/** @page ViewTools Tools for Viewing and Editing HDF5 Files Navigate back: \ref index "Main" / \ref GettingStarted
\section secToolsBasic Basic Facts about HDF5 The following are basic facts about HDF5 files to keep in mind while completing these tutorial topics: \li All HDF5 files contain a root group "/". \li There are two primary objects in HDF5, a group and a dataset:
Groups allow objects to be organized into a group structure, such as a tree.
Datasets contain raw data values. \li Additional information about an HDF5 object may optionally be stored in attributes attached to the object. \section secToolsTopics Tutorial Topics
Tutorial Topic Description
@ref LearnHDFView Use HDFView to create, edit and view files.
@ref ViewToolsCommand Use the HDF5 command-line tools for viewing, editing, and comparing HDF5 files.
@ref ViewToolsJPSS Use HDF5 tools to examine and work with JPSS NPP files.

Navigate back: \ref index "Main" / \ref GettingStarted @page ViewToolsCommand Command-line Tools Navigate back: \ref index "Main" / \ref GettingStarted
\section secViewToolsCommandObtain Obtain Tools and Files (Optional) Pre-built binaries for Linux and Windows are distributed within the respective HDF5 binary release packages, which can be obtained from the Download HDF5 page. HDF5 files can be obtained from various places such as \ref HDF5Examples and HDF-EOS and Tools and Information Center. Specifically, the following examples are used in this tutorial topic: \li HDF5 Files created from compiling the \ref LBExamples \li HDF5 Files on the Examples by API page \li NPP JPSS files, SVM01_npp.. (gzipped) and SVM09_npp.. (gzipped) \li HDF-EOS OMI-Aura file \section secViewToolsCommandTutor Tutorial Topics A variety of command-line tools are included in the HDF5 binary distribution. There are tools to view, edit, convert and compare HDF5 files. This tutorial discusses the tools by their functionality. It does not cover all of the HDF5 tools.
Tool Category Topic Tools Used
@ref ViewToolsView @ref secViewToolsViewContent h5dump and h5ls
@ref secViewToolsViewDset h5dump and h5ls
@ref secViewToolsViewGrps h5dump and h5ls
@ref secViewToolsViewAttr h5dump
@ref secViewToolsViewSub h5dump
@ref secViewToolsViewDtypes h5dump
@ref ViewToolsEdit @ref secViewToolsEditRemove h5repack
@ref secViewToolsEditChange h5repack
@ref secViewToolsEditApply h5repack
@ref secViewToolsEditCopy h5copy
@ref secViewToolsEditAdd h5jam and h5unjam
@ref ViewToolsConvert @ref secViewToolsConvertASCII h5dump
@ref secViewToolsConvertBinary h5dump
@ref secViewToolsConvertExport h5dump and h5import

Navigate back: \ref index "Main" / \ref GettingStarted @page ViewToolsView Command-line Tools For Viewing HDF5 Files Navigate back: \ref index "Main" / \ref GettingStarted / \ref ViewToolsCommand
\section secViewToolsViewTOC Contents \section secViewToolsViewContent File Content and Structure The h5dump and h5ls tools can both be used to view the contents of an HDF5 file. The tools are discussed below: \subsection subsecViewToolsViewContent_h5dump h5dump The h5dump tool dumps or displays the contents of an HDF5 file (textually). By default if you specify no options, h5dump will display the entire contents of a file. There are many h5dump options for examining specific details of a file. To see all of the available h5dump options, specify the -h or --help option: \code h5dump -h \endcode The following h5dump options can be helpful in viewing the content and structure of a file:
Option Description Comment
-n, --contents Displays a list of the objects in a file See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5dumpEx1
-n 1, --contents=1 Displays a list of the objects and attributes in a file See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewAttr_h5dumpEx6
-H, --header Displays header information only (no data) See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5dumpEx2
-A 0, --onlyattr=0 Suppresses the display of attributes See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5dumpEx2
-N P, --any_path=P Displays any object or attribute that matches path P See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewAttr_h5dumpEx6
\subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5dumpEx1 Example 1 The following command displays a list of the objects in the file OMI-Aura.he5 (an HDF-EOS5 file): \code h5dump -n OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode As shown in the output below, the objects (groups, datasets) are listed to the left, followed by their names. You can see that this file contains two root groups, HDFEOS and HDFEOS INFORMATION: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { FILE_CONTENTS { group / group /HDFEOS group /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL group /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES group /HDFEOS/GRIDS group /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3 group /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields dataset /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/ColumnAmountO3 dataset /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/RadiativeCloudFraction dataset /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle dataset /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/ViewingZenithAngle group /HDFEOS INFORMATION dataset /HDFEOS INFORMATION/StructMetadata.0 } } \endcode \subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5dumpEx2 Example 2 The file structure of the OMI-Aura.he5 file can be seen with the following command. The -A 0 option suppresses the display of attributes: \code h5dump -H -A 0 OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode Output of this command is shown below: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { GROUP "/" { GROUP "HDFEOS" { GROUP "ADDITIONAL" { GROUP "FILE_ATTRIBUTES" { } } GROUP "GRIDS" { GROUP "OMI Column Amount O3" { GROUP "Data Fields" { DATASET "ColumnAmountO3" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } DATASET "RadiativeCloudFraction" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } DATASET "SolarZenithAngle" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } DATASET "ViewingZenithAngle" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } } } } } GROUP "HDFEOS INFORMATION" { DATASET "StructMetadata.0" { DATATYPE H5T_STRING { STRSIZE 32000; STRPAD H5T_STR_NULLTERM; CSET H5T_CSET_ASCII; CTYPE H5T_C_S1; } DATASPACE SCALAR } } } } \endcode \subsection subsecViewToolsViewContent_h5ls h5ls The h5ls tool by default just displays the objects in the root group. It will not display items in groups beneath the root group unless specified. Useful h5ls options for viewing file content and structure are:
Option Description Comment
-r Lists all groups and objects recursively See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5lsEx3
-v Generates verbose output (lists dataset properties, attributes and attribute values, but no dataset values)
\subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5lsEx3 Example 3 The following command shows the contents of the HDF-EOS5 file OMI-Aura.he5. The output is similar to h5dump, except that h5ls also shows dataspace information for each dataset: \code h5ls -r OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode The output is shown below: \code / Group /HDFEOS Group /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL Group /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES Group /HDFEOS/GRIDS Group /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3 Group /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields Group /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/ColumnAmountO3 Dataset {720, 1440} /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/RadiativeCloudFraction Dataset {720, 1440} /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/SolarZenithAngle Dataset {720, 1440} /HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/ViewingZenithAngle Dataset {720, 1440} /HDFEOS\ INFORMATION Group /HDFEOS\ INFORMATION/StructMetadata.0 Dataset {SCALAR} \endcode \section secViewToolsViewDset Datasets and Dataset Properties Both h5dump and h5ls can be used to view specific datasets. \subsection subsecViewToolsViewDset_h5dump h5dump Useful h5dump options for examining specific datasets include:
Option Description Comment
-d D, --dataset=D Displays dataset D See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewDset_h5dumpEx4
-H, --header Displays header information only See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewDset_h5dumpEx4
-p, --properties Displays dataset filters, storage layout, and fill value properties See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewDset_h5dumpEx5
-A 0, --onlyattr=0 Suppresses the display of attributes See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewContent_h5dumpEx2
-N P, --any_path=P Displays any object or attribute that matches path P See @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewAttr_h5dumpEx6
\subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewDset_h5dumpEx4 Example 4 A specific dataset can be viewed with h5dump using the -d D option and specifying the entire path and name of the dataset for D. The path is important in identifying the correct dataset, as there can be multiple datasets with the same name. The path can be determined by looking at the objects in the file with h5dump -n. The following example uses the groups.h5 file that is created by the \ref LBExamples example h5_crtgrpar.c. To display dset1 in the groups.h5 file below, specify dataset /MyGroup/dset1. The -H option is used to suppress printing of the data values: Contents of groups.h5 \code $ h5dump -n groups.h5 HDF5 "groups.h5" { FILE_CONTENTS { group / group /MyGroup group /MyGroup/Group_A dataset /MyGroup/Group_A/dset2 group /MyGroup/Group_B dataset /MyGroup/dset1 } } \endcode Display dataset "dset1" \code $ h5dump -d "/MyGroup/dset1" -H groups.h5 HDF5 "groups.h5" { DATASET "/MyGroup/dset1" { DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32BE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 3, 3 ) / ( 3, 3 ) } } } \endcode \subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewDset_h5dumpEx5 Example 5 The -p option is used to examine the dataset filters, storage layout, and fill value properties of a dataset. This option can be useful for checking how well compression works, or even for analyzing performance and dataset size issues related to chunking. (The smaller the chunk size, the more chunks that HDF5 has to keep track of, which increases the size of the file and potentially affects performance.) In the file shown below the dataset /DS1 is both chunked and compressed: \code $ h5dump -H -p -d "/DS1" h5ex_d_gzip.h5 HDF5 "h5ex_d_gzip.h5" { DATASET "/DS1" { DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 32, 64 ) / ( 32, 64 ) } STORAGE_LAYOUT { CHUNKED ( 4, 8 ) SIZE 5278 (1.552:1 COMPRESSION) } FILTERS { COMPRESSION DEFLATE { LEVEL 9 } } FILLVALUE { FILL_TIME H5D_FILL_TIME_IFSET VALUE 0 } ALLOCATION_TIME { H5D_ALLOC_TIME_INCR } } } \endcode You can obtain the h5ex_d_gzip.c program that created this file, as well as the file created, from the Examples by API page. \subsection subsecViewToolsViewDset_h5ls h5ls Specific datasets can be specified with h5ls by simply adding the dataset path and dataset after the file name. As an example, this command displays dataset dset2 in the groups.h5 file used in @ref subsubsecViewToolsViewDset_h5dumpEx4 : \code h5ls groups.h5/MyGroup/Group_A/dset2 \endcode Just the dataspace information gets displayed: \code dset2 Dataset {2, 10} \endcode The following options can be used to see detailed information about a dataset.
Option Description
-v, --verbose Generates verbose output (lists dataset properties, attributes and attribute values, but no dataset values)
-d, --data Displays dataset values
The output of using -v is shown below: \code $ h5ls -v groups.h5/MyGroup/Group_A/dset2 Opened "groups.h5" with sec2 driver. dset2 Dataset {2/2, 10/10} Location: 1:3840 Links: 1 Storage: 80 logical bytes, 80 allocated bytes, 100.00% utilization Type: 32-bit big-endian integer \endcode The output of using -d is shown below: \code $ h5ls -d groups.h5/MyGroup/Group_A/dset2 dset2 Dataset {2, 10} Data: (0,0) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 \endcode \section secViewToolsViewGrps Groups Both h5dump and h5ls can be used to view specific groups in a file. \subsection subsecViewToolsViewGrps_h5dump h5dump The h5dump options that are useful for examining groups are:
Option Description
-g G, --group=G Displays group G and its members
-H, --header Displays header information only
-A 0, --onlyattr=0 Suppresses the display of attributes
To view the contents of the HDFEOS group in the OMI file mentioned previously, you can specify the path and name of the group as follows: \code h5dump -g "/HDFEOS" -H -A 0 OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode The -A 0 option suppresses attributes and -H suppresses printing of data values: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { GROUP "/HDFEOS" { GROUP "ADDITIONAL" { GROUP "FILE_ATTRIBUTES" { } } GROUP "GRIDS" { GROUP "OMI Column Amount O3" { GROUP "Data Fields" { DATASET "ColumnAmountO3" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } DATASET "RadiativeCloudFraction" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } DATASET "SolarZenithAngle" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } DATASET "ViewingZenithAngle" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } } } } } } } \endcode \subsection subsecViewToolsViewGrps_h5ls h5ls You can view the contents of a group with h5ls/ by specifying the group after the file name. To use h5ls to view the contents of the /HDFEOS group in the OMI-Aura.he5 file, type: \code h5ls -r OMI-Aura.he5/HDFEOS \endcode The output of this command is: \code /ADDITIONAL Group /ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES Group /GRIDS Group /GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3 Group /GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields Group /GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/ColumnAmountO3 Dataset {720, 1440} /GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/RadiativeCloudFraction Dataset {720, 1440} /GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/SolarZenithAngle Dataset {720, 1440} /GRIDS/OMI\ Column\ Amount\ O3/Data\ Fields/ViewingZenithAngle Dataset {720, 1440} \endcode If you specify the -v option, you can also see the attributes and properties of the datasets. \section secViewToolsViewAttr Attributes \subsection subsecViewToolsViewAttr_h5dump h5dump Attributes are displayed by default if using h5dump. Some files contain many attributes, which can make it difficult to examine the objects in the file. Shown below are options that can help when using h5dump to work with files that have attributes. \subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewAttr_h5dumpEx6 Example 6 The -a A option will display an attribute. However, the path to the attribute must be included when specifying this option. For example, to see the ScaleFactor attribute in the OMI-Aura.he5 file, type: \code h5dump -a "/HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle/ScaleFactor" OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode This command displays: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { ATTRIBUTE "ScaleFactor" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F64LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 1 ) / ( 1 ) } DATA { (0): 1 } } } \endcode How can you determine the path to the attribute? This can be done by looking at the file contents with the -n 1 option: \code h5dump -n 1 OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode Below is a portion of the output for this command: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { FILE_CONTENTS { group / group /HDFEOS group /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL group /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/EndUTC attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/GranuleDay attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/GranuleDayOfYear attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/GranuleMonth attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/GranuleYear attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/InstrumentName attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/OrbitNumber attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/OrbitPeriod attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/PGEVersion attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/Period attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/ProcessLevel attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/StartUTC attribute /HDFEOS/ADDITIONAL/FILE_ATTRIBUTES/TAI93At0zOfGranule ... \endcode There can be multiple objects or attributes with the same name in a file. How can you make sure you are finding the correct object or attribute? You can first determine how many attributes there are with a specified name, and then examine the paths to them. The -N option can be used to display all objects or attributes with a given name. For example, there are four attributes with the name ScaleFactor in the OMI-Aura.he5 file, as can be seen below with the -N option: \code h5dump -N ScaleFactor OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode It outputs: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { ATTRIBUTE "ScaleFactor" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F64LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 1 ) / ( 1 ) } DATA { (0): 1 } } ATTRIBUTE "ScaleFactor" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F64LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 1 ) / ( 1 ) } DATA { (0): 1 } } ATTRIBUTE "ScaleFactor" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F64LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 1 ) / ( 1 ) } DATA { (0): 1 } } ATTRIBUTE "ScaleFactor" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F64LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 1 ) / ( 1 ) } DATA { (0): 1 } } } \endcode \subsection subsecViewToolsViewAttr_h5ls h5ls If you include the -v (verbose) option for h5ls, you will see all of the attributes for the specified file, dataset or group. You cannot display individual attributes. \section secViewToolsViewSub Dataset Subset \subsection subsecViewToolsViewSub_h5dump h5dump If you have a very large dataset, you may wish to subset or see just a portion of the dataset. This can be done with the following h5dump options.
Option Description
-d D, --dataset=D Dataset D
-s START, --start=START Offset or start of subsetting selection
-S STRIDE, --stride=STRIDE Stride (sampling along a dimension). The default (unspecified, or 1) selects every element along a dimension, a value of 2 selects every other element, a value of 3 selects every third element, ...
-c COUNT, --count=COUNT Number of blocks to include in the selection
-k BLOCK, --block=BLOCK Size of the block in a hyperslab. The default (unspecified, or 1) is for the block size to be the size of a single element.
