scipy 1.16.2__cp314-cp314t-win_arm64.whl

scipy/io/matlab/_mio5.py

@@ -0,0 +1,901 @@
+''' Classes for read / write of matlab (TM) 5 files
+
+The matfile specification last found here:
+
+https://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/pdf_doc/matlab/matfile_format.pdf
+
+(as of December 5 2008)
+
+=================================
+ Note on functions and mat files
+=================================
+
+The document above does not give any hints as to the storage of matlab
+function handles, or anonymous function handles. I had, therefore, to
+guess the format of matlab arrays of ``mxFUNCTION_CLASS`` and
+``mxOPAQUE_CLASS`` by looking at example mat files.
+
+``mxFUNCTION_CLASS`` stores all types of matlab functions. It seems to
+contain a struct matrix with a set pattern of fields. For anonymous
+functions, a sub-fields of one of these fields seems to contain the
+well-named ``mxOPAQUE_CLASS``. This seems to contain:
+
+* array flags as for any matlab matrix
+* 3 int8 strings
+* a matrix
+
+It seems that whenever the mat file contains a ``mxOPAQUE_CLASS``
+instance, there is also an un-named matrix (name == '') at the end of
+the mat file. I'll call this the ``__function_workspace__`` matrix.
+
+When I saved two anonymous functions in a mat file, or appended another
+anonymous function to the mat file, there was still only one
+``__function_workspace__`` un-named matrix at the end, but larger than
+that for a mat file with a single anonymous function, suggesting that
+the workspaces for the two functions had been merged.
+
+The ``__function_workspace__`` matrix appears to be of double class
+(``mxCLASS_DOUBLE``), but stored as uint8, the memory for which is in
+the format of a mini .mat file, without the first 124 bytes of the file
+header (the description and the subsystem_offset), but with the version
+U2 bytes, and the S2 endian test bytes. There follow 4 zero bytes,
+presumably for 8 byte padding, and then a series of ``miMATRIX``
+entries, as in a standard mat file. The ``miMATRIX`` entries appear to
+be series of un-named (name == '') matrices, and may also contain arrays
+of this same mini-mat format.
+
+I guess that:
+
+* saving an anonymous function back to a mat file will need the
+  associated ``__function_workspace__`` matrix saved as well for the
+  anonymous function to work correctly.
+* appending to a mat file that has a ``__function_workspace__`` would
+  involve first pulling off this workspace, appending, checking whether
+  there were any more anonymous functions appended, and then somehow
+  merging the relevant workspaces, and saving at the end of the mat
+  file.
+
+The mat files I was playing with are in ``tests/data``:
+
+* sqr.mat
+* parabola.mat
+* some_functions.mat
+
+See ``tests/test_mio.py:test_mio_funcs.py`` for the debugging
+script I was working with.
+
+Small fragments of current code adapted from matfile.py by Heiko
+Henkelmann; parts of the code for simplify_cells=True adapted from
+http://blog.nephics.com/2019/08/28/better-loadmat-for-scipy/.
+'''
+
+import math
+import os
+import time
+import sys
+import zlib
+
+from io import BytesIO
+
+import warnings
+
+import numpy as np
+
+import scipy.sparse
+
+from ._byteordercodes import native_code, swapped_code
+
+from ._miobase import (MatFileReader, docfiller, matdims, read_dtype,
+                      arr_to_chars, arr_dtype_number, MatWriteError,
+                      MatReadError, MatReadWarning, MatWriteWarning)
+
+# Reader object for matlab 5 format variables
+from ._mio5_utils import VarReader5
+
+# Constants and helper objects
+from ._mio5_params import (MatlabObject, MatlabFunction, MDTYPES, NP_TO_MTYPES,
+                          NP_TO_MXTYPES, miCOMPRESSED, miMATRIX, miINT8,
+                          miUTF8, miUINT32, mxCELL_CLASS, mxSTRUCT_CLASS,
+                          mxOBJECT_CLASS, mxCHAR_CLASS, mxSPARSE_CLASS,
+                          mxDOUBLE_CLASS, mclass_info, mat_struct)
+
+from ._streams import ZlibInputStream
+
+
+def _has_struct(elem):
+    """Determine if elem is an array and if first array item is a struct."""
