CSMatIO: MAT-file I/O API for .NET 2.0

Package contains Matlab's MAT-File I/O API for .NET 2.0. Supports Matlab 5 MAT-file format.

Description

CSMatIO a .NET Library is a Matlab MAT-File I/O API for Microsoft's .NET 2.0 Architecture written entirely in C#. CSMatIO has the ability to read, write, and manipulate binary Level 5 MAT-Files.

Currently supported data types:
+ Double array
+ Single array
+ Char array
+ Structure
+ Cell array
+ Sparse array
+ Int8 array
+ UInt8 array
+ Int16 array
+ UInt16 array
+ Int32 array
+ UInt32 array
+ Int64 array
+ UInt64 array

Note:
The zlib.net.dll file is used to compress and decompress MAT-file data.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the following in the creation of this submission:
JMatIO - Matlab's MAT-file I/O in JAVA

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 6.5 (R13)
• Other requirements: + .NET 2.0 (or later) Architecture to run assembly + Any application create with CSMatIO must include _both_ the csmatio.dll and the zlib.net.dll + Uses Visual Studio .NET 2005 for editing.

[Steffen S]

A bit tricky to get into. But once you got it its easy to use. Works stable.

[Pierluigi Fumi]

 

[M D]

Missing cases MLArray.mxUINT16_CLASS, MLArray.mxINT16_CLASS, MLArray.mxUINT32_CLASS & MLArray.mxINT32_CLASS in the method ReadMatrix of MatFileReader class

[Mike]

Writes to binary memory stream which runs out of memory at ~270 MB (.NET managed heap limitation, I believe) before being written to disk. Would be nice to have the option to take a performance hit but stream directly to disk, enabling creation of larger files.

[Lalit Parashar]

Any plans to upgrade it to manipulate binary Level 7 MAT-Files.

[Bart Ribbens]

Does there exist a binary Level 7 Mat fileformat?

In the latest document (MAT-File Format
Version 7) they still use the Level 5 binary.

[Jörgen Ejr973jr]

Support for enumerations?

Any plans to add support for enumerations using declared as:
classdef(Enumeration) AdapRequestEnum < int32 ...

I have not found any description of the internal representation in MAT file format.

[Markus W]

Easy to use an very helpful

Writing empty string seems to result in exception. Any workaround?

[Tobias Otto-Adamczak]

Really useful library. However it has some bugs (struct field access is buggy, writing empty strings doesn't work) und is somehow incomplete (unsupported data types). I try to provide some fixes in the next days.

[Qirong]

How do I load data using this library? I followed the test application and it only uses the function MatFileReader.ContentToString() to access the content. Is that the only way I can access the data? And then parse the string to get the real data?

[Tobias Otto-Adamczak]

First, you might want to get a reference to your matlab variable:

var mfr = new MatFileReader(fileName);
MLArray mlArrayRetrieved = mfr.GetMLArray("my_array");

Second, you need to find out of which type mlArrayRetrieved really is (as MLArray is only a base class) and you cast into the real type. Depending on the real type there are different Methods/Properties that represent the data.

HTH, Tobias

[farid]

hi all.
I'm trying to read a mat file but i receive this error

==========================
Error in reading MAT-file 'initialize\matfile-1.mat':
csmatio.io.MatlabIOException: Could not decompress data: zlib.ZStreamException: inflating:
   at zlib.ZOutputStream.Write(Byte[] b1, Int32 off, Int32 len)
   at csmatio.io.MatFileReader.Inflate(Stream buf, Int32 numOfBytes)
   at csmatio.io.MatFileReader.Inflate(Stream buf, Int32 numOfBytes)
   at csmatio.io.MatFileReader.ReadData(Stream buf)
   at csmatio.io.MatFileReader..ctor(String fileName, MatFileFilter filter)
==========================

what is the cause of this error message?
pleas help .... the situation is urgent!

[Qirong]

So I know that the data is double array, how can I cast the MLArray type into MLDouble type? I tried

MatFileReader mfr = new MatFileReader(currentName);
            foreach (MLArray mla in mfr.Data)
            {
                MLDouble da = mla;
            }

But apparently this doesn't work...

[Tobias Otto-Adamczak]

Hi farid, csmatio uses zlib to compress/decompress matlab file data. There are several possibilities why zlib throws this exception; for example you might think of
(a) file format not supported (csmatio does not support all kinds of mat files)
(b) corrupt file content
(c) bug in csmatio
...

[Tobias Otto-Adamczak]

Hi Qirong, I give you a very simple but more complete example. I tested this with Matlab R2006b and Visual Studio 2005.

Consider you created a "mydata.mat" file containing a 1x10 double matrix using matlab like this:

>> squares = [1:10].^2
>> save('mydata.mat', 'squares')

You can then use the following C# code to get this data into a .NET double-Array:

namespace csmatio_test
{
    using System;
    using csmatio.io;
    using csmatio.types;

    class Program
    {
        // this array receives the matlab data
        static double[] squares;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // create a reader for the file
            MatFileReader mfr = new MatFileReader("mydata.mat");

            // get a reference to out matlab 'squares' double matrix
            MLDouble mlSquares = (mfr.Content["squares"] as MLDouble);
            if (mlSquares != null)
            {
                // now get the double values
                double[][] tmp = mlSquares.GetArray();
                squares = tmp[0];
            }
        }
    }
}

HTH, Tobias

[Markus W]

Had problems reading mat-files with 2-dim arrays with larger number of elements. Saving the file with -v6 option solved the problem (so far).

[diiiego83]

ok good work David.
Ther's an error if you try to open a mat file with data of "single" class.
You forget the single case in MatFileReader.cs method ReadMatrix (Add this)

case MLArray.mxSINGLE_CLASS:
                    mlArray = new MLSingle(name, dims, type, attributes);
                    //read real
                    tag = new ISMatTag(buf);
                    tag.ReadToByteBuffer(((MLNumericArray<double>)mlArray).RealByteBuffer,
                    (ByteStorageSupport)mlArray);

                    // read complex
                    if (mlArray.IsComplex)
                    {
                    tag = new ISMatTag(buf);
                    tag.ReadToByteBuffer(((MLNumericArray<double>)mlArray).ImaginaryByteBuffer,
                    (ByteStorageSupport)mlArray);
                    }
                    break;

The keys in the internal structure has been saved with "\0". For Example in MlStructure.cs method ContentToString change :
sb.Append("\t" + key + " : " + this[key].ContentToString() + "\n");
with :
sb.Append("\t" + key.Replace("\0","") + " : " + this[key].ContentToString() + "\n");

;)