NAME

       h5totxt - generate comma-delimited text from 2d slices of HDF5 files

SYNOPSIS

       h5totxt [OPTION]... [HDF5FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

       h5totxt  is  a  utility  to generate comma-delimited text (and similar formats) from one-, two-, or more-
       dimensional slices of numeric datasets in HDF5 files.  This way, the data can  easily  be  imported  into
       spreadsheets and similar programs for analysis and visualization.

       HDF5  is  a  free,  portable  binary  format  and supporting library developed by the National Center for
       Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.   A  single  h5  file  can
       contain  multiple data sets; by default, h5totxt takes the first dataset, but this can be changed via the
       -d option, or by using the syntax HDF5FILE:DATASET.

       By default, the entire dataset is dumped to the output.  in  row-major  order.   For  3d  datasets,  this
       corresponds  to  a  sequence  of yz slices, in order of increasing x, separated by blank lines.  If -T is
       specified, outputs in the transposed (column-major) order instead

       Often, however, you want only a one- or two-dimensional slice of multi-dimensional data.  To do this, you
       specify coordinates in one or more slice dimensions, via the -xyzt options.

       The most basic usage is something like 'h5totxt foo.h5', which will output comma-delimited text to stdout
       from the data in foo.h5.

OPTIONS

       -h     Display help on the command-line options and usage.

       -V     Print the version number and copyright info for h5totxt.

       -v     Verbose output.

       -o file
              Send text output to file rather than to stdout (the default).

       -s sep Use the string sep to separate columns of the output rather than a comma (the default).

       -x ix, -y iy, -z iz, -t it
              This tells h5totxt to use a particular slice of a multi-dimensional dataset.  e.g.  -x causes a yz
              plane (of a 3d dataset) to be used, at an x index of ix (where the indices run from  zero  to  one
              less  than the maximum index in that direction).  Here, x/y/z correspond to the first/second/third
              dimensions of the HDF5 dataset. The -t option specifies a slice in the last  dimension,  whichever
              that  might  be.  See also the -0 option to shift the origin of the x/y/z slice coordinates to the
              dataset center.

       -0     Shift the origin of the x/y/z slice coordinates to the dataset center, so that e.g. -0  -x  0  (or
              more  compactly -0x0) returns the central x plane of the dataset instead of the edge x plane.  (-t
              coordinates are not affected.)

       -T     Transpose the data (interchange the dimension ordering).  By default, no transposition is done.

       -. numdigits
              Output numdigits digits after the decimal point (defaults to 16).

       -d name
              Use dataset name from the input files; otherwise, the  first  dataset  from  each  file  is  used.
              Alternatively,  use  the  syntax HDF5FILE:DATASET, which allows you to specify a different dataset
              for each file.  You can use the h5ls command (included with hdf5) to find the  names  of  datasets
              within a file.

BUGS

       Send bug reports to S. G. Johnson, stevenj@alum.mit.edu.

AUTHORS

       Written by Steven G. Johnson.  Copyright (c) 2005 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

h5utils                                           March 9, 2002                                       H5TOTXT(1)