+    return (isinstance(elem, np.ndarray) and (elem.size > 0) and (elem.ndim > 0) and
+            isinstance(elem[0], mat_struct))
+
+
+def _inspect_cell_array(ndarray):
+    """Construct lists from cell arrays (loaded as numpy ndarrays), recursing
+    into items if they contain mat_struct objects."""
+    elem_list = []
+    for sub_elem in ndarray:
+        if isinstance(sub_elem, mat_struct):
+            elem_list.append(_matstruct_to_dict(sub_elem))
+        elif _has_struct(sub_elem):
+            elem_list.append(_inspect_cell_array(sub_elem))
+        else:
+            elem_list.append(sub_elem)
+    return elem_list
+
+
+def _matstruct_to_dict(matobj):
+    """Construct nested dicts from mat_struct objects."""
+    d = {}
+    for f in matobj._fieldnames:
+        elem = matobj.__dict__[f]
+        if isinstance(elem, mat_struct):
+            d[f] = _matstruct_to_dict(elem)
+        elif _has_struct(elem):
+            d[f] = _inspect_cell_array(elem)
+        else:
+            d[f] = elem
+    return d
+
+
+def _simplify_cells(d):
+    """Convert mat objects in dict to nested dicts."""
+    for key in d:
+        if isinstance(d[key], mat_struct):
+            d[key] = _matstruct_to_dict(d[key])
+        elif _has_struct(d[key]):
+            d[key] = _inspect_cell_array(d[key])
+    return d
+
+
+class MatFile5Reader(MatFileReader):
+    ''' Reader for Mat 5 mat files
+    Adds the following attribute to base class
+
+    uint16_codec - char codec to use for uint16 char arrays
+        (defaults to system default codec)
+
+    Uses variable reader that has the following standard interface (see
+    abstract class in ``miobase``::
+
+       __init__(self, file_reader)
+       read_header(self)
+       array_from_header(self)
+
+    and added interface::
+
+       set_stream(self, stream)
+       read_full_tag(self)
+
+    '''
+    @docfiller
+    def __init__(self,
+                 mat_stream,
+                 byte_order=None,
+                 mat_dtype=False,
+                 squeeze_me=False,
+                 chars_as_strings=True,
+                 matlab_compatible=False,
+                 struct_as_record=True,
+                 verify_compressed_data_integrity=True,
+                 uint16_codec=None,
+                 simplify_cells=False):
+        '''Initializer for matlab 5 file format reader
+
+    %(matstream_arg)s
+    %(load_args)s
+    %(struct_arg)s
+    uint16_codec : {None, string}
+        Set codec to use for uint16 char arrays (e.g., 'utf-8').
+        Use system default codec if None
+        '''
+        super().__init__(
+            mat_stream,
+            byte_order,
+            mat_dtype,
+            squeeze_me,
+            chars_as_strings,
+            matlab_compatible,
+            struct_as_record,
+            verify_compressed_data_integrity,
+            simplify_cells)
+        # Set uint16 codec
+        if not uint16_codec:
+            uint16_codec = sys.getdefaultencoding()
+        self.uint16_codec = uint16_codec
+        # placeholders for readers - see initialize_read method
+        self._file_reader = None
+        self._matrix_reader = None
+
+    def guess_byte_order(self):
+        ''' Guess byte order.
