1 :mod:`sndhdr` --- Determine type of sound file 2 ============================================== 3 4 .. module:: sndhdr 5 :synopsis: Determine type of a sound file. 6 .. sectionauthor:: Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake (a] acm.org> 7 .. Based on comments in the module source file. 8 9 .. index:: 10 single: A-LAW 11 single: u-LAW 12 13 **Source code:** :source:`Lib/sndhdr.py` 14 15 -------------- 16 17 The :mod:`sndhdr` provides utility functions which attempt to determine the type 18 of sound data which is in a file. When these functions are able to determine 19 what type of sound data is stored in a file, they return a tuple ``(type, 20 sampling_rate, channels, frames, bits_per_sample)``. The value for *type* 21 indicates the data type and will be one of the strings ``'aifc'``, ``'aiff'``, 22 ``'au'``, ``'hcom'``, ``'sndr'``, ``'sndt'``, ``'voc'``, ``'wav'``, ``'8svx'``, 23 ``'sb'``, ``'ub'``, or ``'ul'``. The *sampling_rate* will be either the actual 24 value or ``0`` if unknown or difficult to decode. Similarly, *channels* will be 25 either the number of channels or ``0`` if it cannot be determined or if the 26 value is difficult to decode. The value for *frames* will be either the number 27 of frames or ``-1``. The last item in the tuple, *bits_per_sample*, will either 28 be the sample size in bits or ``'A'`` for A-LAW or ``'U'`` for u-LAW. 29 30 31 .. function:: what(filename) 32 33 Determines the type of sound data stored in the file *filename* using 34 :func:`whathdr`. If it succeeds, returns a tuple as described above, otherwise 35 ``None`` is returned. 36 37 38 .. function:: whathdr(filename) 39 40 Determines the type of sound data stored in a file based on the file header. 41 The name of the file is given by *filename*. This function returns a tuple as 42 described above on success, or ``None``. 43 44
