Files
clawhdf5/crates/clawhdf5-py/README.md
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osobhandClaude Opus 5.5 c3850a0b66 docs: the Python package — install with maturin, h5py-style reading
README gains a Python section (maturin develop into a venv, a reading
example that was run against an h5py-written file, the supported types
and keys, what writing covers). The crate README says the same in more
detail. QUICKSTART showed clawhdf5.open()/read_f64(), which never
existed; it now shows File(...)[...].

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
2026-09-26 08:21:48 -05:00

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# clawhdf5-py
[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/clawhdf5-py.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/clawhdf5-py)
[![docs.rs](https://docs.rs/clawhdf5-py/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/clawhdf5-py)
Python bindings for clawhdf5 — a pure-Rust HDF5 library. The package is
`clawhdf5` (`import clawhdf5`); it needs numpy and no libhdf5.
## Install
Not on PyPI yet. Build it into a virtualenv with [maturin](https://www.maturin.rs):
```bash
pip install maturin numpy
cd crates/clawhdf5-py
maturin develop --release
python -c "import clawhdf5; print(clawhdf5.__version__)"
```
## Reading
The read API follows h5py:
```python
import numpy as np
import clawhdf5
with clawhdf5.File("data.h5", "r") as f:
f.keys(), f["group"].items(), "group/data" in f
ds = f["group/data"] # or f["/group/data"], f["group"]["data"]
ds.shape, ds.dtype, ds.attrs["units"]
ds[10:20, ::2] # only the selected elements are read
ds[-1], ds[..., 0], ds[[1, 4, 7]]
np.asarray(ds)
f["table"]["id"] # a compound field
```
- `Dataset.dtype` is the numpy dtype h5py reports: integers and IEEE floats
of every width in either byte order, `bool`, enums (with
`dtype.metadata['enum']`), complex, `S<n>` fixed strings, `object` for
variable-length strings (`bytes` values) and sequences (array values),
`V<n>` opaque, array types, and compounds as structured dtypes.
Other types raise `TypeError`.
- Keys are h5py's: integers, slices with a positive step, `...`, one
increasing list of integers, compound field names. Each maps onto a
hyperslab selection. `None`, negative steps and boolean masks are refused
with h5py's errors.
- The bytes the library reads become the numpy array's buffer without a
copy, and the read runs with the GIL released, so threads read in
parallel.
- Attributes return what h5py returns; `clawhdf5.Empty` stands for a null
dataspace (h5py's `Empty`).
## Writing
`clawhdf5.File(path, "w")` with `create_dataset(name, data=array,
chunks=..., compression="gzip")`, `create_group` and `attrs[...] = ...`
writes `float64`, `float32`, `int64`, `int32` and `uint8` arrays; the file is
written on `close()`.
## Tests
```bash
pip install pytest h5py
pytest crates/clawhdf5-py/tests
```
`tests/test_read_vs_h5py.py` compares every read with h5py on a file h5py
writes. `scripts/ci-test.sh` builds the wheel and runs these in CI.
## License
MIT