+        Sets stream pointer to 0'''
+        self.mat_stream.seek(126)
+        mi = self.mat_stream.read(2)
+        self.mat_stream.seek(0)
+        return mi == b'IM' and '<' or '>'
+
+    def read_file_header(self):
+        ''' Read in mat 5 file header '''
+        hdict = {}
+        hdr_dtype = MDTYPES[self.byte_order]['dtypes']['file_header']
+        hdr = read_dtype(self.mat_stream, hdr_dtype)
+        hdict['__header__'] = hdr['description'].item().strip(b' \t\n\000')
+        v_major = hdr['version'] >> 8
+        v_minor = hdr['version'] & 0xFF
+        hdict['__version__'] = f'{v_major}.{v_minor}'
+        return hdict
+
+    def initialize_read(self):
+        ''' Run when beginning read of variables
+
+        Sets up readers from parameters in `self`
+        '''
+        # reader for top level stream. We need this extra top-level
+        # reader because we use the matrix_reader object to contain
+        # compressed matrices (so they have their own stream)
+        self._file_reader = VarReader5(self)
+        # reader for matrix streams
+        self._matrix_reader = VarReader5(self)
+
+    def read_var_header(self):
+        ''' Read header, return header, next position
+
+        Header has to define at least .name and .is_global
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        None
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        header : object
+           object that can be passed to self.read_var_array, and that
+           has attributes .name and .is_global
+        next_position : int
+           position in stream of next variable
+        '''
+        mdtype, byte_count = self._file_reader.read_full_tag()
+        if not byte_count > 0:
+            raise ValueError("Did not read any bytes")
+        next_pos = self.mat_stream.tell() + byte_count
+        if mdtype == miCOMPRESSED:
+            # Make new stream from compressed data
+            stream = ZlibInputStream(self.mat_stream, byte_count)
+            self._matrix_reader.set_stream(stream)
+            check_stream_limit = self.verify_compressed_data_integrity
+            mdtype, byte_count = self._matrix_reader.read_full_tag()
+        else:
+            check_stream_limit = False
+            self._matrix_reader.set_stream(self.mat_stream)
+        if not mdtype == miMATRIX:
+            raise TypeError(f'Expecting miMATRIX type here, got {mdtype}')
+        header = self._matrix_reader.read_header(check_stream_limit)
+        return header, next_pos
+
+    def read_var_array(self, header, process=True):
+        ''' Read array, given `header`
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        header : header object
+           object with fields defining variable header
+        process : {True, False} bool, optional
+           If True, apply recursive post-processing during loading of
+           array.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        arr : array
+           array with post-processing applied or not according to
+           `process`.
+        '''
+        return self._matrix_reader.array_from_header(header, process)
+
+    def get_variables(self, variable_names=None):
+        ''' get variables from stream as dictionary
+
+        variable_names   - optional list of variable names to get
+
+        If variable_names is None, then get all variables in file
+        '''
+        if isinstance(variable_names, str):
+            variable_names = [variable_names]
+        elif variable_names is not None:
+            variable_names = list(variable_names)
+
+        self.mat_stream.seek(0)
+        # Here we pass all the parameters in self to the reading objects
+        self.initialize_read()
+        mdict = self.read_file_header()
+        mdict['__globals__'] = []
+        while not self.end_of_stream():
+            hdr, next_position = self.read_var_header()
+            name = 'None' if hdr.name is None else hdr.name.decode('latin1')
+            if name in mdict:
+                msg = (
+                    f'Duplicate variable name "{name}" in stream'
+                    " - replacing previous with new\nConsider"
+                    "scipy.io.matlab.varmats_from_mat to split "
+                    "file into single variable files"
+                )
+                warnings.warn(msg, MatReadWarning, stacklevel=2)
+            if name == '':
+                # can only be a matlab 7 function workspace
+                name = '__function_workspace__'
+                # We want to keep this raw because mat_dtype processing
+                # will break the format (uint8 as mxDOUBLE_CLASS)
+                process = False
+            else:
+                process = True
+            if variable_names is not None and name not in variable_names:
+                self.mat_stream.seek(next_position)
+                continue
+            try:
+                res = self.read_var_array(hdr, process)