The START (s), STRIDE (S), COUNT (c), and BLOCK (k) options define the shape and size of the selection. They are arrays with the same number of dimensions as the rank of the dataset's dataspace, and they all work together to define the selection. A change to one of these arrays can affect the others. When specifying these h5dump options, a comma is used as the delimiter for each dimension in the option value. For example, with a 2-dimensional dataset, the option value is specified as "H,W", where H is the height and W is the width. If the offset is 0 for both dimensions, then START would be specified as follows: \code -s "0,0" \endcode There is also a shorthand way to specify these options with brackets at the end of the dataset name: \code -d DATASETNAME[s;S;c;k] \endcode Multiple dimensions are separated by commas. For example, a subset for a 2-dimensional dataset would be specified as follows: \code -d DATASETNAME[s,s;S,S;c,c;k,k] \endcode For a detailed understanding of how selections works, see the #H5Sselect_hyperslab API in the \ref RM. The dataset SolarZenithAngle in the OMI-Aura.he5 file can be used to illustrate these options. This dataset is a 2-dimensional dataset of size 720 (height) x 1440 (width). Too much data will be displayed by simply viewing the specified dataset with the -d option: \code h5dump -d "HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle" OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode Subsetting narrows down the output that is displayed. In the following example, the first 15x10 elements (-c "15,10") are specified, beginning with position (0,0) (-s "0,0"): \code h5dump -A 0 -d "HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle" -s "0,0" -c "15,10" -w 0 OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode If using the shorthand method, specify: \code h5dump -A 0 -d "HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle[0,0;;15,10;]" -w 0 OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode Where, the -d option must be specified before subsetting options (if not using the shorthand method). The -A 0 option suppresses the printing of attributes. The -w 0 option sets the number of columns of output to the maximum allowed value (65535). This ensures that there are enough columns specified for displaying the data. Either command displays: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { DATASET "HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } SUBSET { START ( 0, 0 ); STRIDE ( 1, 1 ); COUNT ( 15, 10 ); BLOCK ( 1, 1 ); DATA { (0,0): 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, 79.403, (1,0): 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, (2,0): 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, (3,0): 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, (4,0): 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, (5,0): 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, (6,0): 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, (7,0): 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, 77.715, (8,0): 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, 77.511, (9,0): 77.658, 77.658, 77.658, 77.307, 77.307, 77.307, 77.307, 77.307, 77.307, 77.307, (10,0): 77.556, 77.556, 77.556, 77.556, 77.556, 77.556, 77.556, 77.556, 77.102, 77.102, (11,0): 78.408, 78.408, 78.408, 78.408, 78.408, 78.408, 78.408, 78.408, 77.102, 77.102, (12,0): 76.34, 78.413, 78.413, 78.413, 78.413, 78.413, 78.413, 78.413, 78.413, 78.413, (13,0): 78.107, 78.107, 78.107, 78.107, 78.107, 78.107, 78.107, 78.107, 78.107, 77.195, (14,0): 78.005, 78.005, 78.005, 78.005, 78.005, 78.005, 76.991, 76.991, 76.991, 76.991 } } } } \endcode What if we wish to read three rows of three elements at a time (-c "3,3"), where each element is a 2 x 3 block (-k "2,3") and we wish to begin reading from the second row (-s "1,0")? You can do that with the following command: \code h5dump -A 0 -d "HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle" -s "1,0" -S "2,3" -c "3,3" -k "2,3" -w 0 OMI-Aura.he5 \endcode In this case, the stride must be specified as 2 by 3 (or larger) to accommodate the reading of 2 by 3 blocks. If it is smaller, the command will fail with the error, \code h5dump error: wrong subset selection; blocks overlap. \endcode The output of the above command is shown below: \code HDF5 "OMI-Aura.he5" { DATASET "HDFEOS/GRIDS/OMI Column Amount O3/Data Fields/SolarZenithAngle" { DATATYPE H5T_IEEE_F32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 