Creating New Tables: h5newTableΒΆ

h5newTable creates a new HDF5 table. Table creation can be customized via a creation property list.

Excel UDF Syntax

h5newTable(filename, tablename, heading)

h5newTable(filename, tablename, heading [, properties])

Mandatory Arguments

Argument Description
filename A text string specifying the name of an HDF5 file. If the file doesn’t exist, it will be created.
tablename A text string (path) specifying the location of the HDF5 table. Missing intermediate groups will be created automatically. Existing table will not be overwritten.
heading A text string specifying the column names and types as a list of comma-separated Name,Type pairs. Comma characters in field names must be scaped by a backslash \ character. Restrictions on the field types apply. See Supported Types.

Optional Arguments

Argument Description
properties A text string that is formatted as a list of comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. See the Properties section for the supported keywords and value ranges. Unrecognized names (and their values) will be ignored.

Properties

Name Description Values Default
Chunksize Defines the chunk size for the table. A positive integer. positive integers Auto.
Deflate Enables GZIP compression sets level. (0-9) 0 (no compression)
Fletcher32 Enable Fletcher32 checksum generation for the array. Boolean false

Return Value

On success, h5newTable returns tablename (string).

On error, an error message (string) is returned.

Examples

Create a table with a single column of unsigned integers. Note that the column name contains a comma character and needs to be escaped by \.

h5newTable("sample.h5", "/My/new/HDF5 table", "City\, State,uint8")

Create a table with 5 columns of different types.

h5newTable("sample.h5", "/table2", \
           "City\, State,uint8,x,double,y,double,A\, B,int16,v,single[2]")

Create a table with four columns and control the chunk size (= 128 rows), the compression level (= 6), and enable Fletcher32 checksum generation.

h5newTable("sample.h5", "/table3", \
           "Howdy,string,x,double,y,double,v,single[3]", \
           "Chunksize,128,Deflate,6,Fletcher32,true")

Error Conditions

The following conditions will create an error:

  1. An invalid file name
    • An empty string or a string that contains characters not supported by the operating system
    • It refers to a file system location for which the user has insufficient access privileges.
    • It refers to a read-only file.
  2. An invalid table name
    • An empty string
    • An HDF5 object exists at the specified location
    • Missing intermediate groups cannot be created.
  3. An invalid heading
    • An empty string or a string which is not formatted as a comma-separated list
    • A (non-escaped) comma separated list with an odd number of elements
    • An invalid or unsupported datatype or fill value specification
  4. Invalid properties
    • A string which is not formatted as a comma-separated list
    • A comma separated list with an odd number of elements
    • A value which is outside the admissible range for the corresponding key

See Also

h5newArray, h5newGroup