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| HDF5 Last Updated on 2026-03-23 The HDF5 Field Guide

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Command-line Tools For Converting HDF5 Files

Navigate back: Main / Getting Started with HDF5 / Command-line Tools

# Contents

- Output HDF5 Dataset into an ASCII File (to Import into Excel and Other Applications)
- Output HDF5 Dataset into Binary File
- Export from h5dump and Import into HDF5

# Output HDF5 Dataset into an ASCII File (to Import into Excel and Other Applications)

The `h5dump` utility can be used to convert an HDF5 dataset into an ASCII file, which can then be imported into Excel and other applications. The following options are used:

Options | Description
--- | ---
-d D, –dataset=D | Display dataset D
-o F, –output=F | Output raw data into file F
-y, –noindex | Suppress printing of array indices with the data
-w N, –width=N | Set N number of columns of output. A value of 0 sets the number to 65535 (the maximum)

As an example, `h5_crtdat.c` from the Creating a Dataset HDF5 Tutorial topic, creates the file `dset.h5` with a dataset `/dset` that is a 4 x 6 integer array. The following is displayed when viewing `dset.h5` with `h5dump`:

$ h5dump dset.h5
HDF5 "dset.h5" {
GROUP "/" {
DATASET "dset" {
DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32BE
DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4, 6 ) / ( 4, 6 ) }
DATA {
(0,0): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
(1,0): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
(2,0): 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
(3,0): 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
}
}
}
}
H5T_STD_I32BE
#define H5T_STD_I32BE
Definition H5Tpublic.h:466

The following command will output the values of the `/dset` dataset to the ASCII file `dset.asci`:

h5dump -d /dset -o dset.asci -y -w 50 dset.h5

In particular, note that:

- The default behavior of `h5dump` is to print indices, and the `-y` option suppresses this.
- The `-w 50` option tells `h5dump` to allow 50 columns for outputting the data. The value specified must be large enough to accommodate the dimension size of the dataset multiplied by the number of positions and spaces needed to print each value. If the value is not large enough, the output will wrap to the next line, and the data will not display as expected in Excel or other applications. To ensure that the output does not wrap to the next line, you can also specify 0 (zero) for the `-w` option.

In addition to creating the ASCII file `dset.asci`, the above command outputs the metadata of the specified dataset:

HDF5 "dset.h5" {
DATASET "/dset" {
DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32BE
DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4, 6 ) / ( 4, 6 ) }
DATA {
}
}
}

The `dset.asci` file will contain the values for the dataset:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24

# Output HDF5 Dataset into Binary File

The `h5dump` utility can be used to convert an HDF5 dataset to a binary file with the following options:

Options | Description
--- | ---
-d D, –dataset=D | Display dataset D
-o F, –output=F | Output raw data into file F
-b B, –binary=B | Binary file output of form B. Valid values are: LE, BE, NATIVE, FILE

As an example, `h5_crtdat.c` from the Creating a Dataset HDF5 Tutorial topic, creates the file dset.h5 with a dataset `/dset` that is a 4 x 6 integer array. The following is displayed when viewing `dset.h5` with `h5dump`:

$ h5dump -d /dset/ dset.h5
HDF5 "dset.h5" {
DATASET "/dset/" {
DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32BE
DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4, 6 ) / ( 4, 6 ) }
DATA {
(0,0): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
(1,0): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
(2,0): 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
(3,0): 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
}
}
}

As specified by the `-d` and `-o` options, the following `h5dump` command will output the values of the dataset `/dset` to a file called `dset.bin`. The `-b` option specifies that the output will be binary in Little Endian format (LE).

h5dump -d /dset -b LE -o dset.bin dset.h5

This command outputs the metadata for the dataset, as well as creating the binary file `dset.bin`:

HDF5 "dset.h5" {
DATASET "/dset" {
DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32BE
DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4, 6 ) / ( 4, 6 ) }
DATA {
}
}
}

If you look at the resulting `dset.bin` file with a binary editor, you will see that it contains the dataset's values. For example (on Linux) you will see:

$ od -t d dset.bin
0000000 1 2 3 4
0000020 5 6 7 8
0000040 9 10 11 12
0000060 13 14 15 16
0000100 17 18 19 20
0000120 21 22 23 24
0000140

# Export from h5dump and Import into HDF5

The `h5import` utility can use the output of `h5dump` as input to create a dataset or file.

