HDF5 documents and links 
Introduction to HDF5 
HDF5 User Guide 
And in this document, the HDF5 Reference Manual 
H5DS   H5IM   H5LT   H5PT   H5TB 
H5   H5A   H5D   H5E   H5F   H5G   H5I 
H5L   H5O   H5P   H5R   H5S   H5T   H5Z 
Tools   Datatypes   Fortran   Compatibility Macros 
Collective Calls in Parallel 

(Printable PDF of this Reference Manual) 

H5A: Attribute Interface

Attribute API Functions

These functions create and manipulate attributes and information about attributes.
In the following lists, italic type indicates a configurable macro.

The C Interfaces:
             
Use of these functions is deprecated in Release 1.8.0.

Alphabetical Listing
             

The FORTRAN90 Interfaces:
In general, each FORTRAN90 subroutine performs exactly the same task as the corresponding C function.
             
Use of these functions is deprecated in Release 1.8.0.

The Attribute interface, H5A, is primarily designed to easily allow small datasets to be attached to primary datasets as metadata information. Additional goals for the H5A interface include keeping storage requirement for each attribute to a minimum and easily sharing attributes among datasets.

Because attributes are intended to be small objects, large datasets intended as additional information for a primary dataset should be stored as supplemental datasets in a group with the primary dataset. Attributes can then be attached to the group containing everything to indicate a particular type of dataset with supplemental datasets is located in the group. How small is "small" is not defined by the library and is up to the user’s interpretation.

See Attributes in the HDF5 User's Guide for further information.


HDF5 documents and links 
Introduction to HDF5 
HDF5 User Guide 
And in this document, the HDF5 Reference Manual 
H5DS   H5IM   H5LT   H5PT   H5TB 
H5   H5A   H5D   H5E   H5F   H5G   H5I 
H5L   H5O   H5P   H5R   H5S   H5T   H5Z 
Tools   Datatypes   Fortran   Compatibility Macros 
Collective Calls in Parallel 

(Printable PDF of this Reference Manual) 

The HDF Group Help Desk:
Describes HDF5 Release 1.8.7, targeted for May 2011.