first non-blank character in the character sequence. The pattern ends at the last non-blank character of the sequence.

There are two special characters that may appear in a pattern they are '*' the substring "wild card" and '%' the character "wild card".

Patterns are useful only when they are used to select matching strings.

Pattern matches in Inspekt are case insensitive: 'a' matches both 'a' and 'A'. Upper and lower case letters are said to be equivalent.

If a pattern does not begin with a wild card, a matching string must begin with the a character that is equivalent to the beginning character of the pattern. If a pattern does not end with a wild card, a matching string must end with a character that is equivalent to the ending character of the pattern.



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Query





The word query is used in two ways in Inspekt.

    1. A query is a SELECT command issued to Inspekt to search loaded E-kernels for data that satisfies a user specified selection criteria

    2. A query is a word in a command, or symbol that ends in a question mark. When Inspekt encounters such a word in a command, it prompts the user for a value to replace the "query"

    For example suppose you enter the command

            Inspekt> SHOW COLUMN NAME?;
    Inspekt will ask you to supply a value for NAME? and then continue acting upon the resulting command. Normally you will not type queries directly when issuing a command. Instead, you will define symbols that contain queries or place queries in commands that are collected in Inspekt procedure files.



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Reports





After you issue a SELECT command to Inspekt, the program presents a display of the items that match the selection criteria. The items displayed together with the method in which they are displayed is called a "report".

A report has several attributes that are user adjustable.

Reports are presented in a region that models a physical page as you find in a loose leaf binder. You may adjust the height and width of these pages.

A report is presented in a particular format. There are three basic formats: tabular, flagged and verbatim. You may select the format you prefer for reports the program creates. Tabular formats are usually the easiest to read. However, if events have a large number of attributes and you want to see many of these attributes, you may find the flagged format better suited to your needs. Verbatim format allows you to see most directly the actual contents of an event without any of Inspekt's formatting tools modifying line breaks in the original data. However, this format is difficult to read and suitable only when you need to see directly how a particular event was stored in the E-kernel.

Every report has a title. You can remove the title, change it and alter the frequency with which it is displayed (only at the beginning of the report, on every page, or every n'th page). You can also control whether the title is left justified, right justified or centered on the report page.

Reports in tabular format, have a header as well as a title. The header names the various columns that appear in the report. As with the report title you can adjust the frequency with which the header is displayed in the report.



Top

Related Topics



Tabular Format, Flagged Format, Verbatim Format, SET FORMAT, SET HEADER, SET TITLE, SET PAGE



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Sampling Data





When you first open an E-kernel, it is often not clear what range of events are present in the kernel. In such situations, simply selecting events may result in much more data that you can easily view. For this reason you may preface your selection command with a "SAMPLE" clause. By doing so, you can view a reasonable subset of the events that match your selection criteria. There are several forms of the SAMPLE clause. However, all sample commands are formed the same way: type the SAMPLE clause and follow it by the SELECT statement you would issue if you wanted to view all of the matching events of a selection.

The SAMPLE clauses that can prefixed to a SELECT command are shown below:

   SAMPLE number
   SAMPLE FIRST number
   SAMPLE LAST  number
   SAMPLE number FROM  percentile TO percentile
   SAMPLE number UP TO       percentile [EVERY number]
   SAMPLE number STARTING AT percentile [EVERY number]
   SAMPLE number CENTER   AT percentile [EVERY number]
The first "number" in each clause is the number of samples to extract from a selection. Percentiles must be integers from 0 to 100. The 0th percentile corresponds to the first event of a selection; the 100th percentile to the last event. In those clauses with an optional "EVERY" subclause, the "EVERY-number" refers to how many events to skip between displayed events. If not supplied the "EVERY-number" value is assumed to be one (1). \subsection Related Topics

Looking at Data --- SELECT



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Saving Work --- SAVE TO





To save output that is printed on your terminal (or in your terminal window) issue the command:

   SAVE TO filename;
All subsequent screen output will be saved the file specified in the command. To stop saving to the SAVE file, issue the command

   DISCARD;
You may SAVE and DISCARD output as frequently as you wish. Moreover, a different file may be used with each SAVE command. However, to begin saving output to a new file you must first issue a DISCARD command. If you use the same filename you may (depending upon your system) overwrite the previous file.

Regardless of whether you save any screen output, Inspekt automatically saves every command you type at the "Inspekt>" prompt. These commands are collected in the Inspekt Log File. It has a name of the form "nspXXXXX.log" where each 'X' is a decimal digit. In addition to commands you type, the text of any error message that Inspekt produces are recorded in the log file.

The log file is a crucial aid in determining why Inspekt sometimes behaves in unexpected ways. Each log file is in fact an Inspekt procedure that you can execute to exactly the sequence of commands you entered in some previous Inspekt work session. If you have a problem with Inspekt, and need our assistance, be sure to save the log file so that we can duplicate your problems.



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Select Clause





When you issue a select command, you are telling Inspekt to find rows from a table (or join of tables) as specified by a FROM clause. The rows match some criterion specified in a "WHERE" clause. (If no "WHERE" clause is specified, all events are considered to be of interest.) To request columns in a report you should type the first portion of the SELECT command as shown below.

