TPL Tables
Encyclopedia
TPL Tables is a cross tabulation
system used to generate statistical tables for analysis or publication.
(TPL) system, developed at the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) in the 1970s and early 1980s to run on IBM mainframes.
It was one of the first software languages that was task oriented rather than procedure oriented. To create a table in TPL, the user needed to specify his data and describe what his table should look like. He did not need to write procedures to create the table. This was in sharp contrast to the Cobol and PL/1 programs people were using at BLS to create tables before TPL. When statistical offices began moving to databases, TPL extended its non-procedural model to database accesshttp://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1115964
The mainframe software gained international popularity during its time, particularly in government statistical offices, but at a substantial number of other sites as well. The BLS version of TPL was distributed by the United Nations. When TPL evolved into a commercial product, the UN connections remained. This led to such diverse customers as the census of the Comoros Islands [Population 600,000] and the census of the Peoples Republic of China [Population > 1,000,000,000]
BLS ceased major software development of the software in the early to mid-1980s. At that time, two developers of the mainframe product founded QQQ Software, Inc. http://qqqsoftware.com/ and began development of TPL Tables, rewriting the system for PCs and Unix systems. The first version of TPL Tables was released in 1987. The current version is 7.0.
or as text. Additional format features allow control of such things as page size, table orientation and column widths Rows or columns can be deleted, and labels and titles can be replaced. Display formats for data values can include alignment specifications and addition of special characters such as % and $. Footnotes can be included for both labels and data values. PostScript tables can contain proportional fonts in various styles and sizes.
, or CSV
. The Windows version also allows tables to be exported for use as input to PC-Axis http://www.pc-axis.scb.se/.
Cross tabulation
Cross tabulation is the process of creating a contingency table from the multivariate frequency distribution of statistical variables. Heavily used in survey research, cross tabulations can be produced by a range of statistical packages, including some that are specialised for the task. Survey...
system used to generate statistical tables for analysis or publication.
Background / History
TPL Tables has its roots in the Table Producing LanguageTable Producing Language
Table Producing Language was a IBM mainframe program developed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for producing statistical tables. It has been superseded by the commercial product TPL Tables developed by QQQ Software....
(TPL) system, developed at the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...
(BLS) in the 1970s and early 1980s to run on IBM mainframes.
It was one of the first software languages that was task oriented rather than procedure oriented. To create a table in TPL, the user needed to specify his data and describe what his table should look like. He did not need to write procedures to create the table. This was in sharp contrast to the Cobol and PL/1 programs people were using at BLS to create tables before TPL. When statistical offices began moving to databases, TPL extended its non-procedural model to database accesshttp://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1115964
The mainframe software gained international popularity during its time, particularly in government statistical offices, but at a substantial number of other sites as well. The BLS version of TPL was distributed by the United Nations. When TPL evolved into a commercial product, the UN connections remained. This led to such diverse customers as the census of the Comoros Islands [Population 600,000] and the census of the Peoples Republic of China [Population > 1,000,000,000]
BLS ceased major software development of the software in the early to mid-1980s. At that time, two developers of the mainframe product founded QQQ Software, Inc. http://qqqsoftware.com/ and began development of TPL Tables, rewriting the system for PCs and Unix systems. The first version of TPL Tables was released in 1987. The current version is 7.0.
Uses
TPL Tables is used with many different types of data, from small surveys or other datasets to national level censuses. Its many formatting features allow creation of publication quality output that can be published on paper or on the web.Text or Interactive Mode
TPL Tables has a language for specifying tabulations and controlling format details. This language is the same for both Windows and Unix versions of the software. The Windows version also has an interactive interface that can access most features and includes Ted, an editor used to display PostScript tables on the screen and edit them interactively.Tabulation Features
TPL Tables can process an unlimited amount of data and produce tables that range in size from a few lines to hundreds of pages. Subsets of the data can be selected and new variables can be computed from incoming data or from tabulated values. Alternate computations can be performed depending on specified conditions being met. New variables can also be defined by recoding or grouping values of other variables. Table rows can be ordered (ranked) according to the values in a selected column. Other computational features include percent distributions, maximums, minimums, medians and other quantiles. Weighted values can be tabulated.Inputs
TPL Tables can read files with data in fixed columns or delimited file types such as CSV Comma Separated Values . TPL-SQL, an optional add-on feature, provides direct access from TPL Tables to SQL databases produced by products such as Sybase and Oracle. In the Windows version, TPL-SQL can access databases for which there are ODBC drivers.Outputs
TPL Tables automatically formats table output according to the table specification, available names and labels, and default settings. Tables can be created in PostScriptPostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
or as text. Additional format features allow control of such things as page size, table orientation and column widths Rows or columns can be deleted, and labels and titles can be replaced. Display formats for data values can include alignment specifications and addition of special characters such as % and $. Footnotes can be included for both labels and data values. PostScript tables can contain proportional fonts in various styles and sizes.
Exports
Tables can be exported as PDF, HTMLHTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, or CSV
CSV
CSV may refer to:* Clerics of Saint Viator* Common Stored Value Ticket* Confederación Sudamericana de Voleibol* Character Strengths and Virtues* Christian Social People's Party* Community Service Volunteers...
. The Windows version also allows tables to be exported for use as input to PC-Axis http://www.pc-axis.scb.se/.
External links
- Home page for QQQ Software, Inc. and TPL Tableshttp://qqqsoftware.com
- QQQ Software, Inc. download page http://www.qqqsoft.com/html/download/index.html. Contains various documentation files, including the TPL Tables, Version 7.0 User Manual in PDF format.