HDF5 Files

Hierarchical Data Format, Version 5

Hierarchical Data Format, Version 5 (HDF5) is a data model, library, and file format for storing and managing data. You can interact with HDF5 files in several ways:

The Import Tool app and the Import Data Live Editor task provide intuitive graphical interfaces for exploring and reading data from HDF5 files.
The MATLAB^® high-level HDF5 functions provide a simplified programmatic interface for reading data from HDF5 files and writing data from the MATLAB workspace to HDF5 files.
The MATLAB low-level HDF5 functions provide finer control over the reading and writing process of HDF5 files by providing access to more than 300 functions in the HDF5 C library.
To use the MATLAB low-level HDF5 functions, you must be familiar with HDF5 C API programming concepts, described at https://www.hdfgroup.org/solutions/hdf5/.

MATLAB uses HDF5 C library version 1.14.4.3. (since R2024b)

Live Editor Tasks

Import Data

Import data from a file in the Live Editor (Since R2023a)

Tools

Import Tool

Import data from file

Functions

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High-Level Functions for HDF5 Files

`h5create`	Create HDF5 dataset
`h5disp`	Display contents of HDF5 file
`h5info`	Information about HDF5 file
`h5read`	Read data from HDF5 dataset
`h5readatt`	Read attribute from HDF5 file
`h5write`	Write data to HDF5 dataset
`h5writeatt`	Write attribute to HDF5 file

Low-Level Functions for HDF5 Files

`Library (H5)`	General-purpose functions for use with entire HDF5 library
`Attribute (H5A)`	Metadata associated with datasets or groups
`Dataset (H5D)`	Multidimensional arrays of data elements and supporting metadata
`Dimension Scale (H5DS)`	Dimension scale associated with dataset dimensions
`Error (H5E)`	Error handling
`File (H5F)`	HDF5 file access
`Group (H5G)`	Organization of objects in file
`Identifier (H5I)`	HDF5 object identifiers
`Link (H5L)`	Links in HDF5 file
`MATLAB (H5ML)`	MATLAB utility functions not part of the HDF5 C library
`Object (H5O)`	Objects in file
`Property (H5P)`	Object property lists
`Reference (H5R)`	HDF5 references
`Dataspace (H5S)`	Dimensionality of dataset
`Datatype (H5T)`	Datatype of elements in a dataset
`Filters and Compression (H5Z)`	Inline data filters, data compression

Topics

Import HDF5 Files
Read data from an HDF5 file using the high-level functions, the low-level functions, and the Import Data Live Editor task.
Export to HDF5 Files
Write data and metadata from the MATLAB workspace to an HDF5 file.
Work with Non-ASCII Characters in HDF5 Files
MATLAB supports non-ASCII data and metadata in HDF5 files.
Read and Write Data Concurrently Using Single-Writer/Multiple-Reader (SWMR)
Write data to an HDF5 file in one process while you concurrently read from the file in one or more reader processes.
Work with HDF5 Virtual Datasets (VDS)
Access data stored across multiple HDF5 files as a single, unified HDF5 dataset.
Read and Write HDF5 Datasets Using Dynamically Loaded Filters
The HDF5 library and file format enables using filters on data chunks before they are written to or after they are read from disk.
Work with Cloud-Optimized HDF5 Files
Optimize the performance of HDF5 files in the cloud using MATLAB. (Since R2025a)

Related Information

HDF5 C Library Documentation