The `h5dump` utility must first create two files:

- A DDL file, which will be used as an `h5import` configuration file
- A raw data file containing the data to be imported

The DDL file must be generated with the `h5dump -p` option, to generate properties.

The raw data file that can be imported into HDF5 using this method may contain either numeric or string data with the following restrictions:

- Numeric data requires the use of the `h5dump -b` option to produce a binary data file.
- String data must be written with the `h5dump -y` and `–width=1` options, generating a single column of strings without indices.

Two examples follow: the first imports a dataset with a numeric datatype. Note that numeric data requires the use of the `h5dump -b` option to produce a binary data file. The example program (`h5_crtdat.c`) that creates this file is included with the Introduction to HDF5 tutorial and can be obtained from the Examples from Learning the Basics page:

h5dump -p -d "/dset" --ddl=dsetbin.dmp -o dset.bin -b dset.h5
h5import dset.bin -c dsetbin.dmp -o new-dset.h5

The output before and after running these commands is shown below:

$ h5dump dset.h5
HDF5 "dset.h5" {
GROUP "/" {
DATASET "dset" {
DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32BE
DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4, 6 ) / ( 4, 6 ) }
DATA {
(0,0): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
(1,0): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
(2,0): 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
(3,0): 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
}
}
}
}
$ h5dump -p -d "/dset" --ddl=dsetbin.dmp -o dset.bin -b dset.h5
$ h5import dset.bin -c dsetbin.dmp -o new-dset.h5
$ h5dump new-dset.h5
HDF5 "new-dset.h5" {
GROUP "/" {
DATASET "dset" {
DATATYPE H5T_STD_I32BE
DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4, 6 ) / ( 4, 6 ) }
DATA {
(0,0): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
(1,0): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
(2,0): 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
(3,0): 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
}
}
}
}

The second example imports string data. The example program that creates this file can be downloaded from the Examples by API page.

Note that string data requires use of the `h5dump -y` option to exclude indexes and the `h5dump –width=1` option to generate a single column of strings. The `-o` option outputs the data into an ASCII file.

h5dump -p -d "/DS1" -O vlstring.dmp -o vlstring.ascii -y --width=1 h5ex_t_vlstring.h5
h5import vlstring.ascii -c vlstring.dmp -o new-vlstring.h5

The output before and after running these commands is shown below:

$ h5dump h5ex_t_vlstring.h5
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."
}
}
}
}
$ h5dump -p -d "/DS1" -O vlstring.dmp -o vlstring.ascii -y --width=1 h5ex_t_vlstring.h5
$ h5import vlstring.ascii -c vlstring.dmp -o new-vlstring.h5
$ h5dump new-vlstring.h5
HDF5 "new-vlstring.h5" {
GROUP "/" {
DATASET "DS1" {
DATATYPE H5T_STRING {
STRSIZE H5T_VARIABLE;
STRPAD H5T_STR_NULLTERM;
CSET H5T_CSET_ASCII;
CTYPE H5T_C_S1;
}
DATASPACE SIMPLE { ( 4 ) / ( 4 ) }
DATA {
(0): "Parting", "is such", "sweet", "sorrow."
}
}
}
H5T_CSET_ASCII
@ H5T_CSET_ASCII
Definition H5Tpublic.h:96
H5T_STRING
@ H5T_STRING
Definition H5Tpublic.h:35
H5T_VARIABLE
#define H5T_VARIABLE
Definition H5Tpublic.h:209
H5T_STR_NULLTERM
@ H5T_STR_NULLTERM
Definition H5Tpublic.h:121
H5T_STR_SPACEPAD
@ H5T_STR_SPACEPAD
Definition H5Tpublic.h:123
H5T_C_S1
#define H5T_C_S1
Definition H5Tpublic.h:646

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