+            except MatReadError as err:
+                warnings.warn(
+                    f'Unreadable variable "{name}", because "{err}"',
+                    Warning, stacklevel=2)
+                res = f"Read error: {err}"
+            self.mat_stream.seek(next_position)
+            mdict[name] = res
+            if hdr.is_global:
+                mdict['__globals__'].append(name)
+            if variable_names is not None:
+                variable_names.remove(name)
+                if len(variable_names) == 0:
+                    break
+        if self.simplify_cells:
+            return _simplify_cells(mdict)
+        else:
+            return mdict
+
+    def list_variables(self):
+        ''' list variables from stream '''
+        self.mat_stream.seek(0)
+        # Here we pass all the parameters in self to the reading objects
+        self.initialize_read()
+        self.read_file_header()
+        vars = []
+        while not self.end_of_stream():
+            hdr, next_position = self.read_var_header()
+            name = 'None' if hdr.name is None else hdr.name.decode('latin1')
+            if name == '':
+                # can only be a matlab 7 function workspace
+                name = '__function_workspace__'
+
+            shape = self._matrix_reader.shape_from_header(hdr)
+            if hdr.is_logical:
+                info = 'logical'
+            else:
+                info = mclass_info.get(hdr.mclass, 'unknown')
+            vars.append((name, shape, info))
+
+            self.mat_stream.seek(next_position)
+        return vars
+
+
+def varmats_from_mat(file_obj):
+    """ Pull variables out of mat 5 file as a sequence of mat file objects
+
+    This can be useful with a difficult mat file, containing unreadable
+    variables. This routine pulls the variables out in raw form and puts them,
+    unread, back into a file stream for saving or reading. Another use is the
+    pathological case where there is more than one variable of the same name in
+    the file; this routine returns the duplicates, whereas the standard reader
+    will overwrite duplicates in the returned dictionary.
+
+    The file pointer in `file_obj` will be undefined. File pointers for the
+    returned file-like objects are set at 0.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    file_obj : file-like
+        file object containing mat file
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    named_mats : list
+        list contains tuples of (name, BytesIO) where BytesIO is a file-like
+        object containing mat file contents as for a single variable. The
+        BytesIO contains a string with the original header and a single var. If
+        ``var_file_obj`` is an individual BytesIO instance, then save as a mat
+        file with something like ``open('test.mat',
+        'wb').write(var_file_obj.read())``
+
+    Examples
+    --------
+    >>> import scipy.io
+    >>> import numpy as np
+    >>> from io import BytesIO
+    >>> from scipy.io.matlab._mio5 import varmats_from_mat
+    >>> mat_fileobj = BytesIO()
+    >>> scipy.io.savemat(mat_fileobj, {'b': np.arange(10), 'a': 'a string'})
+    >>> varmats = varmats_from_mat(mat_fileobj)
+    >>> sorted([name for name, str_obj in varmats])
+    ['a', 'b']
+    """
+    rdr = MatFile5Reader(file_obj)
+    file_obj.seek(0)
+    # Raw read of top-level file header
+    hdr_len = MDTYPES[native_code]['dtypes']['file_header'].itemsize
+    raw_hdr = file_obj.read(hdr_len)
+    # Initialize variable reading
+    file_obj.seek(0)
+    rdr.initialize_read()
+    rdr.read_file_header()
+    next_position = file_obj.tell()
+    named_mats = []
+    while not rdr.end_of_stream():
+        start_position = next_position
+        hdr, next_position = rdr.read_var_header()
+        name = 'None' if hdr.name is None else hdr.name.decode('latin1')
+        # Read raw variable string
+        file_obj.seek(start_position)
+        byte_count = next_position - start_position
+        var_str = file_obj.read(byte_count)
+        # write to stringio object
+        out_obj = BytesIO()
+        out_obj.write(raw_hdr)
+        out_obj.write(var_str)
+        out_obj.seek(0)
+        named_mats.append((name, out_obj))
+    return named_mats
+
+
+class EmptyStructMarker:
+    """ Class to indicate presence of empty matlab struct on output """
+
+
+def to_writeable(source):
+    ''' Convert input object ``source`` to something we can write
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    source : object
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    arr : None or ndarray or EmptyStructMarker
+        If `source` cannot be converted to something we can write to a matfile,
+        return None.  If `source` is equivalent to an empty dictionary, return
+        ``EmptyStructMarker``.  Otherwise return `source` converted to an
+        ndarray with contents for writing to matfile.
