# obspy.io.sh.core._read_q

`_read_q`(filename, headonly=False, data_directory=None, byteorder='=', **kwargs)

  Reads a Seismic Handler Q file and returns an ObsPy Stream object.

  Warning

  This function should NOT be called directly, it registers via the ObsPy `read()` function, call this instead.

  Parameters: | filename (str) Q header file to be read. Must have a QHD file extension. headonly (bool, optional) If set to True, read only the head. This is most useful for scanning available data in huge (temporary) data sets. data_directory (str, optional) Data directory where the corresponding QBN file can be found. byteorder (str, optional) Enforce byte order for data file. This is important for Q files written in older versions of Seismic Handler, which don’t explicit state the BYTEORDER flag within the header file. Can be little endian (`'<'`), big endian (`'>'`), or native byte order (`'='`). Defaults to `'='`.
  Return type: | `Stream`
  Returns: | A ObsPy Stream object.

  Q files consists of two files per data set:

  - a ASCII header file with file extension QHD and the
  - binary data file with file extension QBN.

  The read method only accepts header files for the `filename` parameter. ObsPy assumes that the corresponding data file is within the same directory if the `data_directory` parameter is not set. Otherwise it will search in the given `data_directory` for a file with the QBN file extension. This function should NOT be called directly, it registers via the ObsPy `read()` function, call this instead.

  Example

      >>> from obspy import read
      >>> st = read("/path/to/QFILE-TEST.QHD")
      >>> st
      <obspy.core.stream.Stream object at 0x...>
      >>> print(st)
      3 Trace(s) in Stream:
      .TEST..BHN | 2009-10-01T12:46:01.000000Z - ... | 20.0 Hz, 801 samples
      .TEST..BHE | 2009-10-01T12:46:01.000000Z - ... | 20.0 Hz, 801 samples
      .WET..HHZ  | 2010-01-01T01:01:05.999000Z - ... | 100.0 Hz, 4001 samples

### Thank you!

We would like to thank our contributors, whose efforts make this software what it is. These people have helped by writing code and documentation, and by testing. They have created and maintained this product, its associated libraries and applications, our build tools and our web sites.

#### Contributors

- Ackerley, Nick
- Allgeyer, Sebastien
- Ammon, Charles J.
- Antunes, Emanuel
- Arnarsson, Ólafur St.
- Bank, Markus
- Barsch, Robert
- Behr, Yannik
- Bernardi, Fabrizio
- Bernauer, Felix
- Bes de Berc, Maxime
- Beyreuther, Moritz
- Boltz, Shawn
- Bonaimé, Sébastien
- Carothers, Lloyd
- Chamberlain, Calum
- Chambers, Derrick
- Chen, Zhao
- Clark, Adam
- Danecek, Peter
- Egdorf, Sven
- Engels, Fabian
- Ermert, Laura
- Eulenfeld, Tom

- Fabbri, Tommaso
- Falco, Nicholas
- Fee, Jeremy
- Grellier, Clément
- Grunberg, Marc
- Hammer, Conny
- Heimann, Sebastian
- Heiniger, Lukas
- Hope, Gaute
- Igel, Heiner
- Inza, Adolfo
- Isken, Marius
- Ketchum, David
- Koymans, Mathijs
- Kremers, Simon
- Kress, Victor
- Krieger, Lars
- Krischer, Lion
- Kula, Damian
- Käufl, Paul
- Köhler, Andreas
- Lecocq, Thomas
- Leeman, John
- Legovini, Paride

- Lesage, Philippe
- Li, Yulin
- Lomax, Anthony
- Lopes, Rui L.
- MacCarthy, Jonathan
- Maggi, Alessia
- Martin, Henri
- Medlin, Andrew
- Megies, Tobias
- Meschede, Matthias
- Michelini, Alberto
- Miller, Nathaniel C.
- Morgenstern, Bernhard
- Nof, Ran Novitsky
- Panning, Mark P.
- Parker, Tom
- Pestourie, Romain
- Rapagnani, Giovanni
- Reyes, Celso
- Ringler, Adam
- Rothenhäusler, Nicolas
- Russo, Emiliano
- Sales de Andrade, Elliott

- Satriano, Claudio
- Saul, Joachim
- Scheingraber, Chris
- Schneider, Simon
- Sippl, Christian
- Snoke, Arthur
- Stange, Stefan
- Stähler, Simon C.
- Sullivan, Benjamin
- Tian, Dongdong
- Trabant, Chad
- Trani, Luca
- Uieda, Leonardo
- Walker, Andrew
- Walther, Marcus
- Wassermann, Joachim
- Williams, Mark C.
- Winkelman, Andrew
- Zaccarelli, Riccardo
- Zad, Seyed Kasra Hosseini
- Zhu, Lijun
- van Driel, Martin
- van Wijk, Kasper

#### Funds

ObsPy was partially funded by the

- German Science Foundation (DFG) via grant DFG IG 16/9-1
- German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), GEOTECHNOLOGIEN grant 03G0646H.
- NERA project (Network of European Research Infrastructures for Earthquake Risk Assessment and Mitigation) under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) grant agreement n° 262330
- Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (LIAG)
- VERCE EU-FP7 project (no. 283543)