NAME

       PDL::IO::HDF - A PDL interface to the HDF4 library.

SYNOPSIS

         use PDL;
         use PDL::IO::HDF;

         # Open file 'foo.hdf' with all hdf interface:
         my $HDF = PDL::IO::HDF->new("foo.hdf");

         # You can call functions from either the SD or VS interfaces:
         $HDF->{SD}->SDget("Foo_data");
         $HDF->{VS}->VSgetnames();

         # To close the file:
         $HDF->close();

DESCRIPTION

       This library provides functions to manipulate HDF files with the SD, VS, and V HDF
       interfaces.

       For more infomation on HDF, see http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/

       The 'new' function of this package uses the 'new' functions for the individual HDF
       interfaces. This allows you to use all of the interfaces at one time (if you don't mind
       the extended syntax).

       Actually using the HDF files comes down to using one of the particular interfaces, for
       that see the docs on those modules.

CONSTANTS

       These constants are now implented using the perl 'use constant' pragma.

       Previously, they were just scalars that were changable (which is a no-no).

       See constant(1) for more info on how to use these in your code.

   Access Modes
       DFACC_READ
               Open the file in read-only mode.

       DFACC_WRITE
               Open the file in write-only mode.

       DFACC_CREATE
               Clobber the file (create it if it doesn't exist, and then open with RW mode).

       DFACC_ALL
               Open the file in read-write mode.

       DFACC_RDONLY
               Same as DFACC_READ

       DFACC_RDWR
               Open the file in read-write mode.

   VS Interface Interlacing Modes
       FULL_INTERLACE
       NO_INTERLACE

   HDF4 Data Type Codes:
       DFNT_UCHAR
               HDF's unsigned char ~= PDL's byte

       DFNT_CHAR
               HDF's char ~= PDL's byte

       DFNT_FLOAT32
               HDF's 32-bit float ~= PDL's float

       DFNT_FLOAT64
               HDF's 64-bit float ~= PDL's double

       DFNT_INT8
               HDF's 8-bit integer ~= PDL's byte

       DFNT_UINT8
               HDF's 8-bit unsigned integer ~= PDL's byte

       DFNT_INT16
               HDF's 16-bit integer ~= PDL's short

       DFNT_UINT16
               HDF's 16-bit unsigned integer ~= PDL's ushort

       DFNT_INT32
               HDF's 32-bit integer ~= PDL's long

       DFNT_INT64
               HDF's 32-bit integer ~= PDL's long

   Misc. HDF Library Constants:
       MAX_NC_NAME
               This is the max name length for SDS variables, attribtues, and just about anything
               else.

       MAX_VAR_DIMS
               This is the max number of dims a HDF variable can have.

       VNAMELENMAX
               Max length of V interface names.

CURRENT AUTHOR & MAINTAINER

       Judd Taylor, Orbital Systems, Ltd.  judd dot t at orbitalsystems dot com

PREVIOUS AUTHORS

       Patrick Leilde patrick.leilde@ifremer.fr contribs of Olivier Archer
       olivier.archer@ifremer.fr

SEE ALSO

       perl(1), PDL(1), PDL::IO::HDF::SD(1), PDL::IO::HDF::VS(1), constant(1).