+    '''
+    if isinstance(source, np.ndarray):
+        return source
+    if source is None:
+        return None
+    if hasattr(source, "__array__"):
+        return np.asarray(source)
+    # Objects that implement mappings
+    is_mapping = (hasattr(source, 'keys') and hasattr(source, 'values') and
+                  hasattr(source, 'items'))
+    # Objects that don't implement mappings, but do have dicts
+    if isinstance(source, np.generic):
+        # NumPy scalars are never mappings (PyPy issue workaround)
+        pass
+    elif not is_mapping and hasattr(source, '__dict__'):
+        source = {key: value for key, value in source.__dict__.items()
+                      if not key.startswith('_')}
+        is_mapping = True
+    if is_mapping:
+        dtype = []
+        values = []
+        for field, value in source.items():
+            if isinstance(field, str):
+                if field[0] not in '_0123456789':
+                    dtype.append((str(field), object))
+                    values.append(value)
+                else:
+                    msg = (f"Starting field name with a underscore "
+                           f"or a digit ({field}) is ignored")
+                    warnings.warn(msg, MatWriteWarning, stacklevel=2)
+        if dtype:
+            return np.array([tuple(values)], dtype)
+        else:
+            return EmptyStructMarker
+    # Next try and convert to an array
+    try:
+        narr = np.asanyarray(source)
+    except ValueError:
+        narr = np.asanyarray(source, dtype=object)
+    if narr.dtype.type in (object, np.object_) and \
+       narr.shape == () and narr == source:
+        # No interesting conversion possible
+        return None
+    return narr
+
+
+# Native byte ordered dtypes for convenience for writers
+NDT_FILE_HDR = MDTYPES[native_code]['dtypes']['file_header']
+NDT_TAG_FULL = MDTYPES[native_code]['dtypes']['tag_full']
+NDT_TAG_SMALL = MDTYPES[native_code]['dtypes']['tag_smalldata']
+NDT_ARRAY_FLAGS = MDTYPES[native_code]['dtypes']['array_flags']
+
+
+class VarWriter5:
+    ''' Generic matlab matrix writing class '''
+    mat_tag = np.zeros((), NDT_TAG_FULL)
+    mat_tag['mdtype'] = miMATRIX
+
+    def __init__(self, file_writer):
+        self.file_stream = file_writer.file_stream
+        self.unicode_strings = file_writer.unicode_strings
+        self.long_field_names = file_writer.long_field_names
+        self.oned_as = file_writer.oned_as
+        # These are used for top level writes, and unset after
+        self._var_name = None
+        self._var_is_global = False
+
+    def write_bytes(self, arr):
+        self.file_stream.write(arr.tobytes(order='F'))
+
+    def write_string(self, s):
+        self.file_stream.write(s)
+
+    def write_element(self, arr, mdtype=None):
+        ''' write tag and data '''
+        if mdtype is None:
+            mdtype = NP_TO_MTYPES[arr.dtype.str[1:]]
+        # Array needs to be in native byte order
+        if arr.dtype.byteorder == swapped_code:
+            arr = arr.byteswap().view(arr.dtype.newbyteorder())
+        byte_count = arr.size*arr.itemsize
+        if byte_count <= 4:
+            self.write_smalldata_element(arr, mdtype, byte_count)
+        else:
+            self.write_regular_element(arr, mdtype, byte_count)
+
+    def write_smalldata_element(self, arr, mdtype, byte_count):
+        # write tag with embedded data
+        tag = np.zeros((), NDT_TAG_SMALL)
+        tag['byte_count_mdtype'] = (byte_count << 16) + mdtype
+        # if arr.tobytes is < 4, the element will be zero-padded as needed.
