Dataset structures provide the mean to relate sets of data arrays in a table, and to qualify or annotate their contents with, for example, units and metadata. The Herschel Data Processing system provides three generic datasets:
Array Dataset: A quantifiable dataset containing array data.
Table Dataset: A dataset containing a collection of columns. Each column contains a quantifiable array data (e.g., data vector, array, cube). All columns have the same number of rows.
Composite Dataset: A dataset containing a collection of named datasets. This allows arbitrary complex structures, as a child dataset within a composite dataset may be a composite dataset itself.