astropy / astropy/astroquery

ENH: methods to return astropy Tables rather than VO specific tables

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alma ipac.irsa
Dominant language
Python
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

E.g. `Irsa.list_catalogs(full=True)`or `Irsa.query_sia()` currenlty returns a `DALResultsTable` as well as e.g. `Alma.query_tap` also returns a DALResultsTable.

I don't think this is useful for the astroquery users, and thus propose to add the `to_table()` or `to_qtable()` in the astroquery code and thus return astropy Table or QTable, out of the box.

What do you think @keflavich and @andamian

If the VO output is thought to be useful, then we can still provide access to it by an opt-in kwarg instead of returning it by default for everything.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by inspecting Irsa.list_catalogs(full=True), Irsa.query_sia(), and Alma.query_tap to identify their current return types and surrounding query code. Determine which methods should expose astropy Table or QTable by default and how VO-specific output remains available; done means the affected public methods consistently follow the agreed return policy.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
api, data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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