I. The PyTables Core Library

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Main Features
1.2. The Object Tree
2. Installation
2.1. Installation from source
2.1.1. Prerequisites
2.1.2. PyTables package installation
2.2. Binary installation (Windows)
2.2.1. Windows prerequisites
2.2.2. PyTables package installation
3. Tutorials
3.1. Getting started
3.1.1. Importing tables objects
3.1.2. Declaring a Column Descriptor
3.1.3. Creating a PyTables file from scratch
3.1.4. Creating a new group
3.1.5. Creating a new table
3.1.6. Reading (and selecting) data in a table
3.1.7. Creating new array objects
3.1.8. Closing the file and looking at its content
3.2. Browsing the object tree
3.2.1. Traversing the object tree
3.2.2. Setting and getting user attributes
3.2.3. Getting object metadata
3.2.4. Reading data from Array objects
3.3. Commiting data to tables and arrays
3.3.1. Appending data to an existing table
3.3.2. Modifying data in tables
3.3.3. Modifying data in arrays
3.3.4. And finally... how to delete rows from a table
3.4. Multidimensional table cells and automatic sanity checks
3.4.1. Shape checking
3.4.2. Field name checking
3.4.3. Data type checking
3.5. Exercising the Undo/Redo feature
3.5.1. A basic example
3.5.2. A more complete example
3.6. Using enumerated types
3.6.1. Enumerated columns
3.6.2. Enumerated arrays
3.7. Dealing with nested structures in tables
3.7.1. Nested table creation
3.7.2. Reading nested tables: introducing NestedRecArray objects
3.7.3. Using Cols accessor
3.7.4. Accessing meta-information of nested tables
3.8. Other examples in PyTables distribution
4. Library Reference
4.1. tables variables and functions
4.1.1. Global variables
4.1.2. Global functions
4.2. The File class
4.2.1. File instance variables
4.2.2. File methods
4.2.3. File special methods
4.3. The Node class
4.3.1. Node instance variables
4.3.2. Node methods
4.4. The Group class
4.4.1. Group instance variables
4.4.2. Group methods
4.4.3. Group special methods
4.5. The Leaf class
4.5.1. Leaf instance variables
4.5.2. Leaf methods
4.6. The Table class
4.6.1. Table instance variables
4.6.2. Table methods
4.6.3. Table special methods
4.6.4. The Row class
4.7. The Cols class
4.7.1. Cols instance variables
4.7.2. Cols methods
4.8. The Description class
4.8.1. Description instance variables
4.8.2. Description methods
4.9. The Column class
4.9.1. Column instance variables
4.9.2. Column methods
4.9.3. Column special methods
4.10. The Array class
4.10.1. Array instance variables
4.10.2. Array methods
4.10.3. Array special methods
4.11. The CArray class
4.11.1. CArray instance variables
4.11.2. Example of use
4.12. The EArray class
4.12.1. EArray instance variables
4.12.2. EArray methods
4.13. The VLArray class
4.13.1. VLArray instance variables
4.13.2. VLArray methods
4.13.3. VLArray special methods
4.14. The UnImplemented class
4.15. The AttributeSet class
4.15.1. AttributeSet instance variables
4.15.2. AttributeSet methods
4.16. Declarative classes
4.16.1. The IsDescription class
4.16.2. The Col class and its descendants
4.16.3. The Atom class and its descendants.
4.17. Helper classes
4.17.1. The Filters class
4.17.2. The IndexProps class
4.17.3. The Index class
4.17.4. The Enum class
5. Optimization tips
5.1. Informing PyTables about expected number of rows in tables
5.2. Accelerating your searches
5.2.1. In-kernel searches
5.2.2. Indexed searches
5.3. Compression issues
5.4. Shuffling (or how to make the compression process more effective)
5.5. Using Psyco
5.6. Getting the most from the node LRU cache
5.7. Selecting an User Entry Point (UEP) in your tree
5.8. Compacting your PyTables files