# TileDB - TileDB raster

Driver short name

TileDB

Added in version 3.0.

Build dependencies

TileDB (>= 2.7 starting with GDAL 3.7)

GDAL can read and write TileDB arrays through the TileDB library.

The driver relies on the Open Source TileDB library (MIT licensed).

## Driver capabilities

Supports CreateCopy()

This driver supports the `GDALDriver::CreateCopy()` operation

Supports Create()

This driver supports the `GDALDriver::Create()` operation

Supports Georeferencing

This driver supports georeferencing

Supports VirtualIO

This driver supports virtual I/O operations (/vsimem/, etc.)

## Open options

The following open options exist:

- TILEDB_CONFIG=<filename>: A local file with TileDB configuration options

- TILEDB_TIMESTAMP=<integer>: Open array at this timestamp. Should be strictly greater than zero when set.

- STATS=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `NO`. Whether TileDB performance statistics should be displayed.

- TILEDB_ATTRIBUTE=<string>: Attribute to read from each band

## Creation options

The following creation options exist:

- TILEDB_CONFIG=<filename>: A local file with TileDB configuration options

- COMPRESSION=[NONE​/​GZIP​/​ZSTD​/​LZ4​/​RLE​/​BZIP2​/​DOUBLE-DELTA​/​POSITIVE-DELTA]: Compression to use. Default is NONE

- COMPRESSION_LEVEL=<integer>: Compression level

- BLOCKXSIZE=<integer>: Defaults to `256`. Tile width.

- BLOCKYSIZE=<integer>: Defaults to `256`. Tile height

- STATS=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `NO`. Whether TileDB performance statistics should be displayed.

- TILEDB_ATTRIBUTE=<string>: Co-registered file to add as TileDB attributes. Only applicable for interleave types of band or pixel

- INTERLEAVE=[BAND​/​PIXEL​/​ATTRIBUTES]: Defaults to `BAND`. Indexing order. Influences how multi-band rasters are stored.

  - `BAND`: a 3D array is created with the slowest varying dimension being the band.

  - `PIXEL`: a 3D array is created with the fastest varying dimension being the band.

  - `ATTRIBUTES`: a 2D array is created with each band being stored in a separate TileDB attribute.

- TILEDB_TIMESTAMP=<integer>: Create array at this timestamp. Should be strictly greater than zero when set.

- CREATE_GROUP=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.10) Defaults to `YES` since 3.10 (NO previously). Whether the dataset should be created within a TileDB group.

  When the dataset is created within a TileDB group, overviews that may be created are stored as TileDB arrays inside that group, next to the full resolution array. This makes administration of the dataset easier.

  Otherwise, the past default behavior (CREATE_GROUP=NO) is to create the dataset as a TileDB array. Overviews cannot be created in that mode.

## Multidimensional API support

Added in version 3.8.

The TileDB driver supports the Multidimensional Raster Data Model for reading and writing operations. It requires GDAL to be built and run against TileDB >= 2.15.

The driver supports: - creating and reading groups and subgroups - creating and reading multidimensional dense arrays with a numeric data type - creating and reading numeric or string attributes in groups and arrays - storing an indexing array of a dimension as a TileDB dimension label

The multidimensional API supports reading dense arrays created by the classic raster API of GDAL.

The following multidimensional dataset open options are available:

- TILEDB_CONFIG=config: A local file with TileDB configuration options

- TILEDB_TIMESTAMP=val: inclusive ending timestamp when opening this array

The following multidimensional dataset creation options are available:

- TILEDB_CONFIG=config: A local file with TileDB configuration options

- TILEDB_TIMESTAMP=val: Create array at this timestamp. Should be strictly greater than zero when set.

The following array open options are available:

- TILEDB_TIMESTAMP=val: inclusive ending timestamp when opening this array

The following array creation options are available:

- BLOCKSIZE=val1,val2,...,valN: Block size in pixels

- COMPRESSION=NONE/GZIP/ZSTD/LZ4/RLE/BZIP2/DOUBLE-DELTA/POSITIVE-DELTA: Compression to use. Default is NONE

- COMPRESSION_LEVEL=int_value: compression level

- IN_MEMORY=YES/NO: hether the array should be only in-memory. Useful to create an indexing variable that is serialized as a dimension label

- TILEDB_TIMESTAMP=val: Create array at this timestamp. Should be strictly greater than zero when set.

Cf tiledb_multidim.py for examples of how to use the Python multidimensional API with the TileDB driver.

## Standalone plugin compilation

Added in version 3.10.

While this driver may be built as part of a whole GDAL build, either in libgdal itself, or as a plugin, it is also possible to only build this driver as a plugin, against an already built libgdal.

The version of the GDAL sources used to build the driver must match the version of the libgdal it is built against.

For example, from a "build_tiledb" directory under the root of the GDAL source tree:

    cmake -S ../frmts/tiledb -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/GDAL_installation_prefix -DTileDB_DIR:PATH=/path/to/tiledb_installation_prefix/lib/cmake/TileDB
    cmake --build .

Note that such a plugin, when used against a libgdal not aware of it, will be systematically loaded at GDAL driver initialization time, and will not benefit from deferred plugin loading capabilities <rfc-96>. For that, libgdal itself must be built with the CMake variable GDAL_REGISTER_DRIVER_TILEDB_FOR_LATER_PLUGIN=ON set.

## See Also

- TileDB home page

- TileDB vector documentation page