Utility functions#

RosettaSciIO provides certain utility functions that are applicable for multiple formats, e.g. for the HDF5-format on which a number of plugins are based.

HDF5 utility functions#

HDF5 file inspection.

rsciio.utils.hdf5.list_datasets_in_file(filename, dataset_key=None, hardlinks_only=False, verbose=True)#

Read from a NeXus or .hdf file and return a list of the dataset paths.

This method is used to inspect the contents of an hdf5 file. The method iterates through group attributes and returns NXdata or hdf datasets of size >=2 if they’re not already NXdata blocks and returns a list of the entries. This is a convenience method to inspect a file to list datasets present rather than loading all the datasets in the file as signals.

Parameters:

  • filename (str, pathlib.Path) – Filename of the file to read or corresponding pathlib.Path.

  • dataset_key (str, list of strings or None , default: None) – If a str or list of strings is provided only return items whose path contain the strings. For example, dataset_key = [“instrument”, “Fe”] will only return hdf entries with “instrument” or “Fe” somewhere in their hdf path.

  • hardlinks_only (bool, default : False) – If true any links (soft or External) will be ignored when loading.

  • verbose (boolean, default : True) – Prints the results to screen

Returns:

List of paths to datasets.

Return type:

list

See also

  • file_reader()

  • file_writer()

  • read_metadata_from_file()

rsciio.utils.hdf5.read_metadata_from_file(filename, metadata_key=None, lazy=False, verbose=False, skip_array_metadata=False)#

Read the metadata from a NeXus or .hdf file.

This method iterates through the hdf5 file and returns a dictionary of the entries. This is a convenience method to inspect a file for a value rather than loading the file as a signal.

Parameters:

  • filename (str, pathlib.Path) – Filename of the file to read or corresponding pathlib.Path.

  • metadata_key (None,str or list_of_strings , default : None) – None will return all datasets found including linked data. Providing a string or list of strings will only return items which contain the string(s). For example, search_keys = [“instrument”,”Fe”] will return hdf entries with “instrument” or “Fe” in their hdf path.

  • verbose (bool, default : False) – Pretty Print the results to screen

  • skip_array_metadata (bool, default : False) – Whether to skip loading array metadata. This is useful as a lot of large array may be present in the metadata and it is redundant with dataset itself.

Returns:

Metadata dictionary.

Return type:

dict

See also

  • file_reader()

  • file_writer()

  • list_datasets_in_file()

Test utility functions#