Table of Contents

PureHDF

NuGet

A pure C# library without native dependencies that makes reading and writing of HDF5 files (groups, datasets, attributes, ...) very easy.

This library runs on all platforms (ARM, x86, x64) and operating systems (Linux, Windows, MacOS, Raspbian, etc) that are supported by the .NET ecosystem without special configuration.

The implemention follows the HDF5 File Format Specification (HDF5 1.10).

Please read the docs for samples and API documentation.

Version 1

The minimum supported target framework is .NET Standard 2.0 which includes

  • .NET Framework 4.6.1+
  • .NET Core (all versions)
  • .NET 5+

Version 1 of PureHDF supports all .NET versions starting with .NET 4.7.2. No further updates are planned.

Version 2

The minimum supported target framework version is .NET 6.0+.

To keep the code base clean, version 2 of PureHDF targets active .NET versions only, which are .NET 6 and .NET 8 as of now (August 2024).

Version 3

The minimum supported target framework version is .NET 8.0+.

To keep the code base clean, version 3 of PureHDF targets active .NET versions only, which are .NET 8 and .NET 10 as of now (August 2026).

Installation

dotnet add package PureHDF

Feature overview

Reading Writing Feature
✓ ✓ generic API
✓ ✓ easy filter access
✓ ✓ hardware-accelerated filters
✓ ✓ data slicing
✓ ✓ multidimensional arrays
✓ ✓ compound data
✓ ✓ variable-length data
✓ - async reading
✓ - multithreading (^1)
✓ - Amazon S3 access
✓ - HSDS (^2) access

Comparison Table

Overwhelmed by the number of different HDF 5 libraries? Here is a comparison table:

Note: The following table considers only projects listed on Nuget.org

Name Arch Platform Kind Mode Version License Maintainer Comment
v1.10
PureHDF all all managed rw 1.10.* MIT Apollo3zehn
HDF5-CSharp x86,x64 Win,Lin,Mac HL rw 1.10.6 MIT LiorBanai
SciSharp.Keras.HDF5 x86,x64 Win,Lin,Mac HL rw 1.10.5 MIT SciSharp fork of HDF-CSharp
ILNumerics.IO.HDF5 x64 Win,Lin HL rw ? proprietary IL_Numerics_GmbH probably 1.10
LiteHDF x86,x64 Win,Lin,Mac HL ro 1.10.5 MIT silkfire
hdflib x86,x64 Windows HL wo 1.10.6 MIT bdebree
Mbc.Hdf5Utils x86,x64 Win,Lin,Mac HL rw 1.10.6 Apache-2.0 bqstony
HDF.PInvoke x86,x64 Windows bindings rw 1.8,1.10.6 HDF5 hdf,gheber
HDF.PInvoke.1.10 x86,x64 Win,Lin,Mac bindings rw 1.10.6 HDF5 hdf,Apollo3zehn
HDF.PInvoke.NETStandard x86,x64 Win,Lin,Mac bindings rw 1.10.5 HDF5 surban
v1.8
HDF5DotNet.x64 x64 Windows HL rw 1.8 HDF5 thieum
HDF5DotNet.x86 x86 Windows HL rw 1.8 HDF5 thieum
sharpHDF x64 Windows HL rw 1.8 MIT bengecko
HDF.PInvoke x86,x64 Windows bindings rw 1.8,1.10.6 HDF5 hdf,gheber
hdf5-v120-complete x86,x64 Windows native rw 1.8 HDF5 daniel.gracia
hdf5-v120 x86,x64 Windows native rw 1.8 HDF5 keen

Abbreviations:

Term .NET API Native dependencies
managed high-level none
HL high-level C-library
bindings low-level C-library
native none C-library
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