hdf5/doc/html/Properties.html
Frank Baker 82fb21b613 [svn-r985] Checking in changes from "HDF5 Release 1.0" CVS branch that have not yet
been checked into "HDF5 Development" branch.

General
=======
	Various "copy edit" types of repairs.
	Revisions to document cross-linking.
	Added structural links tying all docs together (banners
	   at top and bottom of documents, similar to Reference Manual
	   banners of the Beta release).
	Set background color to white in all documents.

NCSAfooterlogo.gif
hdf2.jpg
	New image files to make the documents more self-contained
	(i.e., to prevent loading images from NCSA and HDF home servers).

index.html
	Redesigned to isolate links external to the installation
	in a single location.


Intro to HDF5
=============
H5.intro.html
	Fixed banner linking Intro to other docs.
	Set all URLs to be relative within the distribution; nothing
	   points back to the HDF server.
	Updates to "Limits of the Current Release" and "Changes in
	   the Current Release."


HDF5 User's Guide
=================
	Changed several User Guide section titles such that all
	   sections that are primarily about a particular interface
	   are now titled in the format "The xxxxx Interface (H5x)".

H5.user.html
	Commented out links to developer docs since they are marked
	   in MANIFEST as not being for distribution in the release.
	Removed 2nd and 3rd indices from page.
	Changed "freeform" lists of sections (TOCs) to aligned tables.

Datatypes.html
	Removed the sentence "I'm deferring definition until later
	   since they're probably not as important as the other data
	   types." from Section 3.3, "Properties of Date and Time
	   Atomic Types."
	Added info regarding 'char' versus 'string' datatypes.  Added
	   as Section 3.7, "Character and String Datatype Issues."

References.html
	Commented out substantial material (at end of document) from
	   References planning document that is not appropriate for
 	   the User Guide but that is worth keeping around.

Groups.html
	Final edits from elimination of "current working group."


HDF5 Reference Manual
=====================
	Removed "Draft" from the <title>__</title> lines.

RM_H5Front.html
	Removed 2nd and 3rd indices from page.
	Changed "freeform" lists of sections (TOCs) to aligned tables.

RM_H5F.html
RM_H5P.html
	Add file mounting information.
1998-12-21 17:52:56 -05:00

