A step-by-step guide to create a file for the database
Open a spreadsheet (ex. excel, open office etc.)
Put the information found in the Tables (and/or the text) under the appropriate variables for each star. For recent papers, one can usually simply cut and paste the Table directly into the spreadsheet and rearrange with minimum effort. There should be one column for each parameter one wishes to include (note that the name of each column is case sensitive, see the list of variables). If there is no mention of a given parameter in the paper, then it is not necessary to add its column. Be careful not to put a blank space before or after a value otherwise the database will not recognize the value correctly.
Find the unique identifier for each star and put it in the first column named "wdid". To find the identifier, you can search in the MWDD table if the star is already in our database, or use the one chosen by the simbad database (it is possible to enter a list of stars in simbad to get all the identifier at once).
It is important to add the mandatory columns "source", "date" and "ads", which should have the same value for all the stars in a given paper.
If the value for a parameter is missing for an object, simply leave blank.
Here is an example of what a working .csv file should look like:
*In OpenOffice/LibreOffice, select comma as separator. In Excel, if the file is not well displayed, go in 'Data', then 'text to columns'. Select 'delimited' and click on 'next'. Then select 'comma' under delimiter.
The Montreal White Dwarf Database is produced and maintained by Prof. Patrick Dufour (Université de Montréal) and Dr. Simon Blouin (University of Victoria). Please send database updates, corrections, suggestions or bug reports to patrick.dufour@umontreal.ca.