+        tag['data'] = arr.tobytes(order='F')
+        self.write_bytes(tag)
+
+    def write_regular_element(self, arr, mdtype, byte_count):
+        # write tag, data
+        tag = np.zeros((), NDT_TAG_FULL)
+        tag['mdtype'] = mdtype
+        tag['byte_count'] = byte_count
+        self.write_bytes(tag)
+        self.write_bytes(arr)
+        # pad to next 64-bit boundary
+        bc_mod_8 = byte_count % 8
+        if bc_mod_8:
+            self.file_stream.write(b'\x00' * (8-bc_mod_8))
+
+    def write_header(self,
+                     shape,
+                     mclass,
+                     is_complex=False,
+                     is_logical=False,
+                     nzmax=0):
+        ''' Write header for given data options
+        shape : sequence
+           array shape
+        mclass      - mat5 matrix class
+        is_complex  - True if matrix is complex
+        is_logical  - True if matrix is logical
+        nzmax        - max non zero elements for sparse arrays
+
+        We get the name and the global flag from the object, and reset
+        them to defaults after we've used them
+        '''
+        # get name and is_global from one-shot object store
+        name = self._var_name
+        is_global = self._var_is_global
+        # initialize the top-level matrix tag, store position
+        self._mat_tag_pos = self.file_stream.tell()
+        self.write_bytes(self.mat_tag)
+        # write array flags (complex, global, logical, class, nzmax)
+        af = np.zeros((), NDT_ARRAY_FLAGS)
+        af['data_type'] = miUINT32
+        af['byte_count'] = 8
+        flags = is_complex << 3 | is_global << 2 | is_logical << 1
+        af['flags_class'] = mclass | flags << 8
+        af['nzmax'] = nzmax
+        self.write_bytes(af)
+        # shape
+        self.write_element(np.array(shape, dtype='i4'))
+        # write name
+        name = np.asarray(name)
+        if name == '':  # empty string zero-terminated
+            self.write_smalldata_element(name, miINT8, 0)
+        else:
+            self.write_element(name, miINT8)
+        # reset the one-shot store to defaults
+        self._var_name = ''
+        self._var_is_global = False
+
+    def update_matrix_tag(self, start_pos):
+        curr_pos = self.file_stream.tell()
+        self.file_stream.seek(start_pos)
+        byte_count = curr_pos - start_pos - 8
+        if byte_count >= 2**32:
+            raise MatWriteError("Matrix too large to save with Matlab "
+                                "5 format")
+        self.mat_tag['byte_count'] = byte_count
+        self.write_bytes(self.mat_tag)
+        self.file_stream.seek(curr_pos)
+
+    def write_top(self, arr, name, is_global):
+        """ Write variable at top level of mat file
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        arr : array_like
+            array-like object to create writer for
+        name : str, optional
+            name as it will appear in matlab workspace
+            default is empty string
+        is_global : {False, True}, optional
+            whether variable will be global on load into matlab
+        """
+        # these are set before the top-level header write, and unset at
+        # the end of the same write, because they do not apply for lower levels
+        self._var_is_global = is_global
+        self._var_name = name
+        # write the header and data
+        self.write(arr)
+
+    def write(self, arr):
+        ''' Write `arr` to stream at top and sub levels
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        arr : array_like
+            array-like object to create writer for
+        '''
+        # store position, so we can update the matrix tag
+        mat_tag_pos = self.file_stream.tell()
+        # First check if these are sparse
+        if scipy.sparse.issparse(arr):
+            self.write_sparse(arr)
+            self.update_matrix_tag(mat_tag_pos)
+            return
+        # Try to convert things that aren't arrays
+        narr = to_writeable(arr)
+        if narr is None:
+            raise TypeError(f'Could not convert {arr} (type {type(arr)}) to array')
+        if isinstance(narr, MatlabObject):
+            self.write_object(narr)
+        elif isinstance(narr, MatlabFunction):
+            raise MatWriteError('Cannot write matlab functions')
+        elif narr is EmptyStructMarker:  # empty struct array
+            self.write_empty_struct()
+        elif narr.dtype.fields:  # struct array
+            self.write_struct(narr)
+        elif narr.dtype.hasobject:  # cell array
+            self.write_cells(narr)
+        elif narr.dtype.kind in ('U', 'S'):
+            if self.unicode_strings:
+                codec = 'UTF8'
+            else:
+                codec = 'ascii'
+            self.write_char(narr, codec)
+        else:
+            self.write_numeric(narr)
+        self.update_matrix_tag(mat_tag_pos)
+
+    def write_numeric(self, arr):
+        imagf = arr.dtype.kind == 'c'
+        logif = arr.dtype.kind == 'b'
+        try:
+            mclass = NP_TO_MXTYPES[arr.dtype.str[1:]]
+        except KeyError:
+            # No matching matlab type, probably complex256 / float128 / float96
+            # Cast data to complex128 / float64.
