astropy: astropy.io.ascii.Cds format exception (ValueError for invalid NULL)

EDIT: Solution provided at https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/11239#issuecomment-758778951

Description

The CDS format (astropy.io.ascii.Cds) throws exceptions for some VizieR tables.

The exception appears for ascii tables having ‘-’ as null values.

Expected behavior

Take into account the ‘-’ as null values in the read method.

Actual behavior

Throw an Exception

Steps to Reproduce

# Put your Python code snippet here.
from astropy.io import ascii
readme = "ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/pub/cats/J/A+A/642/A176/ReadMe"
r = ascii.get_reader(ascii.Cds, readme=readme)
table = r.read("ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/pub/cats/J/A+A/642/A176/table5.dat")

System Details

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 3 years ago
Comments: 28 (21 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

BTW if the byte-by-byte indicates the column with ?=-, then it should mark those as missing (otherwise would be a bug).

It’s sounds good -

In CDS side we will clarify NULL decimal values- when NULL decimal values are not specified with ‘?=…’ , only blank are accepted. Else decimal NULL values will be declared (example: ?=999 for 999 NULL values or ?=- to use the pattern --* as NULL)

gilleslandais on Jan 19, 2021