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.