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WXF (.wxf)

Background & Context

    • Wolfram exchange format.
    • Binary format.
    • Represents arbitrary Wolfram Language expressions in a serialized, platform-independent form.
    • Versioned format.
    • Developed in 2017 by Wolfram Research.

Import & Export

Import Elements

  • General Import elements:
  • "Elements" list of elements and options available in this file
    "Summary"summary of the file
    "Rules"list of rules for all available elements
  • Import elements:
  • "Expression"returns the serialized expression
    "HeldExpression"returns the expression wrapped in HoldComplete
    "ExprStruct"returns the expression as an "ExprStruct" data structure
  • Import by default uses the "Expression" element for Wolfram Language WXF files.

Options

Examples

open allclose all

Basic Examples  (4)Summary of the most common use cases

Export an expression to WXF:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-1o6pyu
Out[1]=1

Export a string to WXF:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-0qogd9
Out[1]=1

Export a symbolic expression to WXF:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-436rwo
Out[1]=1

Import as an expression:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-9kze26
Out[2]=2

Export an arbitrary Wolfram Language expression to the WXF format:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-dant83

Import as an expression:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-isyk46
Out[2]=2

Scope  (2)Survey of the scope of standard use cases

Serialize an expression to a WXF byte array:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-4wpm3s
Out[1]=1

Deserialize the output using BinaryDeserialize:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-2borvf
Out[2]=2

Serialize an expression to a WXF byte array:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-dq4atb
Out[1]=1

Import it using automatic format detection:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-7xzxyk
Out[2]=2

Import Elements  (4)

List available elements:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-4x4i68
Out[1]=1

Serialize an unevaluated expression:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-m6ocz7
Out[1]=1

Import it using the default element "Expression":

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-og06fn
Out[2]=2

Import it in a held form using the element "HeldExpression":

In[3]:=3
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-3jhgzz
Out[3]=3

Get WXF data from an untrusted source:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-qd5s5w

Inspect the element "HeldExpression":

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-pegcx7
Out[2]=2

The code is safe; evaluate it:

In[3]:=3
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-c3q1o0
Out[3]=3

Import bytes with the element "ExprStruct":

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-yh53zg
Out[1]=1

The expression is held in an unevaluated state:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-mjo4wc
Out[2]=2

Export Options  (5)

PerformanceGoal  (2)

Serialize an expression using BinarySerialize to produce a compressed output:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-j9ozpz
Out[1]=1

Import the resulting byte array:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-3n5s4d
Out[2]=2

Serialize a dataset:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-76lzw3

Serialize the same dataset with PerformanceGoal set to "Size":

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-enmxuq

Compute the size of the outputs:

In[3]:=3
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-okkb5v
Out[3]=3

Both represent the same expression:

In[4]:=4
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-hv3of5
Out[4]=4

Method  (3)

By default, the WXF serialization of packed arrays of integers uses the smallest integer type that fits the data:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-h09z3y
Out[1]=1

Export a packed array using a bigger integer type:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-kag7qn
Out[2]=2

Create a packed array of real values:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-gh0c61
Out[1]=1

By default, the WXF serialization of a packed array of real values uses machine doubles:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-j7kzr8
Out[2]=2

Export the array using machine floats:

In[3]:=3
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-fn6i49
Out[3]=3

Create a packed array of complex values:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-x9xo0o
Out[1]=1

By default, the WXF serialization of packed array of complex values uses two machine doubles to represent one complex value:

In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-4ky10q
Out[2]=2

Export the array using lower precision:

In[3]:=3
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-ju8coy
Out[3]=3

Properties & Relations  (2)Properties of the function, and connections to other functions

ExportByteArray[expr,"WXF"] is effectively equivalent to BinarySerialize[expr]:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-80fq1v
Out[1]=1

ImportByteArray[ba,"WXF"] is effectively equivalent to BinaryDeserialize[ba]:

In[1]:=1
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-2oo7r8
In[2]:=2
✖
https://wolfram.com/xid/0cb01mgko-54jrm7
Out[2]=2