   SELECT col_1, col_2, ... , col_n
   FROM table ...
   WHERE condition ...
   ORDER BY ...
Note that commas (,) are required between column names. If you select rows from a single table (i.e. the FROM clause lists a single table) you can just use the column names from that table. However, if you select columns from a "join" of two or more tables and two or more of the tables possess the column you want to see you need to make sure you tell Inspekt which table the column belongs to. To do this you attach the name of the table (or an alias for that table) to the front of the column name as in

      table.column
   or
      alias.column
The columns will be displayed in the report in the same order as you list them in the select clause.



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Related Topics



Looking at Data --- SELECT



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SET COLUMN ...





To adjust the display attributes of a column use the SET COLUMN command. You may adjust the width of a column, the heading that will appear in tabular reports, whether or not columns will be left or right justified in reports, and the format of the column for time and numeric columns. The syntax of the SET COLUMN command is:

   SET COLUMN @name
    (1:1){ WIDTH @int(8:80)
         | FORMAT    (1:)@word
         | HEADING   (1:)@word
         | JUSTIFICATION RIGHT
         | JUSTIFICATION LEFT }
NOTE: If you modify the format of a numeric or time column, the width of the column is automatically adjusted to match the width of the new format. You must re-adjust the width if you want it to be something other than the width of the format. \subsection Related Topics

Time Formats, Numeric Formats, SHOW COLUMN



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SET FORMAT ...





Inspekt supports 3 basic report formats: TABULAR, FLAGGED and VERBATIM. These are set using the SET FORMAT command. The syntax for this command is:

   SET FORMAT (0:1){ MARKED | SPACED }
      TABULAR (0:1){ PRESERVED }
 
   SET FORMAT FLAGGED (0:1){ PRESERVED }
 
   SET FORMAT VERBATIM
TABULAR reports show each event as a row of a table with the various event attributes appearing in fixed columns.

FLAGGED reports show events as a vertical list of name-value paragraphs with each complete event separated from the next by a blank line.

VERBATIM reports list events as a vertical list as well. However the column name is listed on one line and its value on the next line(s). This presents the components of each column without line breaks.



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Related Topics



Reports, SET FORMAT MARK, SHOW FORMAT



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SET FORMAT MARK ...





When you use MARKED TABULAR formats for reports, Inspekt places the character ">" in the leftmost column of the report. You can modify this FORMAT MARK by issuing a SET FORMAT MARK command.

Decide what character you want to appear in the leftmost column (remember you cannot use the semi-colon ";"). For the purpose of an example lets use "=". Then issue the command:

   SET FORMAT MARK =;
From this point forward MARKED TABULAR reports will place the character "=" in the left most column of reports.



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SET HEADER ...





When Inspekt produces a report as the result of a SELECT command, and the reporting format is some form of tabular format, Inspekt can place a header at the beginning of the displayed output. This header displays the names of the various columns that appear in the report. (If a column has an alias, the alias will be used instead of the column name.)

You can control how often these items are placed in your report by issuing a SET HEADER FREQUENCY command. The syntax for this is:

   SET HEADER FREQUENCY (1:1){ 0
                             | 1ST
                             | FIRST
                             | ALL
                             | EVERY @int(1:)
                             }
The values mean respectively: on none of the pages; on the first page only, on every page, and on the first page and every nth page following the first page.



Top

Related Topics



SET TITLE



Top

SET PAGE ...





Reports written by Inspekt are modelled as if they were being written to a page of fixed height and width. This is convenient if you plan to save the output of a file (using the SAVE TO command) and then print the resulting file. Moreover, if you have a long report, it allows you to have header and title information appear on your screen at regular intervals.

The default height and width of this page are 20 and 80 characters respectively. To adjust these use the following commands.

   SET PAGE HEIGHT @int(20:)
   SET PAGE WIDTH  @int(40:132)
You may also set the title that appears on reports with the command

   SET PAGE TITLE (1:)@word
Use the title "NONE" if you want no title to appear on report pages.



Top

Related Topics



SHOW PAGE



Top

SET TIME ...





There are two commands available for adjusting the format of time strings when they are output in reports. They are:

   SET COLUMN column_name FORMAT format;
 
   SET DEFAULT TIME FORMAT format;


Top

Related Topics



Time Formats, Default Time Format, Custom Formats



Top

SET TITLE ...





When Inspekt produces a report as the result of a SELECT command, it can place a title and a header on the report. You set a report title that appears on pages of a report by issuing the command:

   SET PAGE TITLE title
Note that the TITLE is an attribute of the display page. Whenever, a report is displayed in which a title is allowed, the title you've set with the SET PAGE TITLE command will be the title used.

You may also control the placement of the report title using the command:

   SET TITLE JUSTIFICATION (1:1){ LEFT | CENTER | RIGHT }
You can control how often the title are placed in your report by issuing a SET TITLE/HEADER FREQUENCY command. The syntax for this is:

   SET TITLE  FREQUENCY (1:1){ 0
                             | 1ST
                             | FIRST
                             | ALL
                             | EVERY @int(1:)
                             }
The values mean respectively: on none of the pages; on the first page only; on every page, and on the first page and every nth page following the first page. (See SET PAGE ...for a description of the output page ).



