Data Formats

How to work with diverse and unknown data formats.

Format Detection

Always inspect before parsing:

file <filename>                    # MIME type detection
xxd <filename> | head -5           # hex dump (first bytes)
head -3 <filename>                 # text preview
python3 -c "
with open('<filename>', 'rb') as f:
    h = f.read(16)
    print(h, h.hex())
"