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1.3 Why Was HDF Created?

Scientists commonly generate and process data files on several different machines, use various software packages to process files and share data files with others who use different machines and software. Also, they may include different kinds of information within one particular file, or within a group of files, and the mixture of these different kinds of information may vary from one file to another. Files may be conceptually related but physically separated. For example, some data may be dispersed among different files and some in program code. It is also possible that data may be related only in the scientist's conception of the data; no physical relationship may exist.

HDF addresses these problems by providing a general-purpose file structure that does the following:

HDF files are self-describing. For each data object in an HDF file, there is information about the type of data, the amount of data, its dimensions, and its location in the file. "Self-description" means that many types of data can be included within an HDF file. For example, it is possible to have symbolic, numerical and graphical data within one HDF file.



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hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu
HDF User's Guide - 06/04/97, NCSA HDF Development Group.