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1.4 High-Level HDF APIs
The HDF I/O library consists of C and Fortran-77 routines for accessing objects and associated information. Although there is some overlap among object types, in most cases an API operates on data of only one type. Therefore, you need only familiarize yourself with the APIs specific to your needs in order to access data in an HDF file. The names of the HDF APIs designed to access the seven object types are:
- DFR8 API Stores, manages and retrieves 8-bit raster images, their dimensions and palettes in one file. It is described in Chapter 6, titled 8-bit Raster Images (DFR8 API).
- DFP API Stores and retrieves 8-bit palettes in one file. It is described in Chapter 9, titled Palettes (DFP API).
- DF24 API Stores, manages and retrieves 24-bit images and their dimensions in one file. It is described in Chapter 7, titled 24-bit Raster Images (DF24 API).
- SD API Stores, manages and retrieves multi-dimensional arrays of integer or floating-point data, along with their dimensions and attributes, in more than one file. It is described in Chapter 3, titled Scientific Data Sets (SD API).
- DFSD API Stores, manages and retrieves multi-dimensional arrays of integer or floating-point data, along with their dimensions and attributes, in one file. It is described in Chapter 11, titled Scientific Data Sets (DFSD API).
- AN API Stores, manages and retrieves text strings used to describe a file or any of the data elements it contains. It is described in Chapter 10, titled Annotations (AN API).
- VS API Stores, manages and retrieves multivariate data stored as records in a table. It is described in Chapter 4, titled Vdatas (VS API).
- V API Creates groups of any primary HDF object type. It is described in Chapter 5, titled Vgroups (V API).
- GR API Stores, manages and retrieves raster images of several bit lengths, their dimensions and palettes in more than one file. It can also manipulate unattached palettes in more than one file. It is described in Chapter 8, titled General Raster Images (GR API).
As these interfaces are the tools used to read and write HDF files they are the primary focus of this manual.
1.4.1 User's Guide Code Examples
Copies of the C and Fortran-77 User's Guide examples, in ASCII format, are located on the HDF ftp server at hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the "/pub/HDF/examples/Users_Guide" directory.
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HDF User's Guide - 06/04/97, NCSA HDF
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