Editing Hierarchical Data Format (section)

{{Short description|Set of file formats}}
{{distinguish|text = [[Apache_Hadoop#HDFS|HDFS]], the file system used in Apache Hadoop}}
{{Infobox file format
| name                   = Hierarchical Data Format
| icon                   = HDF logo (2017).svg
| iconcaption            = 
| icon_size              = 200px
| screenshot             = 
| caption                = 
| _noextcode             = on
| extension              = <code>.hdf</code>, <code>.h4</code>, <code>.hdf4</code>, <code>.he2</code>, <code>.h5</code>, <code>.hdf5</code>, <code>.he5</code>
| mime                   = 
| type code              = 
| uniform type           = 
| magic                  = \211HDF\r\n\032\n
| owner                  = The HDF Group
| released               = 
| latest release version = {{LSR/wikidata}}
| latest release date    = 
| genre                  = [[Scientific data format]]
| container for          = 
| open                   = Yes
| contained by           = 
| extended from          = 
| extended to            = 
| standard               = 
| url                    = {{Official URL}}
}}

'''Hierarchical Data Format''' ('''HDF''') is a set of [[file format]]s ('''HDF4''', '''HDF5''') designed to store and organize large amounts of data. Originally developed at the U.S. [[National Center for Supercomputing Applications]], it is supported by The HDF Group, a non-profit corporation whose mission is to ensure continued development of HDF5 technologies and the continued accessibility of data stored in HDF.

In keeping with this goal, the HDF libraries and associated tools are available under a liberal, [[BSD licenses|BSD-like license]] for general use. HDF is supported by many commercial and non-commercial software platforms and programming languages. The freely available HDF distribution consists of the library, command-line utilities, test suite source, Java interface, and the Java-based HDF Viewer (HDFView).<ref>[http://www.hdfgroup.org/products/java/release/download.html Java-based HDF Viewer (HDFView)]</ref>

The current version, HDF5, differs significantly in design and [[API]] from the major legacy version HDF4.