h5_delete: Delete an HDF5 Object or Attribute

In h5lite: Simplified 'HDF5' Interface

Delete an HDF5 Object or Attribute

Description

Deletes an object (dataset or group) or an attribute from an HDF5 file. If the object or attribute does not exist, a warning is issued and the function returns successfully (no error is raised).

Usage

h5_delete(file, name, attr = NULL, warn = TRUE)

Arguments

file	The path to the HDF5 file.
name	The full path of the object to delete (e.g., "/data/dset" or "/groups/g1").
attr	The name of the attribute to delete. If NULL (the default), the object specified by name is deleted. If a string is provided, the attribute named attr is removed from the object name.
warn	Emit a warning if the name/attr does not exist. Default: TRUE

Details

Deleting a dataset also deletes its dimension scales (the datasets holding its names, dimnames, or row.names), unless another dataset uses them too. Scales named other than "<name>_..." (such as those other software makes) are detached but kept. Deleting a dimension scale removes it from the datasets it labels.

Value

Invisibly returns NULL. This function is called for its side effects.

See Also

h5_create_group(), h5_move()

Examples

file <- tempfile(fileext = ".h5")
h5_create_file(file)

# Create some data and attributes
h5_write(matrix(1:10, 2, 5), file, "matrix")
h5_write("A note", file, "matrix", attr = "note")

# Review the file structure
h5_str(file)

# Delete the attribute
h5_delete(file, "matrix", attr = "note")

# Review the file structure
h5_str(file)

# Delete the dataset
h5_delete(file, "matrix")

# Review the file structure
h5_str(file)

# Cleaning up
unlink(file)

h5lite documentation built on Oct. 31, 2026, 1:07 a.m.