+            if imagf:
+                arr = arr.astype('c128')
+            elif logif:
+                arr = arr.astype('i1')  # Should only contain 0/1
+            else:
+                arr = arr.astype('f8')
+            mclass = mxDOUBLE_CLASS
+        self.write_header(matdims(arr, self.oned_as),
+                          mclass,
+                          is_complex=imagf,
+                          is_logical=logif)
+        if imagf:
+            self.write_element(arr.real)
+            self.write_element(arr.imag)
+        else:
+            self.write_element(arr)
+
+    def write_char(self, arr, codec='ascii'):
+        ''' Write string array `arr` with given `codec`
+        '''
+        if arr.size == 0 or np.all(arr == ''):
+            # This an empty string array or a string array containing
+            # only empty strings. Matlab cannot distinguish between a
+            # string array that is empty, and a string array containing
+            # only empty strings, because it stores strings as arrays of
+            # char. There is no way of having an array of char that is
+            # not empty, but contains an empty string. We have to
+            # special-case the array-with-empty-strings because even
+            # empty strings have zero padding, which would otherwise
+            # appear in matlab as a string with a space.
+            shape = (0,) * np.max([arr.ndim, 2])
+            self.write_header(shape, mxCHAR_CLASS)
+            self.write_smalldata_element(arr, miUTF8, 0)
+            return
+        # non-empty string.
+        #
+        # Convert to char array
+        arr = arr_to_chars(arr)
+        # We have to write the shape directly, because we are going
+        # recode the characters, and the resulting stream of chars
+        # may have a different length
+        shape = arr.shape
+        self.write_header(shape, mxCHAR_CLASS)
+        if arr.dtype.kind == 'U' and arr.size:
+            # Make one long string from all the characters. We need to
+            # transpose here, because we're flattening the array, before
+            # we write the bytes. The bytes have to be written in
+            # Fortran order.
+            n_chars = math.prod(shape)
+            st_arr = np.ndarray(shape=(),
+                                dtype=arr_dtype_number(arr, n_chars),
+                                buffer=arr.T.copy())  # Fortran order
+            # Recode with codec to give byte string
+            st = st_arr.item().encode(codec)
+            # Reconstruct as 1-D byte array
+            arr = np.ndarray(shape=(len(st),),
+                             dtype='S1',
+                             buffer=st)
+        self.write_element(arr, mdtype=miUTF8)
+
+    def write_sparse(self, arr):
+        ''' Sparse matrices are 2D
+        '''
+        A = arr.tocsc()  # convert to sparse CSC format
+        A.sort_indices()     # MATLAB expects sorted row indices
+        is_complex = (A.dtype.kind == 'c')
+        is_logical = (A.dtype.kind == 'b')
+        nz = A.nnz
+        self.write_header(matdims(arr, self.oned_as),
+                          mxSPARSE_CLASS,
+                          is_complex=is_complex,
+                          is_logical=is_logical,
+                          # matlab won't load file with 0 nzmax
+                          nzmax=1 if nz == 0 else nz)
+        self.write_element(A.indices.astype('i4'))
+        self.write_element(A.indptr.astype('i4'))
+        self.write_element(A.data.real)
+        if is_complex:
+            self.write_element(A.data.imag)
+
+    def write_cells(self, arr):
+        self.write_header(matdims(arr, self.oned_as),
+                          mxCELL_CLASS)
+        # loop over data, column major
+        A = np.atleast_2d(arr).flatten('F')
+        for el in A:
+            self.write(el)
+
+    def write_empty_struct(self):
+        self.write_header((1, 1), mxSTRUCT_CLASS)
+        # max field name length set to 1 in an example matlab struct
+        self.write_element(np.array(1, dtype=np.int32))
+        # Field names element is empty
+        self.write_element(np.array([], dtype=np.int8))
+
+    def write_struct(self, arr):
+        self.write_header(matdims(arr, self.oned_as),
+                          mxSTRUCT_CLASS)
+        self._write_items(arr)
+
+    def _write_items(self, arr):
+        # write fieldnames
+        fieldnames = [f[0] for f in arr.dtype.descr]
+        length = max([len(fieldname) for fieldname in fieldnames])+1