720, 1440 ) / ( 720, 1440 ) } SUBSET { START ( 1, 0 ); STRIDE ( 2, 3 ); COUNT ( 3, 3 ); BLOCK ( 2, 3 ); DATA { (1,0): 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, 79.071, (2,0): 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, 78.867, (3,0): 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, 78.632, (4,0): 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, 78.429, (5,0): 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, 78.225, (6,0): 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021, 78.021 } } } } \endcode \section secViewToolsViewDtypes Datatypes \subsection subsecViewToolsViewDtypes_h5dump h5dump The following datatypes are discussed, using the output of h5dump with HDF5 files from the Examples by API page: \subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewDtypes_array Array Users have been confused by the difference between an Array datatype (#H5T_ARRAY) and a dataset that (has a dataspace that) is an array. Typically, these users want a dataset that has a simple datatype (like integer or float) that is an array, like the following dataset /DS1. It has a datatype of #H5T_STD_I32LE (32-bit Little-Endian Integer) and is a 4 by 7 array: \code $ h5dump h5ex_d_rdwr.h5 HDF5 "h5ex_d_rdwr.h5" { GROUP "/" { DATASET "DS1" { DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4, 7 ) / ( 4, 7 ) } DATA { (0,0): 0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, (1,0): 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, (2,0): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (3,0): 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 } } } } \endcode Contrast that with the following dataset that has both an Array datatype and is an array: \code $ h5dump h5ex_t_array.h5 HDF5 "h5ex_t_array.h5" { GROUP "/" { DATASET "DS1" { DATATYPE H5T_ARRAY { [3][5] H5T_STD_I64LE } DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4 ) / ( 4 ) } DATA { (0): [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, -1, -2, -3, -4, 0, -2, -4, -6, -8 ], (1): [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2 ], (2): [ 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 ], (3): [ 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ] } } } } \endcode In this file, dataset /DS1 has a datatype of \code H5T_ARRAY { [3][5] H5T_STD_I64LE } \endcode and it also has a dataspace of \code SIMPLE { ( 4 ) / ( 4 ) } \endcode In other words, it is an array of four elements, in which each element is a 3 by 5 array of #H5T_STD_I64LE. This dataset is much more complex. Also note that subsetting cannot be done on Array datatypes. See this FAQ for more information on the Array datatype. \subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewDtypes_objref Object Reference An Object Reference is a reference to an entire object (dataset, group, or named datatype). A dataset with an Object Reference datatype consists of one or more Object References. An Object Reference dataset can be used as an index to an HDF5 file. The /DS1 dataset in the following file (h5ex_t_objref.h5) is an Object Reference dataset. It contains two references, one to group /G1 and the other to dataset /DS2: \code $ h5dump h5ex_t_objref.h5 HDF5 "h5ex_t_objref.h5" { GROUP "/" { DATASET "DS1" { DATATYPE H5T_REFERENCE { H5T_STD_REF_OBJECT } DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 2 ) / ( 2 ) } DATA { (0): GROUP 1400 /G1 , DATASET 800 /DS2 } } DATASET "DS2" { DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32LE DATASPACE NULL DATA { } } GROUP "G1" { } } } \endcode \subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewDtypes_regref Region Reference A Region Reference is a reference to a selection within a dataset. A selection can be either individual elements or a hyperslab. In h5dump you will see the name of the dataset along with the elements or slab that is selected. A dataset with a Region Reference datatype consists of one or more Region References. An example of a Region Reference dataset (h5ex_t_regref.h5) can be found on the Examples by API page, under Datatypes. If you examine this dataset with h5dump you will see that /DS1 is a Region Reference dataset as indicated by its datatype, highlighted in bold below: \code $ h5dump h5ex_t_regref.h5 HDF5 "h5ex_t_regref.h5" { GROUP "/" { DATASET "DS1" { DATATYPE H5T_REFERENCE { H5T_STD_REF_DSETREG } DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 2 ) / ( 2 ) } DATA { DATASET /DS2 {(0,1), (2,11), (1,0), (2,4)}, DATASET /DS2 {(0,0)-(0,2), (0,11)-(0,13), (2,0)-(2,2), (2,11)-(2,13)} } } DATASET "DS2" { DATATYPE H5T_STD_I8LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 3, 16 ) / ( 3, 16 ) } DATA { (0,0): 84, 104, 101, 32, 113, 117, 105, 99, 107, 32, 98, 114, 111, 119, (0,14): 110, 0, (1,0): 102, 111, 120, 32, 106, 117, 109, 112, 115, 32, 111, 118, 101, (1,13): 114, 32, 0, (2,0): 116, 104, 101, 32, 53, 32, 108, 97, 122, 121, 32, 100, 111, 103, (2,14): 115, 0 } } } } \endcode It contains two Region References: \li A selection of four individual elements in dataset /DS2 : (0,1), (2,11), (1,0), (2,4) See the #H5Sselect_elements API in the \ref UG for information on selecting individual elements. \li A selection of these blocks in dataset /DS2 : (0,0)-(0,2), (0,11)-(0,13), (2,0)-(2,2), (2,11)-(2,13) See the #H5Sselect_hyperslab API in the \ref UG for how to do hyperslab selection. If you look at the code that creates the dataset (h5ex_t_regref.c) you will see that the first reference is created with these calls: \code status = H5Sselect_elements (space, H5S_SELECT_SET, 4, coords[0]); status = H5Rcreate (&wdata[0], file, DATASET2, H5R_DATASET_REGION, space); \endcode where the buffer containing the coordinates to select is: \code coords[4][2] = { {0, 1}, {2, 11}, {1, 0}, {2, 4} }, \endcode The second reference is created by calling, \code status = H5Sselect_hyperslab (space, H5S_SELECT_SET, start, stride, count, block); status = H5Rcreate (&wdata[1], file, DATASET2, H5R_DATASET_REGION, space); \endcode where start, stride, count, and block have these values: \code start[2] = {0, 0}, stride[2] = {2, 11}, count[2] = {2, 2}, block[2] = {1, 3}; \endcode These start, stride, count, and block values will select the elements shown in bold in the dataset: \code 84 104 101 32 113 117 105 99 107 32 98 114 111 119 110 0 102 111 120 32 106 117 109 112 115 32 111 118 101 114 32 0 116 104 101 32 53 32 108 97 122 121 32 100 111 103 115 0 \endcode If you use h5dump to select a subset of dataset /DS2 with these start, stride, count, and block values, you will see that the same elements are selected: \code $ h5dump -d "/DS2" -s "0,0" -S "2,11" -c "2,2" -k "1,3" h5ex_t_regref.h5 HDF5 "h5ex_t_regref.h5" { DATASET "/DS2" { DATATYPE H5T_STD_I8LE DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 3, 16 ) / ( 3, 16 ) } SUBSET { START ( 0, 0 ); STRIDE ( 2, 11 ); COUNT ( 2, 2 ); BLOCK ( 1, 3 ); DATA { (0,0): 84, 104, 101, 114, 111, 119, (2,0): 116, 104, 101, 100, 111, 103 } } } } \endcode For more information on selections, see the tutorial topic on @ref LBDsetSubRW. Also see the \ref secViewToolsViewSub tutorial topic on using h5dump to view a subset. \subsubsection subsubsecViewToolsViewDtypes_string String There are two types of string data, fixed length strings and variable length strings. Below is the h5dump output for two files that have the same strings written to them. In one file, the strings are fixed in length, and in the other, the strings have different sizes (and are variable in size). Dataset of Fixed Length Strings \code HDF5 "h5ex_t_string.h5" { GROUP "/" { DATASET "DS1" { DATATYPE H5T_STRING { STRSIZE 7; STRPAD H5T_STR_SPACEPAD; CSET H5T_CSET_ASCII; CTYPE H5T_C_S1; } DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4 ) / ( 4 ) } DATA { (0): "Parting", "is such", "sweet ", "sorrow." } } } } \endcode Dataset of Variable Length Strings \code HDF5 "h5ex_t_vlstring.h5" { GROUP "/" { DATASET "DS1" { DATATYPE H5T_STRING { STRSIZE H5T_VARIABLE; STRPAD H5T_STR_SPACEPAD; CSET H5T_CSET_ASCII; CTYPE H5T_C_S1; } DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4 ) / ( 4 ) } DATA { (0): "Parting", "is such", "sweet", "sorrow." } } } } \endcode You might wonder which to use. Some comments to consider are included below. \li In general, a variable length string dataset is more complex than a fixed length string. If you don't specifically need a variable length type, then just use the fixed length string. \li A variable length dataset consists of pointers to heaps in different locations in the file. For this reason, a variable length dataset cannot be compressed. (Basically, the pointers get compressed and not the actual data!) If compression is needed, then do not use variable length types. \li If you need to create an array of of different length strings, you can either use fixed length strings along with compression, or use a variable length string.
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