[petsc-users] Load Vec from 1D HDF5 dataset

[Håkon Strandenes]

Hi,

I am again in trouble with PETSc and its HDF5-related functions.

I have a code in which I want to read a 1D dataset from a HDF5 file into 
a PETSc Vec. The array are "small", and each MPI process should read the 
entire dataset and store it in its own sequential Vec.

Currently my code is as follows (somewhat simplified):

VecCreate(PETSC_COMM_SELF, &v);
VecSetType(v, VECSEQ);
PetscObjectSetName((PetscObject)v, "x");
PetscViewerHDF5Open(PETSC_COMM_WORLD, "in.h5", FILE_MODE_READ, &viewer);
VecLoad(v, viewer);

This works, but only if the dataset in the HDF5 file is a 2D dataset, of 
size Nx1, where N is the number of elements I read. If the dataset in 
the HDF5 file is of size N (i.e. a 1D dataset) this does not work.

The error message I get is the following:
[0]PETSC ERROR: Unexpected data in file
[0]PETSC ERROR: Dimension of array in file 1 not 2 as expected
etc. and it points back to the line 296 in file vecio.c, function 
VecLoad_HDF5().

Technically this is not a problem. I could of course just go ahead and 
"reshape" all my datasets into 2D datasets. I do however find this 
behaviour very un-logical. Why can't I read a 1D dataset into a Vec?

So my question are:
1) Do I do anything wrong when creating my Vec and reading my datasets?
2) Is there anything I can do to read my 1D datasets into Vecs?
3) Could PETSc perhaps be a little less restrictive in these cases?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Håkon Strandenes