HDFView

HDFView is an application especially designed to help you handle HDF files in simple manner.

It enables you to explore and edit HDF4 and HDF5 files with the use of a straightforward and user-friendly interface. HDFView allows you to view the complete structure of the file with a correct hierarchy. With it it’s possible to view the embedded data and modify it the way it needs to be.

HDFView provides a well thought out distribution of the workspace. You get three main panels which offer you all that is needed to know about the content of the file. The ‘Tree’ panel supplies the datasets and images that make the HDF format. You are able to view its groups, arrays, committed datatypes and links.

In the ‘Data’ panel you get the complete and detailed view of the objects, while the third ‘Info’ panel allows you to see status information and metadata.

The application is Java based and enables you to resize and reshape any of the three panels which is a handy feature to have considering that all the objects you view in the ‘Data’ panel are opened in separate windows. This way, you avoid overcrowding your screen or having to dig between the windows to locate and see what you need.

If you’re interested in the details of an object, with a simple right click on it you can view general information such as name, path, type, dataspace and datatype as well as its attributes. A selected dataset can also be exported to a text file or as a Native Order, Little Endian or Big Endian. It goes without saying that you can very well convert HDF4 and HDF5 files between them.

In closing, HDFView is by all means a practical and reliable software solution that you can effortlessly use to analyze and work with HDF files.