How to read a v7.3 mat file via h5py?

Question

I have a struct array created by matlab and stored in v7.3 format mat file:

struArray = struct('name', {'one', 'two', 'three'}, 
                   'id', {1,2,3}, 
                   'data', {[1:10], [3:9], [0]})
save('test.mat', 'struArray', '-v7.3')

Now I want to read this file via python using h5py:

data = h5py.File('test.mat')
struArray = data['/struArray']

I have no idea how to get the struct data one by one from struArray:

for index in range(<the size of struArray>):
    elem = <the index th struct in struArray>
    name = <the name of elem>
    id = <the id of elem>
    data = <the data of elem>

Answer 1

Matlab 7.3 file format is not extremely easy to work with h5py. It relies on HDF5 reference, cf. h5py documentation on references.

>>> import h5py
>>> f = h5py.File('test.mat')
>>> list(f.keys())
['#refs#', 'struArray']
>>> struArray = f['struArray']
>>> struArray['name'][0, 0]  # this is the HDF5 reference
<HDF5 object reference>
>>> f[struArray['name'][0, 0]].value  # this is the actual data
array([[111],
       [110],
       [101]], dtype=uint16)

To read struArray(i).id:

>>> f[struArray['id'][0, 0]][0, 0]
1.0
>>> f[struArray['id'][1, 0]][0, 0]
2.0
>>> f[struArray['id'][2, 0]][0, 0]
3.0

Notice that Matlab stores a number as an array of size (1, 1), hence the final [0, 0] to get the number.

To read struArray(i).data:

>>> f[struArray['data'][0, 0]].value
array([[  1.],
       [  2.],
       [  3.],
       [  4.],
       [  5.],
       [  6.],
       [  7.],
       [  8.],
       [  9.],
       [ 10.]])

To read struArray(i).name, it is necessary to convert the array of integers to string:

>>> f[struArray['name'][0, 0]].value.tobytes()[::2].decode()
'one'
>>> f[struArray['name'][1, 0]].value.tobytes()[::2].decode()
'two'
>>> f[struArray['name'][2, 0]].value.tobytes()[::2].decode()
'three'

Answer 2

visit or visititems is quick way of seeing the overall structure of a h5py file:

fs['struArray'].visititems(lambda n,o:print(n, o))

When I run this on a file produced by Octave save -hdf5 I get:

type <HDF5 dataset "type": shape (), type "|S7">
value <HDF5 group "/struArray/value" (3 members)>
value/data <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/data" (2 members)>
value/data/type <HDF5 dataset "type": shape (), type "|S5">
value/data/value <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/data/value" (4 members)>
value/data/value/_0 <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/data/value/_0" (2 members)>
value/data/value/_0/type <HDF5 dataset "type": shape (), type "|S7">
value/data/value/_0/value <HDF5 dataset "value": shape (10, 1), type "<f8">
value/data/value/_1 <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/data/value/_1" (2 members)>
...
value/data/value/dims <HDF5 dataset "dims": shape (2,), type "<i4">
value/id <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/id" (2 members)>
value/id/type <HDF5 dataset "type": shape (), type "|S5">
value/id/value <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/id/value" (4 members)>
value/id/value/_0 <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/id/value/_0" (2 members)>
...
value/id/value/_2/value <HDF5 dataset "value": shape (), type "<f8">
value/id/value/dims <HDF5 dataset "dims": shape (2,), type "<i4">
value/name <HDF5 group "/struArray/value/name" (2 members)>
...
value/name/value/dims <HDF5 dataset "dims": shape (2,), type "<i4">

This may not be the same what MATLAB 7.3 produces, but it gives an idea of a structure's complexity.

A more refined callback can display values, and could be the starting point for recreating a Python object (dictionary, lists, etc).

def callback(name, obj):
    if name.endswith('type'):
        print('type:', obj.value)
    elif name.endswith('value'):
        if type(obj).__name__=='Dataset':
            print(obj.value.T)  # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21624653
    elif name.endswith('dims'):
        print('dims:', obj.value)
    else:
        print('name:', name)

fs.visititems(callback)

produces:

name: struArray
type: b'struct'
name: struArray/value/data
type: b'cell'
name: struArray/value/data/value/_0
type: b'matrix'
[[  1.   2.   3.   4.   5.   6.   7.   8.   9.  10.]]
name: struArray/value/data/value/_1
type: b'matrix'
[[ 3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.  9.]]
name: struArray/value/data/value/_2
type: b'scalar'
0.0
dims: [3 1]
name: struArray/value/id
type: b'cell'
name: struArray/value/id/value/_0
type: b'scalar'
1.0
...
dims: [3 1]
name: struArray/value/name
type: b'cell'
name: struArray/value/name/value/_0
type: b'sq_string'
[[111 110 101]]
...
dims: [3 1]