hdf5-pure

Pure-Rust HDF5 reader/writer. No C dependencies, no build scripts, WASM-compatible.

Features

• Write HDF5 files with datasets, groups, attributes, and nested hierarchies
• Read HDF5 files (v0/v1/v2/v3 superblocks, v1/v2 object headers, contiguous/chunked/compact storage)
• No C dependencies — compiles to wasm32-unknown-unknown with --no-default-features
• MATLAB v7.3 compatible — userblock support, fixed-length ASCII attributes, variable-length string arrays, object references
• Deflate and shuffle compression
• Compound types, enumerations, array types
• Complex number datasets (as compound {real, imag})

Quick start

Writing

use hdf5_pure::{FileBuilder, AttrValue};

let mut builder = FileBuilder::new();

// Datasets
builder.create_dataset("temperature")
    .with_f64_data(&[22.5, 23.1, 21.8])
    .with_shape(&[3]);

// Groups with nested datasets
let mut grp = builder.create_group("sensors");
grp.create_dataset("pressure").with_f32_data(&[101.3, 101.5]);
grp.set_attr("location", AttrValue::AsciiString("lab_a".into()));
builder.add_group(grp.finish());

// Attributes on the root group
builder.set_attr("version", AttrValue::I64(2));

builder.write("output.h5").unwrap();

Reading

use hdf5_pure::File;

let file = File::open("output.h5").unwrap();
let ds = file.dataset("temperature").unwrap();

println!("shape: {:?}", ds.shape().unwrap());    // [3]
println!("data:  {:?}", ds.read_f64().unwrap());  // [22.5, 23.1, 21.8]

let attrs = file.root().attrs().unwrap();
println!("version: {:?}", attrs.get("version"));  // Some(I64(2))

In-memory (WASM)

use hdf5_pure::FileBuilder;

let mut builder = FileBuilder::new();
builder.create_dataset("x").with_f64_data(&[1.0, 2.0]);

let bytes: Vec<u8> = builder.finish().unwrap(); // no filesystem needed

Supported data types

Datasets

Attributes

Compression

// Deflate (zlib)
builder.create_dataset("compressed")
    .with_f64_data(&data)
    .with_chunks(&[100])
    .with_deflate(6);

// Shuffle + deflate
builder.create_dataset("shuffled")
    .with_f64_data(&data)
    .with_chunks(&[100])
    .with_shuffle()
    .with_deflate(6);

Userblock (MATLAB v7.3)

let mut builder = FileBuilder::new();
builder.with_userblock(512);
builder.create_dataset("data").with_f64_data(&[1.0]);

let mut bytes = builder.finish().unwrap();
// Write MATLAB header into userblock
bytes[126] = b'I';
bytes[127] = b'M';

MATLAB struct pattern

use hdf5_pure::{FileBuilder, AttrValue};

let mut builder = FileBuilder::new();
let mut grp = builder.create_group("my_struct");

let mut fields = Vec::new();
for (name, data) in [("x", vec![1.0, 2.0]), ("y", vec![3.0, 4.0])] {
    fields.push(name.to_string());
    grp.create_dataset(name).with_f64_data(&data)
        .set_attr("MATLAB_class", AttrValue::AsciiString("double".into()));
}

grp.set_attr("MATLAB_class", AttrValue::AsciiString("struct".into()));
grp.set_attr("MATLAB_fields", AttrValue::VarLenAsciiArray(fields));
builder.add_group(grp.finish());

Cargo features

For WASM, disable default features:

[dependencies]
hdf5-pure = { version = "0.1", default-features = false, features = ["checksum"] }

Acknowledgements

The HDF5 format parsing and low-level I/O modules are derived from rustyhdf5 by the RustyStack project (MIT licensed).

License

MIT