Creates a list of strings containing the selected-column names from an ASCII file. Mostly useful by calling readfile.dict.

> head = readfile.header(file, *optional_args)

file

type: string

parameter: Name of the file. File should be a table with objects of arbitrary type (same per column). If cols is specified, the file can have incomplete columns (that are not included in the columns to be read).

cols

type: int or list of ints

default: 'all'

parameter: Column(s) to be returned. Numbering starts at 0.

mode

type: {'1', '2'}

default: '1'

parameter: mode '1' means column names are given in the first line, separated by spaces; mode '2' means they are given in separate lines at the top of the file with column numbers, as in SExtractor outputs. Note that the latter headers usually enumerate the columns starting from 1, which is corrected here.

removechar

type: string

default: '#'

parameter: Character to be removed from the beginning of the header, which should be defined in the first line with column names separated by delimiter. This is useful because usually the header stars with a special character so that it is not included in the table, but this character is not a column name.