216 lines
7.7 KiB
HTML

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Property List Interface (H5P)</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<hr>
<center>
<table border=0 width=98%>
<tr><td valign=top align=left>
<a href="H5.intro.html">Introduction to HDF5</a>&nbsp;<br>
<a href="RM_H5Front.html">HDF5 Reference Manual</a>&nbsp;<br>
<a href="index.html">Other HDF5 documents and links</a>&nbsp;<br>
<!--
<a href="Glossary.html">Glossary</a><br>
-->
</td>
<td valign=top align=right>
And in this document, the
<a href="H5.user.html">HDF5 User's Guide</a>:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Files.html">Files</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<br>
<a href="Datasets.html">Datasets</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Datatypes.html">Data Types</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Dataspaces.html">Dataspaces</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Groups.html">Groups</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="References.html">References</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<br>
<a href="Attributes.html">Attributes</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
Property Lists&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Errors.html">Error Handling</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Filters.html">Filters</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Caching.html">Caching</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<br>
<a href="Chunking.html">Chunking</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Debugging.html">Debugging</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Environment.html">Environment</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="ddl.html">DDL</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Ragged.html">Ragged Arrays</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<!--
<hr>
And in this document, the
<a href="H5.user.html">HDF5 User's Guide</a>:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Attributes.html">H5A</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Datasets.html">H5D</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Errors.html">H5E</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Files.html">H5F</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Groups.html">H5G</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Properties.html">H5P</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="References.html">H5R & H5I</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Ragged.html">H5RA</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Dataspaces.html">H5S</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Datatypes.html">H5T</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Filters.html">H5Z</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Caching.html">Caching</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Chunking.html">Chunking</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Debugging.html">Debugging</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Environment.html">Environment</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="ddl.html">DDL</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
-->
</td></tr>
</table>
</center>
<hr>
<h1>The Property List Interface (H5P)</h1>
<h2>1. Introduction</h2>
<p>The property list (a.k.a., template) interface provides a
mechanism for default named arguments for a C function
interface. A property list is a collection of name/value pairs
which can be passed to various other HDF5 functions to control
features that are typically unimportant or whose default values
are usually used.
<p>For instance, file creation needs to know various things such
as the size of the user-block at the beginning of the file, or
the size of various file data structures. Wrapping this
information in a property list simplifies the API by reducing
the number of arguments to <code>H5Fcreate()</code>.
<h2>2. General Property List Operations</h2>
<p>Property lists follow the same create/open/close paradigm as
the rest of the library.
<dl>
<dt><code>hid_t H5Pcreate (H5P_class_t <em>class</em>)</code>
<dd>A new property list can be created as an instance of some
property list class. The new property list is initialized
with default values for the specified class. The classes are:
<br><br>
<dl>
<dt><code>H5P_FILE_CREATE</code>
<dd>Properties for file creation. See <a href="Files.html">H5F</a>
for details about the file creation properties.
<dt><code>H5P_FILE_ACCESS</code>
<dd>Properties for file access. See <a href="Files.html">H5F</a>
for details about the file creation properties.
<dt><code>H5P_DATASET_CREATE</code>
<dd>Properties for dataset creation. See
<a href="Datasets.html">H5D</a> for details about dataset
creation properties.
<dt><code>H5P_DATASET_XFER</code>
<dd>Properties for raw data transfer. See
<a href="Datasets.html">H5D</a> for details about raw data
transfer properties.
</dl>
<br><br>
<dt><code>hid_t H5Pcopy (hid_t <em>plist</em>)</code>
<dd>A property list can be copied to create a new property
list. The new property list has the same properties and values
as the original property list.
<br><br>
<dt><code>herr_t H5Pclose (hid_t <em>plist</em>)</code>
<dd>All property lists should be closed when the application is
finished accessing them. This frees resources used by the
property list.
<br><br>
<dt><code>H5P_class_t H5Pget_class (hid_t <em>plist</em>)</code>
<dd>The class of which the property list is a member can be
obtained by calling this function. The property list classes
are defined above for <code>H5Pcreate()</code>.
</dl>
<hr>
<center>
<table border=0 width=98%>
<tr><td valign=top align=left>
<a href="H5.intro.html">Introduction to HDF5</a>&nbsp;<br>
<a href="RM_H5Front.html">HDF5 Reference Manual</a>&nbsp;<br>
<a href="index.html">Other HDF5 documents and links</a>&nbsp;<br>
<!--
<a href="Glossary.html">Glossary</a><br>
-->
</td>
<td valign=top align=right>
And in this document, the
<a href="H5.user.html">HDF5 User's Guide</a>:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Files.html">Files</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<br>
<a href="Datasets.html">Datasets</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Datatypes.html">Data Types</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Dataspaces.html">Dataspaces</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Groups.html">Groups</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="References.html">References</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<br>
<a href="Attributes.html">Attributes</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
Property Lists&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Errors.html">Error Handling</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Filters.html">Filters</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Caching.html">Caching</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<br>
<a href="Chunking.html">Chunking</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Debugging.html">Debugging</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Environment.html">Environment</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="ddl.html">DDL</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Ragged.html">Ragged Arrays</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<!--
<hr>
And in this document, the
<a href="H5.user.html">HDF5 User's Guide</a>:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Attributes.html">H5A</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Datasets.html">H5D</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Errors.html">H5E</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Files.html">H5F</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Groups.html">H5G</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Properties.html">H5P</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="References.html">H5R & H5I</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Ragged.html">H5RA</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Dataspaces.html">H5S</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Datatypes.html">H5T</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Filters.html">H5Z</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Caching.html">Caching</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Chunking.html">Chunking</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Debugging.html">Debugging</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Environment.html">Environment</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="ddl.html">DDL</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
-->
</td></tr>
</table>
</center>
<!--
<hr>
<address><a href="mailto:matzke@llnl.gov">Robb Matzke</a></address>
<address><a href="mailto:koziol@ncsa.uiuc.edu">Quincey Koziol</a></address>
-->
<!-- Created: Tue Feb 10 17:06:58 PST 1998 -->
<!-- hhmts start -->
<!--
Last modified: Tue Feb 10 17:26:41 PST 1998
-->
<!-- hhmts end -->
<hr>
<address>
<a href="mailto:hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu">HDF Help Desk</a>
</address>
Last modified: 30 October 1998
</body>
</html>