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Related Topics



SET HEADER



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Setting The Editor





When you type

   EDIT command
Inspekt writes the specified command to a file, starts up some text editor on your system and loads the file into the editor window. However, the editor selected might not be one you are familiar with. This can be terribly frustrating because you may not know how to get the editor to carry out any familiar task.

You can determine the default editor by typing

   SHOW ENVIRONMENT
If the editor listed there is not the one you prefer you can change to some other editor by typing

   SET EDITOR edit_launching_command
where "edit_launching_command" is the command you type to invoke your favorite editor on your computer. If you use an alias for this command, you should look up what this alias translates to and use that translation.



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Setting up Inspekt --- SET





Inspekt allows you to adjust the working session environment as well as the appearance of its outputs to suit your needs. You may control:

    1. the format of reports that result from the SELECT command;

    2. the format used when printing time strings;

    3. the width and justification(right/left) of columns that appear in reports;

    4. the size of the "page" on which reports appear;

    5. the frequency with which report titles and report headers appear.

To change current settings use the "SET" command. To examine current settings use the "SHOW" command. \subsection Related Topics

Columns, Display Area, Reports, SET COLUMN, SET FORMAT, SET HEADER, SET PAGE, SET TIME, SET TITLE, Time Formats, Numeric Formats, Other Settings, Current Settings --- SHOW



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Short Cut to Topics





If you already know the title of a help topic you'd like to see, you don't have to navigate through the help systems series of menus. Instead, you can bring up the help topic immediately. To do this you add the topic title to the HELP command.

   Inspekt> HELP topic title;
where topic title is the title that appears in one of the help menus.

You don't have to enter the title exactly as it appears in the help system menus. The help topic search does not depend upon the case of the letters you use. Also, you may use a wild card pattern for the topic title. This way you don't have to remember the exact topic. However, you do run a slight risk that some other help topic will match your pattern. If more than one topic matches the pattern, Inspekt will choose the one that occurs first in an alphabetical listing of the help topics.

Once you are in the help system, you must use the menus to navigate the various help topics. You can not enter the name of some other topic and display it directly.



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SHOW COLUMN ...





You can get a snapshot of all of the attributes of a column (both the user adjustable attributes and fixed attributes) by issuing the command.

   SHOW COLUMN column_name;
If more than one table possess a column with your name you must specify which column you are talking about. Do this by prefixing the table name to the column name as in

   SHOW COLUMN table.column_name
where <table> is the name of the column of interest . Below is a possible result of the command SHOW COLUMN ACTIVITY;

   Attributes of column:     :  ACTIVITY
   Type                      :  CHARACTER*(32)
   Indexed                   :  YES
   Number of Components      :  1
 
   User Adjustable Attributes
   Column justification      :  LEFT
   Column width              :  32
   Column heading            :  ACTIVITY


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Related Topics



SET COLUMN



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SHOW COMMENTS ...





Every SPICE kernel provides a mechanism for the creator of the product to attach documentation to the kernel. This documentation is stored in a region of the file called the "comments" area. All kernels should have a non-empty comment section. The comments typically will provide information on one or more of the following items:

    1. the date the kernel was created,

    2. who created it,

    3. who to contact if you have questions about the kernel,

    4. the intended set of users of the kernel,

    5. special notes regarding the contents of the kernel.

To see the comments stored in a loaded E-kernel issue the command

   SHOW COMMENTS pattern
If the name of a loaded kernel matches this pattern, the comments for that kernel will be displayed.

If none of the kernel names match this pattern, a message informing you of this condition will be displayed. If a kernel matches the pattern, but no comments are in the kernel a message will be displayed indicating that no comments are available.



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SHOW ENVIRONMENT ...





There are a number of more or less global features of an Inspekt session that affect how Inspekt carries out the commands you issue. These items are grouped together under the term Environment. They include:

    1. The editor used when you EDIT a command.

    2. Whether or not Help waits for you to finish reading a page before it prints the next screen out material

    3. What leapsecond and SCLK kernels are loaded

To see the current session environment, type the command

   SHOW ENVIRONMENT


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Related Topics



Making Help Wait, Echoing Translated Commands, Kernels --- LOAD



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SHOW FORMAT ...





You can see what report format is currently active by typing the command:

   SHOW FORMAT;
In addition to showing you the format, it will show you the current format being used for presenting time and in the case of MARKED TABULAR format the current format mark. You will also be given the current value for triggering a data DELUGE WARNING. An example result is given here.

   Report Format          :  MARKED TABULAR
   Report Mark            :  '>'
   Default Time     Format:  YYYY MON DD HR:MN:SC::UTC::RND
   Default Integer  Format:  ###########
   Default Floating Format:  #########.####
   Deluge Warning         :  100
   Auto Adjust            :  ASK (applies only to tabular formats)


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Related Topics



Default Floating Format, Default Integer Format, Default Time Format



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SHOW INDEXED ...





When you issue a select command to Inspekt, the speed with which it is executed may depend upon whether the columns referenced in the select command are indexed.

To get a list of all indexed columns, type the command

   SHOW INDEXED


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SHOW KERNELS ...