+        max_length = (self.long_field_names and 64) or 32
+        if length > max_length:
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Field names are restricted to {max_length - 1} characters"
+            )
+        self.write_element(np.array([length], dtype='i4'))
+        self.write_element(np.array(fieldnames, dtype=f'S{length}'), mdtype=miINT8)
+        A = np.atleast_2d(arr).flatten('F')
+        for el in A:
+            for f in fieldnames:
+                self.write(el[f])
+
+    def write_object(self, arr):
+        '''Same as writing structs, except different mx class, and extra
+        classname element after header
+        '''
+        self.write_header(matdims(arr, self.oned_as),
+                          mxOBJECT_CLASS)
+        self.write_element(np.array(arr.classname, dtype='S'),
+                           mdtype=miINT8)
+        self._write_items(arr)
+
+
+class MatFile5Writer:
+    ''' Class for writing mat5 files '''
+
+    @docfiller
+    def __init__(self, file_stream,
+                 do_compression=False,
+                 unicode_strings=False,
+                 global_vars=None,
+                 long_field_names=False,
+                 oned_as='row'):
+        ''' Initialize writer for matlab 5 format files
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        %(do_compression)s
+        %(unicode_strings)s
+        global_vars : None or sequence of strings, optional
+            Names of variables to be marked as global for matlab
+        %(long_fields)s
+        %(oned_as)s
+        '''
+        self.file_stream = file_stream
+        self.do_compression = do_compression
+        self.unicode_strings = unicode_strings
+        if global_vars:
+            self.global_vars = global_vars
+        else:
+            self.global_vars = []
+        self.long_field_names = long_field_names
+        self.oned_as = oned_as
+        self._matrix_writer = None
+
+    def write_file_header(self):
+        # write header
+        hdr = np.zeros((), NDT_FILE_HDR)
+        hdr['description'] = (f'MATLAB 5.0 MAT-file Platform: {os.name}, '
+                              f'Created on: {time.asctime()}')
+        hdr['version'] = 0x0100
+        hdr['endian_test'] = np.ndarray(shape=(),
+                                      dtype='S2',
+                                      buffer=np.uint16(0x4d49))
+        self.file_stream.write(hdr.tobytes())
+
+    def put_variables(self, mdict, write_header=None):
+        ''' Write variables in `mdict` to stream
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        mdict : mapping
+           mapping with method ``items`` returns name, contents pairs where
+           ``name`` which will appear in the matlab workspace in file load, and
+           ``contents`` is something writeable to a matlab file, such as a NumPy
+           array.
+        write_header : {None, True, False}, optional
+           If True, then write the matlab file header before writing the
+           variables. If None (the default) then write the file header
+           if we are at position 0 in the stream. By setting False
+           here, and setting the stream position to the end of the file,
+           you can append variables to a matlab file
+        '''
+        # write header if requested, or None and start of file
+        if write_header is None:
+            write_header = self.file_stream.tell() == 0
+        if write_header:
+            self.write_file_header()
+        self._matrix_writer = VarWriter5(self)
+        for name, var in mdict.items():
+            if name[0] == '_':
+                msg = (f"Starting field name with a "
+                       f"underscore ({name}) is ignored")
+                warnings.warn(msg, MatWriteWarning, stacklevel=2)
+                continue
+            is_global = name in self.global_vars
+            if self.do_compression:
+                stream = BytesIO()
+                self._matrix_writer.file_stream = stream
+                self._matrix_writer.write_top(var, name.encode('latin1'), is_global)
+                out_str = zlib.compress(stream.getvalue())
+                tag = np.empty((), NDT_TAG_FULL)
+                tag['mdtype'] = miCOMPRESSED
+                tag['byte_count'] = len(out_str)
+                self.file_stream.write(tag.tobytes())
+                self.file_stream.write(out_str)
+            else:  # not compressing
+                self._matrix_writer.write_top(var, name.encode('latin1'), is_global)