ARTE — User Guide (CDS Tables & LaTeX Longtables)

ARTE (AstRonomical Tables Engine) is a lightweight toolkit to:

• Generate LaTeX longtables from CSV + YAML
• Generate CDS-compliant .dat tables (fixed-width)
• Generate CDS ReadMe files (byte-by-byte description)

---

0. Requirements

• Python $\geq$ 3.10
• Packages:

  pip install numpy pandas pyyaml

1. Project Structure

arte/
├── __init__.py
├── longtable_maker.py
├── cdsdat_maker.py
├── cdsreadme_maker.py
├── examples/
│   ├── stars.csv
│   ├── longtable_config.yaml
│   └── stars_cds_config.yaml
└── README.md

2. Input Data (CSV)

Your input must be a CSV file with column names.

Example (examples/stars.csv):

Name,StarID,RAJ2000,DEJ2000,SpT,Distance_pc,Prot_d,Prot_d_error,Lbol_Lsun,Lbol_Lsun_error_up,Lbol_Lsun_error_down,HZ_au,HZ_au_error_up,HZ_au_error_down,Lx_erg_s,Lx_erg_s_error
TYC Fake-001,79656044369,56.712345,+24.103214,G2V,190.0,7.2,0.3,1.02,0.08,0.07,1.01,0.06,0.05,2.1e29,5.0e28

3. LaTeX Table Generation

3.1 YAML Configuration

Example (longtable_config.yaml):

table:
  caption: "Example table"
  label: "tab:example"
  font_size: "footnotesize"

columns:
  - id: name
    header: "Name"
    type: string
    column: Name

  - id: teff
    header: "$T_{\\rm eff}$"
    type: value_error
    value_column: Teff
    error_column: Teff_error
    decimals: from_error
    align_uncertainty: true

3.2 Run

python longtable_maker.py stars.csv longtable_config.yaml -o table.txt

4. CDS .dat Generation

4.1 YAML Configuration (NO formats required)

coordinates:
  ra_column: RAJ2000
  dec_column: DEJ2000
  frame: ICRS
  equinox: J2000
  unit: deg

columns:
  - column: Name
    label: Name
    unit: "---"
    description: "Object identifier"

  - column: RAJ2000
    label: RAJ2000
    unit: deg
    description: "Right ascension (ICRS, J2000)"

  - column: DEJ2000
    label: DEJ2000
    unit: deg
    description: "Declination (ICRS, J2000)"

  - column: Lx_erg_s
    label: Lx
    unit: erg/s
    description: "X-ray luminosity"

4.2. Run

python cdsdat_maker.py examples/stars.csv examples/stars_cds_config.yaml -o examples/stars.dat

4.3. What Happens Automatically

Column format is inferred: A → strings I → integers F → floats E → scientific notation (large/small values)

Column widths are computed automatically

Output is fixed-width with proper alignment

5. CDS ReadMe Generation

5.1 Run

python cdsreadme_maker.py examples/stars.csv examples/stars_cds_config.yaml examples/stars.dat -o examples/ReadMe

5.2 Output Includes

Header and metadata Keywords Abstract Description File summary (LRECL, records) Byte-by-byte table description Notes References

6. CDS Requirements (Important)

6.1 Coordinates (MANDATORY)

Your YAML must include:

coordinates:
  ra_column: RAJ2000
  dec_column: DEJ2000

And these columns must exist in both:

CSV YAML columns

6.2 80-character Lines

CDS ReadMe lines must be ≤ 80 characters ARTE automatically wraps text blocks

6.3 Scientific Notation

Large values (e.g. X-ray luminosity):

2.1e29 → E12.5 → 2.10000E+29

This is handled automatically.

7. Notes and References

Notes and references

notes:
  - title: "Note on Lx"
    text: >
      X-ray luminosities are mock values for testing.

references:
  - bibcode: "2026yCat.test....A"
    text: "ARTE internal test catalogue"

8. Typical Workflow

8.1. Generate CDS table

python cdsdat_maker.py stars.csv stars_cds_config.yaml -o stars.dat

8.2. Generate ReadMe

python cdsreadme_maker.py stars.csv stars_cds_config.yaml stars.dat -o ReadMe

8.3. Generate LaTeX table

python longtable_maker.py stars.csv longtable_config.yaml -o table.txt

9. Design Philosophy

YAML = what the user defines Python = what ARTE infers No duplicated information CDS compliance by construction

10. Common Errors

Missing coordinate block ValueError: Missing required 'coordinates' block

→ Add coordinates: to YAML

Missing CSV columns ValueError: Missing columns in CSV

→ Ensure CSV headers match YAML

Misaligned columns

→ Usually caused by:

forcing wrong format not using scientific notation

11. Future Extensions

Planned features:

VOTable and FITS compatibility Full CDS validation mode Byte alignment diagnostics Automatic reference code handling

12. Final Note

ARTE is designed to make CDS table preparation:

• reproducible
• consistent
• fast

Without manually counting bytes ever again.