You can create a summary of the loaded E-kernels by typing the command

   SHOW KERNELS;
There are two main reasons for issuing this command:

    1. Obtaining a quick summary of loaded kernels

    2. Finding out whether the tables and kernels you thought you loaded were in fact loaded by Inspekt.



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Related Topics



SHOW COMMENTS



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SHOW PAGE ...





You can see the current page settings (including the report title and header attributes) by typing the command:

   SHOW PAGE;
A sample output is given below. (Note: the Page width refers to number of columns one character wide will fit on the page.)

   Page height (rows)   :  20
   Page width  (columns):  80
 
   Page Title           :  Inspekt Report
   Title Justification  :  LEFT
   Title Appears on     :  First page only
 
   Header Appears on    :  First page only


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SHOW SUMMARY ...





To see a summary of the characteristics of all columns for all loaded events kernels, type the command

   SHOW SUMMARY;
Inspekt will display an alphabetical listing of all columns



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Special Symbols --- Queries





In addition to symbols you define, there are special symbols called "queries" that have no permanent value. You supply the value of a query when a command containing it is issued. A query is any word beginning with a letter and ending with a question mark (?). Whenever, such a word is encountered in a command, Inspekt asks you to supply a value for the query. You should enter the value followed by a semicolon (;).

Here's an example. Suppose you routinely issue some select command and that the only portion that changes is the constraint upon the column time.

   SELECT TIME, COMMENTS
   FROM EVENTLIST
   WHERE TIME variable condition
   ORDER BY TIME;
Define the following symbols

   DEFINE STDSEL SELECT TIME, COMMENTS FORM EVENTLIST WHERE TIME
          After_Before_Tween? ORDER BY TIME;
   DEFINE AFTER  GT TIME?
   DEFINE BEFORE LT TIME?
   DEFINE TWEEN  BETWEEN FIRST_TIME? AND LAST_TIME?
Here's what happens when we now type STDSEL;

   Inspekt> STDSEL;
Inspekt responds with the following prompt.

   Enter value for After_Before_Tween >
You can type anything at this prompt. However the prompt suggests you should pick one of the symbols you define earlier. Type "before" followed by a semi-colon.

   Enter value for After_Before_Tween > before;
   Enter value for TIME >
Now enter some time (be sure to put it in quotes) and follow this with a semi-colon.

   Enter value for After_Before_Tween > before;
   Enter value for TIME > "1 jan 1995";
The effect of these three entries is

   SELECT TIME, COMMENTS FROM EVENTLIST
   WHERE TIME LT "1 jan 1995"
   ORDER BY TIME;
By creative use of symbols and queries you can greatly alter your view of Inspekt and greatly ease the entry of frequently typed commands.



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Specifying Strings





When you create SELECT commands you will often need to compare a character column to some specified string. To specify a string you must enclose it in either single (') or double (") quotes. (Note that these are both single characters. You cannot use '' in place of ".) For example, you might want to find all of the rows for which a character column begins with the letter 'A'. To specify this condition in a query you would type:

   column GE 'A' AND column LE 'B'
If you need to put a quote into a string, you type double the quote as you would in a FORTRAN string. For example the word DOESN'T would be typed as

   'DOESN''T'


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Related Topics



Specifying Times



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Specifying Times





Although Inspekt can display times in almost any format, the set of inputs is necessarily more restrictive.

First, time strings need to be input as strings. Strings must be enclosed in quotes. The condition

   TIME LT 1 JAN 1995
will not be recognized if it is part of a SELECT command. However, once you place quotes around the time, the time string will be recognized

   TIME LT "1 JAN 1995"
A wide variety of time formats are allowed as input to Inspekt. These formats are listed below.



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Spacecraft Clock



   MO   SCLK mars observer spacecraft clock string
   GLL  SCLK galileo spacecraft clock string
   VGR1 SCLK voyager 1 spacecraft clock string
   VGR2 SCLK voyager 2 spacecraft clock string
To use these formats you must have either specified SCLK to be an appropriate kernel (see Getting Started) or have loaded an appropriate kernel via the LOAD SCLK KERNEL command.



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ISO Formats



The International Standards Organization (ISO) time format is used by many NASA flight projects.

   YYYY-MM-DDTHR:MN:SC    ISO UTC Calendar format
   YYYY-DDDTHR:MN:SC      ISO UTC Day of year format


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Generic



In these formats Month stands for the month spelled out to 3 or more letters, e.g. Jan, Janu, Janua, etc. Also note that where spaces have been used to separate the components of the date you may also use a comma or a slash (i.e. the solidus (/) ). All times are UTC.

   MONTH DD YYYY  HR:MN:SC.##...#
   DD MONTH YYYY  HR:MN:SC.##...#
   YYYY DD MONTH  HR:MN:SC.##...#
   YYYY MONTH DD  HR:MN:SC.##...#
 
   YYYY MM DD HR:MN:SC.##...#
   MM DD YYYY HR:MN:SC.##...#
 
   JD244xxxx.xx...x


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Related Topics



Where Clause



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Symbol





A symbol is a word that begins with a letter of the alphabet and does not end with a question mark. It must be 32 or fewer characters in length. Moreover, you must specifically designate this word to be a symbol via the DEFINE command. The define command associates a value with the symbol.

