bids_dataset_description.h File Reference

Reader/writer for dataset_description.json — the REQUIRED root sidecar of every BIDS dataset. More...

#include "bids_global.h"
#include <QString>

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Classes
struct	BIDSLIB::BidsDatasetDescription
	Dataset-level metadata from dataset_description.json. More...

Namespaces
namespace	BIDSLIB
	BIDS dataset reading, writing, path construction, and sidecar metadata handling for iEEG/EEG/MEG.

Detailed Description

Reader/writer for dataset_description.json — the REQUIRED root sidecar of every BIDS dataset.

SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause Copyright (c) 2026 MNE-CPP Authors

Author

Christoph Dinh chris.nosp@m.toph.nosp@m..dinh.nosp@m.@mne.nosp@m.-cpp..nosp@m.org

Since

2.1.0

Date

March 2026

Every BIDS validator refuses to walk a tree that does not have a dataset_description.json at the root, so this is also the first file mne-cpp writes when exporting a dataset and the last sanity check performed on import. BidsDatasetDescription captures the two REQUIRED fields (Name and BIDSVersion) plus the two most commonly populated recommended fields (DatasetType, License); additional recommended/optional fields can be added without breaking the JSON-pass-through wire format.

I/O goes through Qt's JSON facilities; missing required fields fall back to safe defaults (BIDS version pinned to the spec version this library was tested against) so a partially-populated dataset still round-trips.

Spec: https://bids-specification.readthedocs.io/en/stable/modality-agnostic-files.html#dataset-description

Definition in file bids_dataset_description.h.