Introduction

The C++ API provides C++ wrappers for the HDF5 C Library.

It is assumed that the user has knowledge of the HDF5 file format and its components. For more information on the HDF5 C Library, see the HDF5 Software Documentation page.

Because the HDF5 C Library maps very well to the object oriented design approach, classes in the C++ API can closely represent the interfaces of the C APIs as follows:

  HDF5 C APIs                       C++ Classes
  -----------                       -----------
  Attribute Interface (H5A)         Attribute
  Datasets Interface (H5D)          DataSet
  Error Interface (H5E)             Exception
  File Interface (H5F)              H5File
  Group Interface (H5G)             Group
  Identifier Interface (H5I)        IdComponent
  Property List Interface (H5P)     PropList and subclasses
  Dataspace Interface (H5S)         DataSpace
  Datatype Interface (H5T)          DataType and subclasses

This table provides a map from the C APIs to the C++ member functions.

Installation

The HDF5 C++ API is included with the HDF5 source code and can be obtained from https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/release/obtainsrc.html.

Please refer to the release_docs/INSTALL file under the top directory of the HDF5 source code for information about installing, building, and testing the C++ API.