When you type a command in Inspekt that contains a symbol, the symbol is replaced by its associated value. The command is then re-examined and any remaining symbols are replaced by their associated values.

Symbols allow you to customize your Inspekt environment. In addition they allow you to greatly reduce the amount of typing you need to do in order to issue frequently occurring groups of words.

Words that are surrounded by any of the characters ("'@) are not regarded as symbols and are processed as they appear.

Symbols are case insensitive in Inspekt. If you define "SPUD" to be a symbol then "spud", "Spud", "sPud", etc. will all be interpreted as SPUD.

You may not define EDIT, DO, RECALL, START, STOP, DEFINE, ECHO



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Syntax Description Language





The language you use to communicate with Inspekt is a word oriented language. With one exception the smallest significant component of a command is a word. The words in a command must match a pattern that is called the syntax of the command. The syntax of the commands you type at the prompt Inspekt> can be expressed in a language called Meta/2. The sections below describe the various constructs that make up a Meta/2 specification. After reading these sections you should be able to make sense of any syntax specification presented later in this User's Guide.

Inspekt's command language is quite simple; it does not require all of the features of Meta/2. But since Inspekt is expected to grow, we've included a complete description of Meta/2 so that you'll have a handy reference as this growth occurs.



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Keywords




Each command you type at the prompt Inspekt> must begin with a keyword. Keywords define the structure of a command: for the most part, a command is a collection of keywords, some of which are modified by non-keyword arguments. The keywords of a Meta/2 syntax description are the words that do not begin with one of the special characters in the list below:

   "("   the left parenthesis
   "@"   the "at" sign
   "|"   the vertical bar
   "}"    the right  brace
In Inspekt all of the keywords are english words.

The simplest Meta/2 expressions consist entirely of keywords. Some of Inspekt's commands that fall into this category are shown below.

   SHOW KERNELS
 
   SHOW SUMMARY
 
   SHOW INDEXES
 
   SET AUTOADJUST ON
 
   SET FORMAT TABULAR
 
   SET FORMAT FLAGGED PRESERVED
 
   SET FORMAT VERBATIM
 
   SET TITLE FREQUENCY ALL
 
   SET HEADER FREQUENCY FIRST
When you type a command, you may enter the keywords in upper, lower or mixed case.



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Class Templates




Keywords can be modified by non-keyword values. The values associated with a keyword always immediately follow that keyword. A collection of values is terminated by another keyword, or by the end of the command.

Class templates are used to indicate that the values associated with a particular keyword belong to a class of values. For example the Meta/2 expression of the rule that the keywords SHOW COLUMN are to be followed by the name of a column looks like this.

   SHOW COLUMN @name ...
The word, name, indicates that the next word in the command following COLUMN should begin with a letter followed by characters from the collection: upper and lower case letters, digits, the hyphen and the underscore. Given this rule, a command that begins

   SHOW COLUMN 13 ...
is clearly in error.

Class templates are very much like the wild card templates used in operating systems like Unix and VMS, except they are a little more specialized. The class templates recognized by Meta/2 are listed below along with descriptions of the words that match them. Class templates in a Meta/2 description begin with the "at" character (@).



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number



This template matches any number. Examples are

   1
   3.14
   0.07281D-10


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int



This template matches only integer values. Examples are

   -3
   26172771
   0.24E6


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word



This template matches any string of contiguous, non-blank, printing characters. Examples are

   alpine
   /u/user/naif/etc/data/spam
   ^&HANNk228***(JASNSK


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name



This template matches any word that begins with a letter and contains from one to 32 letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens. Examples are

   Andrea
   BRORSEN-METCALF
   COMMAND_STEM
   X11J9


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calendar



This template matches a sequence of words that make up a calendar date. The rules for matching this template are somewhat complicated: for the most part, any unambiguous format will be accepted. Examples are

   JAN 1, 1992 12:28:28
   1992-3-18 18:28
   5 APR 1993 18:00:00.289
   12-1-1995


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Template Quantifiers



The construct

   FORMAT (1:8)@word
matches the keyword FORMAT followed by between one and eight words. The quantifier

   (n:m)
when prefixed to any class template has similar meaning. The lower bound is always present, and is always positive. The upper bound is optional: for example, template

   (2:)@int
matches any sequence of two or more integer words.



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Numeric Qualifiers



The construct

   WIDTH @int(8:80)
matches the keyword WIDTH followed by an integer between 8 and 80 inclusive. The qualifier

   (n:m)
when suffixed to any numeric class template has similar meaning. Both bounds are optional: for example the templates

   @number(2:)
   @number(:1000)
are matched by numeric words whose values are greater than or equal to two and less than or equal to 1000 respectively.



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Character Qualifiers



The construct

   DIRECTORY @word([*]|*%:[*]|*:)
matches any word that matches one of the individual wildcard templates

   [*]
 
   *%:[*]
 
   *:
The wildcard characters (asterisk and percent sign) match any substring and any character respectively. The qualifier

   (t1|...|tn)
when suffixed to any character class template has a similar meaning.



