Examples

Getting information on a raster dataset using dedicated methods

The following snippet uses individual API methods to retrieve characters of a GDAL raster dataset and its bands.

from osgeo import gdal
import json

gdal.UseExceptions()

ds = gdal.Open("data/byte.tif")
print(f"Width: {ds.RasterXSize}")
print(f"Height: {ds.RasterYSize}")
print(f"Number of bands: {ds.RasterCount}")
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[1], line 1
----> 1 from osgeo import gdal
      2 import json
      4 gdal.UseExceptions()

ImportError: cannot import name 'gdal' from 'osgeo' (unknown location)
srs = ds.GetSpatialRef()
srs_unit = ""
if srs:
    srs_as_projjson = json.loads(srs.ExportToPROJJSON())
    print("SRS:")
    srs_type = srs_as_projjson["type"]
    print(f"  Type: {srs_type}")
    name = srs_as_projjson["name"]
    print(f"  Name: {name}")
    if "id" in srs_as_projjson:
        id = srs_as_projjson["id"]
        authority = id["authority"]
        code = id["code"]
        print(f"  Id: {authority}:{code}")
    srs_unit = " " + srs_as_projjson["coordinate_system"]["axis"][0]["unit"]
geotransform = ds.GetGeoTransform()
if geotransform[2] == 0 and geotransform[4] == 0:
    print(f"Upper-left corner georeferenced position: X={geotransform[0]}{srs_unit}, Y={geotransform[3]}{srs_unit}")
    print(f"Horizontal resolution: {geotransform[1]}{srs_unit}")
    print(f"Vertical resolution: {geotransform[5]}{srs_unit} (negative value indicates a north-up image)")
else:
    print(f"Geotransformation matrix: {geotransform}")
print(f"Metadata: {ds.GetMetadata()}")
for idx, band in enumerate(ds):
    print(f"Band {idx+1}:")
    print(f"  Data type: {gdal.GetDataTypeName(band.DataType)}")
    block_width, block_height = band.GetBlockSize()
    print(f"  Block width: {block_width}")
    print(f"  Block height: {block_height}")
    print(f"  Metadata: {band.GetMetadata()}")
# Explicitly close the dataset. May be needed in creation/update scenarios, to
# make sure all data is properly flushed to storage, or even in read-only
# scenarios, if you want to delete the file afterwards (on Windows).
# You may also use a context manager with "with gdal.Open(...) as ds" as shown
# in later examples.
ds.Close()

Getting information on a raster dataset using gdal.Info()

The following snippet uses the osgeo.gdal.Info() method to retrieve characters of a GDAL raster dataset and its bands, as a JSON document.

from osgeo import gdal
import pprint

gdal.UseExceptions()

with gdal.Open("data/byte.tif") as ds:
    info = gdal.Info(ds, format='json')
    del info["stac"]  # to avoid cluttering below output
    pprint.pprint(info, indent=2, width=100)

Reading a whole raster as a numpy array

The following snippet uses the osgeo.gdal.Dataset.ReadAsArray() method to retrieve the pixel values of all the bands of a dataset as a numpy array.

A 2D array is returned for a single band image. A 3D array, with first dimension being the band one, is returned for images with multiple bands.

from osgeo import gdal

gdal.UseExceptions()

with gdal.Open("data/byte.tif") as ds:
    array = ds.ReadAsArray()
    print(array)