HDF5 User’s Guide HDF5 Release 1.8.x November 2015 HDF5 User’s Guide ii The HDF Group HDF5 User’s Guide Copyright Notice and License Terms Copyright Notice and License Terms This page has copyright notice and license terms for the HDF5 (Hierarchical Data Format 5) Software Library and Utilities. HDF5 (Hierarchical Data Format 5) Software Library and Utilities Copyright 2006‐2015 by The HDF Group. NCSA HDF5 (Hierarchical Data Format 5) Software Library and Utilities Copyright 1998‐2006 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted for any purpose (including commercial purposes) provided that the following conditions are met: • Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer. • Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or materials provided with the distribu‐ tion. •In addition, redistributions of modified forms of the source or binary code must carry prominent notices stating that the original code was changed and the date of the change. •All publications or advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software are asked, but not required, to acknowledge that it was developed by The HDF Group and by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign and credit the contributors. • Neither the name of The HDF Group, the name of the University, nor the name of any Contributor may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission from The HDF Group, the University, or the Contributor, respectively. DISCLAIMER: THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE HDF GROUP AND THE CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. In no event shall The HDF Group or the Contributors be liable for any damages suffered by the users arising out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage. The HDF Group iii Copyright Notice and License Terms HDF5 User’s Guide Contributors: National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Fort‐ ner Software, Unidata Program Center (netCDF), The Independent JPEG Group (JPEG), Jean‐loup Gailly and Mark Adler (gzip), and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Portions of HDF5 were developed with support from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the United States Department of Energy under Prime Contract No. DE‐AC02‐05CH11231. Portions of HDF5 were developed with support from the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (UC LLNL). The following statement applies to those portions of the product and must be retained in any redistribution of source code, binaries, documentation, and/or accompanying materi‐ als: This work was partially produced at the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Lab‐ oratory (UC LLNL) under contract no. W‐7405‐ENG‐48 (Contract 48) between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and The Regents of the University of California (University) for the operation of UC LLNL. DISCLAIMER: This work was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, prod‐ uct, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately‐ owned rights. Ref‐ erence herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recom‐ mendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. HDF5 is available with the SZIP compression library but SZIP is not part of HDF5 and has separate copyright and license terms. See “Szip Compression in HDF Products” for further details. iv The HDF Group HDF5 User’s Guide The HDF Group Help Desk The HDF Group Help Desk The HDF Group Help Desk: [email protected] See the “Support Services” page on The HDF Group website for information on the following: • Frequently asked questions • Tutorials •How to subscribe to the hdf‐forum See the “HDF5 Examples” page on The HDF Group website at for a set of code examples. The HDF Group v The HDF Group Help Desk HDF5 User’s Guide vi The HDF Group HDF5 User’s Guide Update Status Update Status No major changes have been made to the HDF5 User’s Guide for HDF5 Release 1.8.15. We welcome feedback on the documentation. Please send your comments to [email protected]. The HDF Group vii Update Status HDF5 User’s Guide viii The HDF Group HDF5 User’s Guide Table of Contents Table of Contents Copyright Notice and License Terms . iii The HDF Group Help Desk . .v Update Status. .vii List of Figures . .xv List of Tables. .xix List of Code Examples . .xxi List of Function Listings . xxv 1. The HDF5 Data Model and File Structure. .1 1.1. Introduction. .1 1.2. The Abstract Data Model . .5 1.2.1. File . .5 1.2.2. Group. .7 1.2.3. Dataset. .8 1.2.4. Dataspace . .9 1.2.5. Datatype . .10 1.2.6. Attribute . .11 1.2.7. Property List . .13 1.2.8. Link. .14 1.3. The HDF5 Storage Model . .14 1.3.1. The Abstract Storage Model: the HDF5 Format Specification . .14 1.3.2. Concrete Storage Model . .15 1.4. The Structure of an HDF5 File. .16 1.4.1. Overall File Structure . .16 1.4.2. HDF5 Path Names and Navigation . .18 1.4.3. Examples of HDF5 File Structures . .18 2. The HDF5 Library and Programming Model . .21 2.1. Introduction. .21 2.2. The HDF5 Programming Model . .22 2.2.1. Creating an HDF5 File . .22 2.2.2. Creating and Initializing a Dataset. .23 2.2.3. Closing an Object . .24 2.2.4. Writing or Reading a Dataset to or from a File . .25 2.2.5. Reading and Writing a Portion of a Dataset . .26 2.2.6. Getting Information about a Dataset . .32 2.2.7. Creating and Defining Compound Datatypes. .32 2.2.8. Creating and Writing Extendable Datasets. .34 2.2.9. Creating and Working with Groups. .37 2.2.10. Working with Attributes . .40 The HDF Group ix Table of Contents HDF5 User’s Guide 2.3. The Data Transfer Pipeline . .43 3. The HDF5 File . .45 3.1. Introduction. .45 3.2. File Access Modes . .45 3.3. File Creation and File Access Properties . .46 3.4. Low‐level File Drivers . ..