2.2.2.2 Hierarchical Data Format 5 (HDF5 )

HDF5 is a data model, a set of open file formats, and libraries designed to store and organize large amounts of data for improved speed and efficiency of data processing. Specifically, HDF5 provides:

• Machine/architecture-independent "binary" format (supported on Windows, Linux, etc. APIs are available in C++, Java, and .NET).
• Built-in data compression.

• Hyper-slabbing of array data so that sub-arrays may be extracted without reading the entire data file.

NOTE: HDF5 libraries make no claims about thread safety. Energistics recommends care when using these libraries. Always use the latest version of a library and recognize that thread-locking may be language dependent.

Example of Energistics use of HDF5:

• RESQML uses it for storage and retrieval of geometry and property data and multi-million cell models.

• PRODML Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) data objects uses it for the huge arrays of both raw and processed data associated with DAS.

For more information on HDF, including available tools and tutorials, see the HDF Group website at: http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/. The HDFView tool is especially useful for visualizing and understanding the data stored in an HDF5 file.

• Additional links:

• https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/
• https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/UG/HDF5_Users_Guide-Responsive%20HTML5/index.html#t=HDF5_Users_Guide%2FDataModelAndFileStructure%2FThe_HDF5_Data_Model_and_File_Structure.htm

• https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/UG/HDF5_Users_Guide-Responsive%20HTML5/index.html#t=HDF5_Users_Guide%2FLibraryAndProgrammingModel%2FThe_HDF5_Library_and_Programming_Model.htm