A workhorse routine designed pull a column (by parameter name) from a table file.

 

% column_from_table --help  
Usage: column_from_table 20170903T104357.2_acm_sci.cat0 conpixcat.params Xcent
arg1 - name of table file  
arg2 - file listing parameter names   
arg3 - parameter to be pulled  

column_from_table:
  Pull a column from a table file. In addition to the table 
file, you must have a simple ASCII file that lists the parameter 
names of each column in the table file.  

Example:
Table file = 20170903T104357.2_acm_sci.cat0
parameters file = conpixcat.params
parameter to pull = Xcent

% cat conpixcat.params
label
NumPix
iXmin
iXmax
jYmin
jYmax
isomag30
Xcent
Ycent
asemi
boa
posang
sqrtNumPix

% column_from_table 20170903T104357.2_acm_sci.cat0 conpixcat.params Xcent

We would just have created a file name Xcent that contains column 8 
of the table file. Our new file (Xcent) has no header.