# What are the features of the data and how to open?

**URL:** <https://community.brain-map.org/t/what-are-the-features-of-the-data-and-how-to-open/1757>\
**Category:** Technical\
**Tags:** how-to\
**Created:** [July 31, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.brain-map.org/t/what-are-the-features-of-the-data-and-how-to-open/1757 "2022-07-31T18:22:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fatima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@fatima](https://community.brain-map.org/u/fatima)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.brain-map.org/t/what-are-the-features-of-the-data-and-how-to-open/1757/1 "2022-07-31T18:22:06Z")

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Hi

I’m having problems to open nwb files with Matlab(2019b) using matnwb, I can’t open data

my data link is:

> **[Electrophysiology Experiment :: Allen Brain Atlas: Cell Types](http://celltypes.brain-map.org/experiment/electrophysiology/572409429)**
>
> Allen Cell Types Database

What are the features of the data and how to open?

Would you mind if I know more about the data structure and the version of the nwb file, if any?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,  
fatima

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**Author:** ![gouwens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@gouwens](https://community.brain-map.org/u/gouwens)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://community.brain-map.org/t/what-are-the-features-of-the-data-and-how-to-open/1757/2 "2022-08-01T18:13:01Z")

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The files in the Allen Cell Types Database are NWB v1 files. I don’t have direct experience with matnwb, but it looks like it may only support NWB v2 files. There are older versions of packages like [`pynwb`](https://pynwb.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html) that support the older v1 files.

If you want to inspect the data structure, all NWB files are HDF5 files, so you can use tools like [HDFView](https://www.hdfgroup.org/downloads/hdfview/) to examine them.