my ctan-upload daemon wrote (or whatever it is that daemons do):

======================================================================

The following information was provided by the package's contributor.

Name of contribution: datatool Author's name: Nicola Talbot Location on CTAN: macros/latex/contrib/datatool Summary description: Tools to load and manipulate data License type: lppl

Announcement text given by the package's contributor:

datatool.sty:

Databases can be created using LaTeX commands or loaded from external ASCII files, such as comma or tab separated variable files.

Databases can be sorted numerically or alphabetically (descending or ascending.)

Repetitive operations can be performed on each row of data in a database (such as mail merging.) Conditions can be imposed to exclude rows.

Commands are provided to determine if an argument is an INT, a real number, currency or a string. (Scientific notation is currently not supported.)

Locale dependent number settings are supported (such as a comma as a decimal character and full stop as a number group character.)

Commands are provided to convert between locale dependent numbers/currency and the standard decimal format required by the fp package enabling fixed point arithmetic to be performed on elements of the database.

Strings can be tested to determine if they are all upper or all lower case.

Names can be converted to initials.

datapie.sty:

A database defined by datatool.sty can be converted into a pie chart.

Segments can be separated from the rest of the chart to make them stand out.

Colour/grey scale options.

Predefined segment colours can be changed.

Hooks provided to annotate chart.

dataplot.sty:

A database defined by datatool.sty may be plotted as a 2D scatter or line plot

Settings provided to govern the appearance of the chart. (e.g. show/hide axes, legend, grid, major/minor tick marks.)

Hooks provided to add extra information to the plot

databar.sty:

A database defined by datatool.sty can be converted into a bar chart.

Colour/grey scale options.

Predefined bar colours can be changed.

Horizontal or vertical formats provided.

Hooks provided to annotate chart.

*The datatool bundle replaces the csvtools bundle which is now obsolete.*

---

i have installed the package as suggested, and updated the catalogue (both the repository and the web version). thanks for the upload.

i have also moved the csvtools bundle to the obsolete/ tree.

Users may view the package catalogue entry at http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/datatool.html or they may browse the package directory at http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/datatool

Robin Fairbairns

For the CTAN team