dcm2json [options] dcmfile-in [jsonfile-out]
The dcm2json utility converts the contents of a DICOM file (file format or raw data set) to JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). The output refers to the 'DICOM JSON Model', which is found in DICOM Part 18 Section F.
If dcm2json reads a raw data set (DICOM data without a file format meta-header) it will attempt to guess the transfer syntax by examining the first few bytes of the file. It is not always possible to correctly guess the transfer syntax and it is better to convert a data set to a file format whenever possible (using the dcmconv utility). It is also possible to use the -f and -t[ieb] options to force dcm2json to read a data set with a particular transfer syntax.
dcmfile-in DICOM input filename to be converted jsonfile-out JSON output filename (default: stdout)
-h --help
print this help text and exit
--version
print version information and exit
--arguments
print expanded command line arguments
-q --quiet
quiet mode, print no warnings and errors
-v --verbose
verbose mode, print processing details
-d --debug
debug mode, print debug information
-ll --log-level [l]evel: string constant
(fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace)
use level l for the logger
-lc --log-config [f]ilename: string
use config file f for the logger
input file format:
+f --read-file
read file format or data set (default)
+fo --read-file-only
read file format only
-f --read-dataset
read data set without file meta information
input transfer syntax:
-t= --read-xfer-auto
use TS recognition (default)
-td --read-xfer-detect
ignore TS specified in the file meta header
-te --read-xfer-little
read with explicit VR little endian TS
-tb --read-xfer-big
read with explicit VR big endian TS
-ti --read-xfer-implicit
read with implicit VR little endian TS
output format:
+fc --formatted-code
enable whitespace formatting (default)
# prints additional spaces and newlines for increased
# readability
-fc --compact-code
print only required characters
+m --write-meta
write data set with meta information
(warning: not conforming to the DICOM standard)
The basic structure of the JSON output created from a DICOM file looks like the following (see DICOM Part 18 Section F for details):
{
"00080005": {
"vr": "CS",
"Value": [
"ISO_IR 192"
]
},
"00080020": {
"vr": "DT",
"Value": [
"20130409"
]
},
"00080030": {
"vr": "TM",
"Value": [
"131600.0000"
]
},
"00080050": {
"vr": "SH",
"Value": [
"11235813"
]
},
"00080056": {
"vr": "CS",
"Value": [
"ONLINE"
]
},
"00080061": {
"vr": "CS",
"Value": [
"CT",
"PET"
]
},
"00080090": {
"vr": "PN",
"Value": [
{
"Alphabetic": "^Bob^^Dr."
}
]
},
"00081190": {
"vr": "UR",
"Value": [
"http://wado.nema.org/studies/
1.2.392.200036.9116.2.2.2.1762893313.1029997326.945873"
]
},
"00090010": {
"vr": "LO",
"Value": [
"Vendor A"
]
},
"00091002": {
"vr": "UN",
"InlineBinary": "z0x9c8v7"
},
"00100010": {
"vr": "PN",
"Value": [
{
"Alphabetic": "Wang^XiaoDong"
}
]
},
"00100020": {
"vr": "LO",
"Value": [
"12345"
]
},
"00100021": {
"vr": "LO",
"Value": [
"Hospital A"
]
},
"00100030": {
"vr": "DT",
"Value": [
"19670701"
]
},
"00100040": {
"vr": "CS",
"Value": [
"M"
]
},
"00101002": {
"vr": "SQ",
"Value": [
{
"00100020": {
"vr": "LO",
"Value": [
"54321"
]
},
"00100021": {
"vr": "LO",
"Value": [
"Hospital B"
]
}
},
{
"00100020": {
"vr": "LO",
"Value": [
"24680"
]
},
"00100021": {
"vr": "LO",
"Value": [
"Hospital C"
]
}
}
]
},
"0020000D": {
"vr": "UI",
"Value": [
"1.2.392.200036.9116.2.2.2.1762893313.1029997326.945873"
]
},
"00200010": {
"vr": "SH",
"Value": [
"11235813"
]
},
"00201206": {
"vr": "IS",
"Value": [
4
]
},
"00201208": {
"vr": "IS",
"Value": [
942
]
}
}
The level of logging output of the various command line tools and underlying libraries can be specified by the user. By default, only errors and warnings are written to the standard error stream. Using option --verbose also informational messages like processing details are reported. Option --debug can be used to get more details on the internal activity, e.g. for debugging purposes. Other logging levels can be selected using option --log-level. In --quiet mode only fatal errors are reported. In such very severe error events, the application will usually terminate. For more details on the different logging levels, see documentation of module 'oflog'.
In case the logging output should be written to file (optionally with logfile rotation), to syslog (Unix) or the event log (Windows) option --log-config can be used. This configuration file also allows for directing only certain messages to a particular output stream and for filtering certain messages based on the module or application where they are generated. An example configuration file is provided in <etcdir>/logger.cfg.
All command line tools use the following notation for parameters: square brackets enclose optional values (0-1), three trailing dots indicate that multiple values are allowed (1-n), a combination of both means 0 to n values.
Command line options are distinguished from parameters by a leading '+' or '-' sign, respectively. Usually, order and position of command line options are arbitrary (i.e. they can appear anywhere). However, if options are mutually exclusive the rightmost appearance is used. This behavior conforms to the standard evaluation rules of common Unix shells.
In addition, one or more command files can be specified using an '@' sign as a prefix to the filename (e.g. @command.txt). Such a command argument is replaced by the content of the corresponding text file (multiple whitespaces are treated as a single separator unless they appear between two quotation marks) prior to any further evaluation. Please note that a command file cannot contain another command file. This simple but effective approach allows one to summarize common combinations of options/parameters and avoids longish and confusing command lines (an example is provided in file <datadir>/dumppat.txt).
The dcm2json utility will attempt to load DICOM data dictionaries specified in the DCMDICTPATH environment variable. By default, i.e. if the DCMDICTPATH environment variable is not set, the file <datadir>/dicom.dic will be loaded unless the dictionary is built into the application (default for Windows).
The default behavior should be preferred and the DCMDICTPATH environment variable only used when alternative data dictionaries are required. The DCMDICTPATH environment variable has the same format as the Unix shell PATH variable in that a colon (':') separates entries. On Windows systems, a semicolon (';') is used as a separator. The data dictionary code will attempt to load each file specified in the DCMDICTPATH environment variable. It is an error if no data dictionary can be loaded.
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