[AstroPy] Instantiating empty tables

[Joshua Schroeder]

I learned yesterday at the CfA code coffee about astropy.table. For my work, I want to instantiate a table that I then populate with data taken from the headers of many different fits observations. The problem is that it looks like I cannot add rows to an empty table. E.g., while this will work:

	>> usefulstuff = Table([['a'],['b'],['c'],['d'],[123.1],['as'],['R'],[213.2],[2.24],['12.25151'],['33.2511']],
						names=('PATH','FILE','TELESCOPE','INSTRUMENT', 'JD', 'OBJECT', 'FILTER', 
								'EXPTIME', 'AIRMASS', 'RA', 'DEC'), 
						dtypes=('a64','a25','a25','a25','f8','a25','a2', 'f8','f8','a25','a25'), 
						masked=True)
	>> usefulstuff.add_row(['a','b','c','d',123.1,'as','R',213.2,2.24,'12.25151','33.2511'])
	>> print usefulstuff
	PATH FILE TELESCOPE INSTRUMENT   JD  OBJECT FILTER EXPTIME AIRMASS    RA      DEC  
	---- ---- --------- ---------- ----- ------ ------ ------- ------- -------- -------
	   a    b         c          d 123.1     as      R   213.2    2.24 12.25151 33.2511
	   a    b         c          d 123.1     as      R   213.2    2.24 12.25151 33.2511


What does not work is:

	>> usefulstuff = Table(names=('PATH','FILE','TELESCOPE','INSTRUMENT',
                                                               'JD', 'OBJECT', 'FILTER', 'EXPTIME',
                                                               'AIRMASS', 'RA', 'DEC'),
                                               dtypes=('a64','a25','a25','a25','f8','a25','a2',
                                                               'f8','f8','a25','a25'), masked=True)

	>> usefulstuff.add_row(['a','b','c','d',123.1,'as','R',213.2,2.24,'12.25151','33.2511'])
	ERROR: TypeError: Empty data-type [numpy.core.fromnumeric]
	---------------------------------------------------------------------------
	TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
	/home/data/<ipython-input-227-985123887cc4> in <module>()
	----> 1 usefulstuff.add_row(['a','b','c','d',123.1,'as','R',213.2,2.24,'12.25151','33.2511'])

	/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/astropy/table/table.pyc in add_row(self, vals, mask)
	   1584 
	   1585         if self.masked:
	-> 1586             self._data = ma.resize(self._data, (newlen,))
	   1587         else:
	   1588             self._data.resize((newlen,), refcheck=False)

	/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/ma/core.pyc in resize(x, new_shape)
	   6460     m = getmask(x)
	   6461     if m is not nomask:
	-> 6462         m = np.resize(m, new_shape)
	   6463     result = np.resize(x, new_shape).view(get_masked_subclass(x))
	   6464     if result.ndim:

	/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/fromnumeric.pyc in resize(a, new_shape)
	    850     a = ravel(a)
	    851     Na = len(a)
	--> 852     if not Na: return mu.zeros(new_shape, a.dtype.char)
	    853     total_size = um.multiply.reduce(new_shape)
	    854     n_copies = int(total_size / Na)

	TypeError: Empty data-type

Do I really need to instantiate a table with a dummy row that I then delete after populating the table or, for example, do I need to read the data into arrays and only make the table after looping over files?