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Combining Quantifiers with Qualifiers




Quantifiers and qualifiers may be combined in any combination. The following are all valid class templates.

   @int(-5:5)
 
   (3:)@name(A*|B*|*X)
 
   (1:3)@name(John|Bobby|Teddy)


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Switches




The construct

       (1:1){ NONE
            | FIRST
            | 1ST
            | ALL
            | EVERY @int(2:) }
is called a switch. It is the final construct that you need to know. Although it looks forbidding, it is really quite simple. A switch is a list of keyword-template phrases, separated by vertical bars, and surrounded by braces. The left brace is prefixed with a quantifier,

      (n:m){ ... }
Whenever you see a switch, it means that at least n and not more than m of the phrases separated by vertical bars must appear; however, they may appear in any order. Thus, the syntax

   SET TITLE FREQUENCY (1:1){ NONE
                            | FIRST
                            | 1ST
                            | ALL
                            | EVERY @int(2:) }
matches all of the following commands.

   SET TITLE FREQUENCY FIRST
 
   SET TITLE FREQUENCY EVERY 3
 
   SET TITLE FREQUENCY ALL
but does not match

   SET TITLE FREQUENCY NONE FIRST ALL EVERY @int(2:)
When you see the special word

   @options
within a switch, it means that the phrases following the token are optional, whereas the phrases preceding the token are required (again, the phrases may appear in any order). For example the construct

      (2:3){         WIDTH  @int(40:132)
           |         HEIGHT @int(22:)
           | @options
           |         TITLE (1:3)@word }
means that the phrases beginning with the keywords WIDTH and HEIGHT must appear, while the phrase beginning with TITLE is optional.



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Nesting Switches



Switches cannot be nested. The construct

      (a:b){ ...
           | (c:d){ ...  }
           }
is illegal.



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Examples




Given the syntax description

      SET FORMAT (0:1){ SPACED  | MARKED } TABULAR
                 (0:1){ PRESERVED }
Convince yourself that the following are all valid commands.

   SET FORMAT TABULAR;
 
   SET FORMAT SPACED TABULAR;
 
   SET FORMAT MARKED TABULAR PRESERVED;
 
   SET FORMAT TABULAR PRESERVED;
 
   SET FORMAT SPACE TABULAR PRESERVED;
Convince yourself that the following are not valid commands.

   SET FORMAT SPACED;
 
   SET FORMAT PRESERVED TABULAR;
 
   SET FORMAT MARKED PRESERVED;


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Syntax Summaries





Listed here is the formal syntax for every command recognized by Inspekt.

   DEFINE   @name
   DEFINE   @name (1:)@word
   UNDEFINE @name
 
   DISCARD
 
   DO @word
 
   ECHO
   NO ECHO
 
   EDIT @word
 
   EXIT
   HELP
   LOAD EK @word
   LOAD LEAPSECONDS @word
   LOAD SCLK KERNEL @word
 
   RECALL
   RECALL @word
 
   SAVE TO @word
 
   SAMPLE @int(1:)  SELECT (1:100)@word
                    FROM   (1:)@word
                   (0:1){ WHERE    (1:)@word    }
                   (0:1){ ORDER BY (1:100)@word }
 
 
   SAMPLE          (1:1){ FIRST @int(1:)
                        | LAST  @int(1:)
                        }
                    SELECT (1:100)@word
                    FROM   (1:)@word
                   (0:1){ WHERE    (1:)@word    }
                   (0:1){ ORDER BY (1:100)@word }
 
 
   SAMPLE @int(1:) (1:1){ UP TO       @int(0:100) EVERY @int(1:)
                        | UP TO       @int(0:100)
                        | STARTING AT @int(0:100) EVERY @int(1:)
                        | STARTING AT @int(0:100)
                        | CENTER   AT @int(0:100) EVERY @int(1:)
                        | CENTER   AT @int(0:100)
                        | FROM @int(0:100) TO   @int(0:100)
                        }
                    SELECT (1:100)@word
                    FROM   (1:)@word
                   (0:1){ WHERE    (1:)@word    }
                   (0:1){ ORDER BY (1:100)@word }
 
 
   SELECT (1:100)@word FROM (1:)@word
                       (0:1){ WHERE    (1:)@word    }
                       (0:1){ ORDER BY (1:100)@word }
 
 
 
   SET AUTOADJUST (1:1){ OFF | ASK | ON }
   SET COLUMN @word FORMAT (1:)@word }
   SET COLUMN @word HEADING (1:)@word
   SET COLUMN @word JUSTIFICATION (1:1){ LEFT  | JUSTIFICATION }
   SET COLUMN @word WIDTH @int
   SET DEFAULT TIME     FORMAT (1:)@word
   SET DEFAULT INTEGER  FORMAT @word
   SET DEFAULT FLOATING FORMAT @word
   SET DELUGE WARNING @int(1:)
   SET EDITOR (1:)@word
   SET FORMAT (0:1){ SPACED | MARKED } TABULAR (0:1){ PRESERVED }
   SET FORMAT FLAGGED (0:1){ PRESERVED }
   SET FORMAT MARK @word(%)
   SET FORMAT VERBATIM
 
