View source for User Reference:Python FileLoader

== Introduction ==
The [https://github.com/markusadamek/BCI2kReader BCI2kReader] package allows to read BCI2000 .dat files in Python. The reader is written completely in python and works with python 2 and python 3. 

== Installing the package==

The package can either be installed with the python package manager (pip) or you can download the latest version from [https://github.com/markusadamek/BCI2kReader GitHub].

To install the package via pip:

 pip install BCI2kReader

To get the latest (development) version from GitHub

 git clone https://github.com/markusadamek/BCI2kReader

To Install the development version move to the cloned directory and run:
 pip install .

== Usage ==

To use the reader you have to create a BCI2kReader object, which inherits from [https://docs.python.org/3/library/io.html#io.IOBase io.IOBase]. The reader has two basic modes, caching and non-caching. In caching mode, the BCI2kReader object will retain the data in memory as soon as a full readout of the file has taken place. If you need to save memory, the BCI2kReader object also supports that all read operations are done directly from the file. 

=== Reading a File ===
The simplest way to open a file is with pythons with command (see https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/inputoutput.html#methods-of-file-objects for more information about file IO and the with statement).


 from BCI2kReader import BCI2kReader as b2k
 
 
 with b2k.BCI2kReader('yourbci2000testfile.dat') as file:

if you want to open the file without caching enabled:

 with b2k.BCI2kReader('yourbci2000testfile.dat', False) as file:

It is also possible to clear the cache to free memory:
       file.purge()

=== Getting Data from the object ===

The easiest way to get the data is to use the properties for signals and states. The signals are provided as a [https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy-1.15.0/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html numpy ndarray] with the dimensions (channels, samples). The states are provided as a StateDictionary which inherits from [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#dictionaries dict] with the state name as key.

    eeg_data = file.signals
    states = file.states

=== Working with random access ===