# Can get library(table) to return anything

**URL:** <https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/can-get-library-table-to-return-anything/450>\
**Category:** Help!\
**Created:** [March 26, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/can-get-library-table-to-return-anything/450 "2019-03-26T21:21:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dec6dc/32.png) [@mye](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/mye)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/can-get-library-table-to-return-anything/450/1 "2019-03-26T21:21:57Z")

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Just wondering if `library(table)` is used by anybody here?

I can’t get it to work on OSX

(SWI-Prolog (threaded, 64 bits, version 8.1.3-30-gc993fedf8-DIRTY)),

even on the examples and test cases.

I don’t get errors, just `false`, `[]`, and table sizes of `-1` and window sizes of `0-0`.

The test case doesn’t load in non-traditional mode?:

> <https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-table/blob/ff2bbf6f5ed517cdfd47743342a6044021de2a3a/test.pl#L29>

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**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 9:10am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/can-get-library-table-to-return-anything/450/2 "2019-03-27T09:10:09Z")

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It is a bit old school. It may still come handy for moderately fast access to large tabular data if you only need indexed access on one (sorted) column. I did use it a couple of times over the last year.

It has never been updated for SWI-7 strings. I just pushed a fix that makes the above work again. Alternatively, write e.g., `tag(`(`)`, i.e., using back ticks.

```
--- Jan
```