18.2 HDF5 Handles

The HDF5 API uses a handle-based pattern. This means that the typical programming scenario is as follows:

• Create or open an HDF5 element, such as a file or Dataset. HDF5 returns a handle of type hid_t.
• Interact with the HDF5 element using the handle.
• Close the handle using the appropriate “close” method. For example, you can close a file handle using the H5Fclose function.

In the examples below, the closing of handles is omitted for clarity.