This repository contains a Python wrapper for the HEC-DSS file database C library. The provided DLL (hecdss.dll on Windows and hecdss.so on Linux) enables interaction with HEC-DSS files while abstracting memory management between Python and C.
The HEC-DSS file database is a widely used data storage format for hydrological and environmental data. This repository provides a Python interface to interact with the HEC-DSS files using the provided C DLL. The primary goal is to enable Python applications to read data from and write data to HEC-DSS files.
These are the driving design ideas and goals of the hec-dss-python project (subject to updates)
| Feature | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| hecdss.dll/libhecdss.so | cross platform (Linux,Windows,Mac), cross language (.net, Python, Java) essential API | decouple from underlying HEC-DSS Fortran/C Library (allow future DSS versions without C and Fortran backend) |
| Support only DSS 7 | encourage migration from version 6 | HEC is moving to DSS version 7 in 2023-2024. |
| Easy transition from Jython | HEC products use an existing Java/Jython API. We will loosely follow that design | simplify porting from Jython |
| hec_dss_native.py | native binding layer | isolate interactions with low level library(if performance is an issue this Ctypes layer can be replaced ) |
| hec_dss.py | Programmer entry point ; Python API | Hides interactions with hec_dss_native, seek to be simple user experience |
| catalog.py | manage list of DSS objects (catalog) | create condensed catalog perspective |
| Pandas_Series_Utilities.py future | NumPy/pandas support | provide features such as dataframes, separate from hec-dss.py; can be developed by different/parallel developers |
| Easy to get started | nothing to install, just copy python files and shared library | require minimal privileges to install |
- Read and write data from HEC-DSS files using the provided C DLL.
- Abstracted memory management: Python allocates memory for arrays passed to the DLL, which the C code then populates.
- Cross-platform support:
hecdss.dllfor Windows andhecdss.sofor Linux. - Potential for future storage backend expansion (e.g., SQLite, HDF5) without altering the API.
- Language-agnostic approach similar to the .NET implementation (hec-dss-dotnet).
- No package installation required because the library is using python-ctypes to interact with the DLL.
- Clone this repository to your local machine.
- Place the appropriate
hecdss.dllorhecdss.sofile for your platform in the repository's root directory.
Contributions to this project are welcome! If you find any issues, have suggestions, or want to add new features, please open an issue or submit a pull request.