Supported Data Formats

This chapter summarizes practical format support exposed through WbW-Py.

Format support influences interoperability, performance, and long-term archive strategy. Read/write capability is only one part of the decision; you should also consider ecosystem compatibility, compression behavior, and whether a given format is best used as an interchange artifact or as an internal working format.

Backend support comes from core crates:

• Raster: wbraster
• Vector: wbvector
• Lidar: wblidar

Raster Formats

Exhaustive raster format support in the current WbW-Py build:

Typical pattern:

import whitebox_workflows as wb

wbe = wb.WbEnvironment()
r = wbe.read_raster('dem.tif')
wbe.write_raster(r, 'dem_out.tif')

Vector Formats

Exhaustive vector format support in the current WbW-Py build:

When write_vector(...) is called without an extension, WbW-Py defaults output to .gpkg.

Typical pattern:

import whitebox_workflows as wb

wbe = wb.WbEnvironment()
v = wbe.read_vector('roads.gpkg')
wbe.write_vector(v, 'roads_out.gpkg')

Lidar Formats

Exhaustive lidar format support in the current WbW-Py build:

When write_lidar(...) is called without an extension, WbW-Py defaults output to .copc.laz.

Typical pattern:

import whitebox_workflows as wb

wbe = wb.WbEnvironment()
l = wbe.read_lidar('survey.las')
wbe.write_lidar(l, 'survey_out.copc.laz')

Sensor Bundle Families

Supported bundle readers include:

• read_bundle(...) (auto-detect)
• read_landsat(...)
• read_sentinel1(...)
• read_sentinel2(...)
• read_planetscope(...)
• read_iceye(...)
• read_dimap(...)
• read_maxar_worldview(...)
• read_radarsat2(...)
• read_rcm(...)

Bundle inputs may be either extracted directories or supported archives:

• .zip
• .tar
• .tar.gz
• .tgz

See Working with Sensor Bundles for family-specific examples.

Validation Guidance

1. Prefer stable interchange formats (.tif, .gpkg, .copc.laz) for production pipelines.
2. Re-open outputs and verify metadata after write operations.
3. Use explicit options where format behavior must be reproducible.