   SET HEADER FREQUENCY (1:1){ 0
                             | FIRST | 1ST
                             | ALL
                             | EVERY @int(2:) }
 
   SET HELP WAIT
   SET HELP NO WAIT
   SET PAGE HEIGHT @int
   SET PAGE TITLE (1:)@word
   SET PAGE WIDTH @int
 
   SET TITLE FREQUENCY (1:1){ 0
                            | FIRST | 1ST
                            | ALL
                            | EVERY @int(2:) }
 
   SET TITLE JUSTIFICATION (1:1){ LEFT | CENTER | RIGHT }
   SHOW COLUMN @word
   SHOW COMMENTS
   SHOW COMMENTS @word
   SHOW ENVIRONMENT
   SHOW FORMAT
   SHOW INDEXES
   SHOW KERNELS
   SHOW PAGE
   SHOW SYMBOL @word
   SHOW SUMMARY
   START @word
   UNLOAD @word


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Related Topics



Syntax Description Language



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Table





A "table" is a named grouping of events (or other objects) all of which have the same named attributes.

The designation "table" comes from the appearance of listings of the attributes of events. If we list all of the events we have recorded on a sheet of paper (or a terminal) so that the attributes for each event are always listed in the same order from left to right, the resulting page will look like a "table" of values similar to a table of sines and cosines or a table of prices.



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Tabular Format





Inspekt provides a number of different Tabular formats.



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TABULAR



   JAN 25 07:15:00  OBSERVATION   WEATHER  Sunny and cool (about 55 F)
                                           Air Quality good.
   JAN 26 07:15:00  OBSERVATION   WEATHER  Sunny and cool (about 52 F)


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MARKED TABULAR



   > JAN 25 07:15:00  OBSERVATION WEATHER  Sunny and cool (about 55 F)
                                           Air Quality good.
   > JAN 26 07:15:00  OBSERVATION WEATHER  Sunny and cool (about 52 F)
 


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SPACED TABULAR



   JAN 25 07:15:00  OBSERVATION   WEATHER  Sunny and cool (about 55 F)
                                           Air Quality good.
 
   AN 26 07:15:00  OBSERVATION    WEATHER  Sunny and cool (about 52 F)


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Related Topics



Reports, Tabular Format Mark



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Tabular Format Mark





The format of a marked tabular report is similar to that of a tabular report. However, an extra column is inserted at the left side of the report. A format mark appears in this column when each new row is begun. You can quickly scan the left most column of the report and determine where each new row begins. The default format mark is the "greater than" symbol (>). To change this default to some other character, use the SET FORMAT MARK command.

   SET FORMAT MARK character
where "character" is the character you would like to replace '>'.

NOTE: the format character cannot be a semi-colon.

For example suppose that you would like to change the format mark from '>' to '='. Type the command

   SET FORMAT MARK =;


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Related Topics



Tabular Format



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Time Formats





You may request time to be displayed in an almost limitless variety of formats. The default format is UTC calendar format. Other standard formats may be set by using either of the commands:

   SET COLUMN column_name FORMAT format;
   SET DEFAULT TIME FORMAT format;
A number of standard formats may be specified:

UTC

Default format: YYYY-MON-DD HR:MN:SC
ISO

International Standards format: YYYY-MM-DDTHR:MN:SC
ISODOY

International Standards day of year: YYYY-DOYTHR:MN:SC
JED

Julian Ephemeris date to 5 decimal places
MOSCLK

Mars Observer Spacecraft Clock format
GLLSCLK

Galileo Spacecraft Clock format
These formats will be recognized regardless of the case of the letters use to specify them. The UTC, ISO and ISODY formats are all UTC times. You may also create a custom format (see Custom Formats). \subsection Related Topics

Custom Formats, Default Time Format



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Titles





Titles are single lines of text that appear at the beginning of Inspekt reports. You may adjust the text of the title, its positioning (left justified, centered, or right justified), and how often it is shown as a report is displayed. To see the current attributes of the report title, type

   SHOW PAGE


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Typing Commands





Inspekt is a command driven program. You type a command at the prompt

   Inspekt>
The program performs some action based upon the typed command. If a command is too long to fit on a single line, hit the return key when you get to the end of the line and continue typing on the next line. When you are finished typing the command, type a semi-colon (";"). The semi-colon is required at the end of all commands typed in response to a prompt ending with ">". It is needed even if the line will fit on a single line. Occasionally, Inspekt may prompt you to supply inputs other than commands (such as in the Help system). In such cases the prompt will not end in a greater than sign ">" and the semi-colon is not needed.

The commands you type may be in either upper or lower case.

If you begin typing a command and realize you've made an error or wish to start again, add a blank line to the command entered so far. Inspekt will ignore what you've typed and prompt you for a new command. \subsection Related Topics

Editing Commands, Column and Table Abbreviations, Using Symbols, Special Symbols --- Queries, Collecting Commands In Files



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Using Symbols







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An Example



Inspekt allows you to create special words that when encountered in a command are translated into different words. These special words are called 'symbols'.

For example suppose that you frequently want to edit your last "Select" command. You could make up the symbol ES as shown below:

   DEFINE ES EDIT SELECT;
When you type

   Inspekt> ES;
The command is translated to

   EDIT SELECT
If you have recently issued a select command, the command will be copied into the editor so that you may perform any desired modifications.



