{"categories":[{"label":"Scientific/Engineering","url":"https://skillfed.io/packages/category/scientific-engineering/9"}],"enrichment":{"capability":"Loads MATLAB 7.3 .mat files (stored as HDF5) into Python dictionaries with support for struct attribute access and selective variable loading.","skillfed_tags":["matlab-interop","data-loading","hdf5"],"use_cases":["Load simulation or experimental data saved from MATLAB into Python for analysis with scientific libraries.","Extract specific variables from large .mat files without loading the entire file into memory using the only_include parameter.","Migrate MATLAB-based workflows to Python by reading existing .mat archives as dictionaries.","Access nested MATLAB struct hierarchies using Python attribute syntax for cleaner code.","Convert MATLAB sparse matrices into scipy.sparse format for linear algebra operations in Python."],"what_it_does":"mat73 fills a gap left by scipy.io.loadmat, which cannot read MATLAB 7.3 .mat files because they are stored as HDF5 containers. This library wraps h5py and numpy to parse those HDF5 files and reconstruct them as native Python dictionaries, with optional attribute-style access for struct members. It handles standard MATLAB datatypes (numeric arrays, strings, structs as lists of dicts, cells as nested lists, sparse matrices) and can selectively load only specified variables or subtrees to reduce memory overhead.\n\nThe package is straightforward to use\u2014a single loadmat() call returns a dictionary\u2014but is narrowly scoped: it only handles MATLAB 7.3 files, does not support proprietary MATLAB types, and cannot write .mat files back. It depends on h5py for HDF5 access and numpy for array representation, both widely available.","worth_installing":"Yes, if you need to read MATLAB 7.3 .mat files in Python. The package is stable, has low install friction, and solves a specific problem scipy.io.loadmat does not. The GPLv3 copyleft license is a consideration for proprietary projects. The repository remains active with no known vulnerabilities."},"id":"mat73","links":{"html":"https://skillfed.io/packages/mat73","md":"https://skillfed.io/packages/mat73.md","pypi":"https://pypi.org/project/mat73/"},"maintenance":{"status":"active"},"meta":{"latest_release":"2024-07-24","license_spdx":null,"license_treatment":"copyleft","name":"mat73","python_support":"unspecified","summary":"Load MATLAB .mat 7.3 into Python native data types (via h5/hd5/hdf5/h5py)"},"popularity":{"monthly_downloads":77877,"position":14486,"tier":"top_15000"},"security":{"n_vulnerabilities":0},"version":"0.65"}