Opening HDF Files

The HDF file type is primarily associated with HDFView.

HDF	File extension: HDF
	File type:	complex data file

What is an HDF file?

HDF files mostly belong to HDFView by The HDF Group. The HDF file format is a standardized file format for scientific data storage. Originally developed by National Centre of Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), this file format was designed to support storage and organization of a large amount of data and hence it finds usage in multiple fields like aerospace engineering, environmental sciences, physics etc. HDF4 and HDF5 are commonly used versions of HDF file format.

• Main Usage: The need for portable scientific data format led to the development of the HDF file format. HDF files are essentially data files that allow users to store scientific data hierarchically and manipulate or analyze it with the help of HDF tools. These tools are nothing, but functions stored in software libraries associated with each version of the HDF file format. They also help the user in finding complicated data relations and dependencies while analysis.
• Associations:
• • The Hard Disk File image also uses the HDF file extension.

How do you open HDF files?

You need a suitable software like HDFView to open an HDF file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your HDF file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a HDF file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online HDF Text Viewer

Choose your .hdf file to analyze

or drag and drop it here

Online File Viewer

✈

Read our privacy guarantee in Filext’s terms and privacy policy

Please allow ads on our site

This helps us keep our servers running. Then re-upload your file to view it.

Click here to see how to disable the ad blocker for filext.com

HDF file extension format:

The file format, which is the arrangement and type of data in a file, determines which program can open the file. The initial characters of a file are called signature, sometimes also referred to as "magic bytes". The signature can be used to infer the file format. Frequently, however, one file extension is used by different programs for different file formats, and one file format for different file extensions. When there is a problem with a file, the first step to solving it is to determine the file format. Our evaluation of the HDF files looks like this:

The HDF file extension is quite common and includes different formats for different programs. The two most popular formats are as follows:

• 45% of all HDF files belong to NeXus HDF4 data format. They consist of illegible, cryptic characters. The files are 200 KB to 100 MB in size, with a median of 7 MB. The file type was created 10 years ago, but is still used today. Such HDF files store data about airs, groundbased, tomsepl, uvief, gfed, glbg and toms.
• 20% of all HDF files are NeXus HDF5 data format files, which are using the popular HDF5 file format. HDF5 is short for Hierarchical Data Format version 5. It is an open source file format for storing and organizing large amounts of data. The content consists of illegible binary data, which can only be read and interpreted by the associated programs. A typical file size is 3 MB. Several words can almost always be found in the files, e.g. TREE. These files are often associated with driver, trip, data, abril and gbal.

All other HDF files (35%) have different formats, often, for example, HDF IDE hard disk image, JetDB, ZIP, hdf, DOS and Copyright. Sometimes used for upgrade, whdload, free or post. If you want to find out what your HDF file contains, drag and drop it onto this page.