darr 0.1.9

Darr is a Python science library for storing numeric data arrays in a format that is open, simple, and self-explanatory

Darr is a Python science library for storing and sharing numeric data arrays in a way that is open, simple, and self-explanatory. It also enables fast memory-mapped read/write access to such disk-based data, the ability to append data, and the flexible use of metadata. It is primarily designed for scientific use cases. Save and use your numeric arrays and metadata with one line of code while long-term and tool-independent accessibility and easy shareability is ensured.

To avoid dependency on specific tools, Darr is based on a combination of flat binary and human-readable text files. It automatically saves a clear text description of how the data is stored, together with code for reading the specific data in a variety of current scientific data tools such as Python, R, Julia, Matlab and Mathematica (see [example array](https://github.com/gbeckers/Darr/tree/master/examplearray.da)).

Darr is currently pre-1.0, still undergoing significant development.

Features

• Transparent data format based on flat binary and text files.

• Supports very large data arrays through memory-mapped file access.

• Data read/write access through NumPy indexing

• Data is easily appendable.

• Human-readable explanation of how the binary data is stored is saved in a README text file.

• README also contains examples of how to read the array in popular analysis environments such as Python (without Darr), R, Julia, Octave/Matlab, GDL/IDL, and Mathematica.

• Many numeric types are supported: (u)int8-(u)int64, float16-float64, complex64, complex128.

• Easy use of metadata, stored in a separate JSON text file.

• Minimal dependencies, only NumPy.

• Integrates easily with the Dask or NumExpr libraries for numeric computation on very large Darr arrays.

See the [documentation](http://darr.readthedocs.io/) for more information.