added votable.parquet test; other docstring fixes

astropy/io/votable/connect.py

@@ -184,7 +184,6 @@ def write_table_votable(
 
 
 # VOTable with embedded/linked Parquet file #
-# added by ALF - Sept 5 2023
 def write_table_votable_parquet(tab, filename, column_metadata, overwrite):
     '''
 
@@ -202,18 +201,17 @@ def write_table_votable_parquet(tab, filename, column_metadata, overwrite):
 
     Parameters
     -----------
-    tab: astropy table
+    tab : astropy table
         Contains the data
-    filename: str
+    filename : str
         The file name of the VOTable (e.g., "test.vot").
         IMPORTANT: Needs to be a full path (i.e. no "../" or "./")
-    column_metadata: dictionary
+    column_metadata : dictionary
         Contains the metadata for the columns such as "unit" or
         "ucd" or "utype".
-        Example:
-        column_metadata = {"id":{"unit":"","ucd":"meta.id","utype":"none"},
-        "mass":{"unit":"solMass","ucd":"phys.mass","utype":"none"} }
-    overwrite: bool
+        (Example: column_metadata = {"id":{"unit":"","ucd":"meta.id","utype":"none"},
+        "mass":{"unit":"solMass","ucd":"phys.mass","utype":"none"} } )
+    overwrite : bool
         Set to True to enable overwriting.
 
     Returns

astropy/io/votable/tests/table_test.py

@@ -52,6 +52,45 @@ def home_is_tmpdir(monkeypatch, tmp_path):
     monkeypatch.setenv("USERPROFILE", str(tmp_path))
 
 
+def test_read_write_votable_parquet(tmp_path):
+    """
+    Test to write VOTable with Parquet serialization
+    """
+
+    # Create some fake data
+    number_of_objects = 10
+    ids = ["COSMOS_{:03g}".format(ii) for ii in range(number_of_objects)]
+    redshift = np.random.uniform(low=0, high=3, size=number_of_objects)
+    mass = np.random.uniform(low=1e8, high=1e10, size=number_of_objects)
+    sfr = np.random.uniform(low=1, high=100, size=number_of_objects)
+    astropytab = Table([ids, redshift, mass, sfr], names=["id","z","mass","sfr"])
+
+    # Create Column metadata
+    column_metadata = {"id":{"unit":"","ucd":"meta.id","utype":"none"},
+           "z":{"unit":"","ucd":"src.redshift","utype":"none"},
+           "mass":{"unit":"solMass","ucd":"phys.mass","utype":"none"},
+           "sfr":{"unit":"solMass yr-1","ucd":"phys.SFR","utype":"none"}
+           }
+
+    # Write VOTable with Parquet serialization
+    filename = os.path.join(tmp_path, "test_votable_parquet.vot")
+    astropytab.write(filename=filename, column_metadata=column_metadata,
+                     overwrite=True, format="votable.parquet")
+
+    # Open created VOTable with Parquet serialization
+    votable = parse(filename)
+
+    # Get table out
+    votable_table = votable.resources[0].tables[0].array
+
+    # compare
+    if (astropytab == votable_table).all():
+        print("Test Success")
+    else:
+        print("Test failed")
+
+
+
 def test_table(tmp_path):
     # Read the VOTABLE
     with np.errstate(over="ignore"):

astropy/io/votable/tree.py

@@ -3095,7 +3095,8 @@ def _parse_fits(self, iterator, extnum, config):
 
     def _parse_parquet(self, iterator, config):
         '''
-        Added by A. Faisst Jul/28/2023
+        Functionality to parse parquet files that are embedded
+        in VOTables.
         '''
         # looks like votable already has a "Table" imported.
         from astropy.table import Table as Table2