h5_typeof: Get HDF5 Storage Type of an Object or Attribute

In h5lite: Simplified 'HDF5' Interface

Get HDF5 Storage Type of an Object or Attribute

Description

Returns the low-level HDF5 storage type of a dataset or an attribute (e.g., "int8", "float64", "utf8", "ascii[10]"). This allows inspecting the file storage type before reading the data into R.

Usage

h5_typeof(file, name, attr = NULL)

Arguments

file	The path to the HDF5 file.
name	Name of the dataset or object.
attr	The name of an attribute to check. If NULL (default), the function returns the type of the object itself.

Value

A character string representing the HDF5 storage type (e.g., "float32", "uint32", "ascii[10]", "compound[2]").

See Also

h5_class(), h5_exists()

Examples

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

h5_write(1L, file, "int32_val", as = "int32")
h5_typeof(file, "int32_val") # "int32"

h5_write(mtcars, file, "mtcars")
h5_typeof(file, "mtcars") # "compound[11]"

h5_write(c("a", "b", "c"), file, "strings")
h5_typeof(file, "strings") # "utf8[1]"

unlink(file)

h5lite documentation built on May 19, 2026, 1:07 a.m.