pycifrw

library5.0.1pypypi✓ verified 86d ago

PyCIFRW provides support for reading and writing CIF (Crystallographic Information File) and STAR files in Python. Version 5.0.1 is the latest stable release, with a focus on bugfixes and dropping Python 2 support. The library is maintained with occasional releases.

serialization data

pip install pycifrw

github ↗package ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · PYCIFRW

pycifrw

serializationpythonv5.0.1

harness data pending

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

No compatibility data collected yet for this library.

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

ReadCif

✓ from CifFile import ReadCif

✗ from pycifrw import ReadCif

Common mistake: users try to import from the top-level package name.

CifFile

✓ from CifFile import CifFile

✗ from pycifrw import CifFile

Import path is CifFile, not pycifrw.

StarFile

✓ from StarFile import StarFile

Read a CIF file and print the top-level keys. Note: the input CIF must exist. For demo, we write a minimal CIF first.

from CifFile import ReadCif # Replace with an actual CIF file path or content cif_content = """data_test _audit_creation_method 'manually created' """ with open('test.cif', 'w') as f: f.write(cif_content) ast = ReadCif('test.cif') print(ast.keys()) # Clean up import os os.remove('test.cif')

Debug

Known issues

breakingVersion 5.0 dropped Python 2 support entirely. Code written for Python 2 will not run.

fix

Upgrade to Python 3, or pin to pycifrw==4.4.6 if stuck on Python 2.

affects: >=5.0

deprecatedThe function `ReadCif` still works but `ReadCifWithError` is recommended for more robust parsing.

fix

Use `from CifFile import ReadCifWithError` and handle returned parse info.

affects: >=5.0

gotchaImporting from `pycifrw` directly fails. The correct import path is `CifFile`, `StarFile`, etc.

fix

Use `from CifFile import ReadCif` instead of `from pycifrw import ReadCif`.

affects: all

Errors

Common errors & fixes

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pycifrw'

Trying to `import pycifrw` or `from pycifrw import ...`. The top-level module is not 'pycifrw'—the actual modules are CifFile, StarFile, etc.

fix

Install with `pip install pycifrw` but import from 'CifFile' (e.g., `from CifFile import ReadCif`).

SyntaxError: invalid syntax (for print statements, etc.)

Running Python 2 code on Python 3. PyCIFRW 5+ requires Python 3.

fix

Ensure Python 3 interpreter is used (python3). If stuck on Python 2, install pycifrw==4.4.6.

AttributeError: 'CifFile' object has no attribute 'keys'

Reading a CIF file with errors; the object may be incomplete. Or using wrong method to access data.

fix

Use `ReadCifWithError` to get partial results, or check the CIF syntax. Access data via `ast.first_loop()['_tag']` or convert to dict: `dict(ast.items())`.

Upgrade

Version history

5.0.1latest on PyPI · released Mar 24, 2025

Audit

Dependencies

No dependency data recorded yet.

Agent activity

6 hits · last 30 days

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Resources

githubhttps://github.com/jamesrhester/pycifrw ↗

packagehttps://pypi.org/project/pycifrw/ ↗