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Creating Symbols



You may use symbols to stand for any group of words that you would like to avoid typing repeatedly. To define a symbol type:

   DEFINE symbol_name value;
where "symbol_name" is the name of the symbol you want to define and "value" is the associated list of words and characters. The value of a symbol may be blank. Symbol names must begin with a letter and can not end with a question mark '?'. Also the case of letters in a symbol is insignificant. For example, the commands

   DEFINE MYSYM a string of words;
   DEFINE MySym a string of words;
   DEFINE mysym a string of words;
all define the symbol MYSYM. Moreover, when symbols appear in a command, the case of the letters is insignificant. The commands

   SET FORMAT MYSYM;
   SET FORMAT MySym;
   SET FORMAT mysym;
will all be recognized as containing the symbol MYSYM.



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Removing Symbols



To remove a symbol definitions type:

   UNDEFINE symbol_name
Note that you can "undefine" a symbol that has not been defined. This is useful in Inspekt Procedure Files when you want to make sure that some previously defined symbol will not accidentally alter the meaning of a procedure command.



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Symbols Used in Other Symbols



You may use symbols in the definition of another symbol. For example,

   DEFINE P PRESERVED;
   DEFINE M MARKED;
   DEFINE TAB TABULAR;
   DEFINE SETF SET FORMAT
   DEFINE MYFMT SETF M TAB P;
When you type

   Inspekt> MYFMT;
The effect will be the same as if you had typed

   SET FORMAT MARKED TABULAR PRESERVED;
Symbols are not evaluated until they are encountered in a command. Moreover, symbol substitution is performed until no more symbols are found in the string.

As a result of this "evaluate when encountered" strategy you can change the value of MYFMT to mean SET FORMAT MARKED TABULAR by redefining P to be a blank.

   DEFINE P  ;
In addition to saving you typing, symbols offer a mechanism for passing information to Inspekt Procedures. If a procedure needs some variable piece of information, you can write the procedure so that this information is expected to be present in some symbol. Then create the symbol with the appropriate information before starting the procedure that needs it.



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Suppressing Symbols Substitution



Occasionally you may want to make sure that a word does not get mistaken for a symbol. If the word is enclosed in single (') or double (") quotes it is automatically invisible to the symbol translation subsystem. Thus words in quoted strings are never mistaken for symbols. In addition to these words you can make one or more words invisible to the symbol resolver by placing it between consecutive '@' characters. Thus the command below sets the page title to be "MYFMT" even though MYFMT is a symbol defined above

   SET PAGE TITLE @MYFMT@;


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Examining Symbols



After working in Inspekt for some time, you may want to see what symbols you've created. Type

   SHOW SYMBOL pattern
to see the definition and full evaluation of all symbols whose names match the supplied pattern. \subsection Related Topics

Echoing Translated Commands, Collecting Commands In Files, Special Symbols --- Queries, Column and Table Abbreviations



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Verbatim Format





The VERBATIM format allows you to capture in a report the explicit components that were supplied to each column at the time an event was recorded. Each component will appear on a separate line in the report. An example appears below:

   --- TIME     ---
   JAN 25 18:29:59
   --- ACTIVITY ---
   OBSERVATION
   --- SUBCLASS ---
   GOOD AIR QUALITY
   --- COMMENTS ---
   The air quality is good.
   Smog has not been a problem for several days now.


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Related Topics



Reports



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Where Clause





The "WHERE" clause of a SELECT command allows you to narrow focus on a particular set of events. The form of the WHERE-clause is:

   WHERE condition
   AND/OR (NOT) condition
            ...
   AND/OR (NOT) condition
With one exception A condition is an expression of the form:

   column_name  binary_relation  value/column
   or
   column_name  [NOT] BETWEEN value1/column AND value2/column
Only names of columns from loaded kernels may be specified. The columns must be scalar valued. If the column specified in a relation is a character or time column, VALUE must be enclosed in single (') or double (") quotes.

The binary relations are: NE, LT, LE, EQ, GE, GT, LIKE, NOT LIKE. The short hand equivalents of the first 6 of these are !=, <, <=, =, >=, >. All but the LIKE relation can be used with any column. The LIKE relation can be used only with character columns; it is the pattern matching relation. The value to the right of a LIKE relation is a pattern that the column must match. The character '*' matches any substring of of any string. The character '% ' matches any single character.

Conditions may be grouped using parentheses. These groups may in turn be grouped using parentheses and the connecting words AND and OR. Any condition can be negated using the word NOT.



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Related Topics



Example Where Clause, Conditional Operators, Looking at Data --- SELECT



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Problems, Suggestions





If you have a problem that you can't figure out on your own, you can send it to NAIF at the e-mail address given below. However, please send Inspekt's log file along with a description of the problem. The log file allows us to reproduce the problem. We may also need to request a copy of the E-kernels you were using at the time you experienced the problem.

If you have comments or suggestions regarding Inspekt, send them to

   btaber@spice.jpl.nasa.gov
Within the limits of time and money, we will do our best to respond to your correspondence.

         ---Bill Taber