MatrixSpy

A powerful VS Code extension for exploring, visualizing, and exporting MATLAB .mat files. Supports all MAT versions (v4–v7.3), interactive tensor visualization with zoom controls, and export to CSV/JSON.

Features

• All MAT file versions: v4, v5, v6, v7, v7.3 (HDF5)
• Interactive tensor visualization:
  • 1D arrays with sparkline previews
  • 2D matrices as heatmaps or tables
  • 3D/4D+ tensors with slice viewer and zoom controls
  • Complex numbers: Magnitude / Phase / Real / Imag
• Zoom controls for image mode: +/- buttons, 1:1 reset, adaptive sizing
• Zoom persistence: zoom level kept when switching slices/axis/view mode
• Tree view for variable navigation with expandable structs
• Lazy loading for large 3D tensors and HDF5 datasets
• Export: CSV, JSON
• Colormaps: Grayscale, Viridis, Inferno, Plasma
• Setup wizard with automatic dependency detection

Prerequisites

Python 3.8+ with:

pip install scipy numpy h5py mat73

The extension checks dependencies on first launch and guides you through installation.

Usage

Opening MAT Files

1. Double-click a .mat file in Explorer
2. Right-click a .mat file → "Open MAT File"
3. Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) → "MatrixSpy: Open MAT File"

Navigation

• Sidebar: Browse all variables, expand structs, click to view
• Tree items: Expand/collapse nested structures

Visualization

Image Mode Controls

When viewing tensors in Image mode:

• + / -: Zoom in/out (1.5x per click)
• 1:1: Reset to adaptive size
• Zoom persistence: zoom level is kept when switching slices
• Adaptive sizing: small tensors auto-upscaled, large tensors fit container

Export

• Command Palette → "MatrixSpy: Export to CSV" / "Export to JSON"

Configuration

{
  "matrixspy.pythonPath": "python3",
  "matrixspy.maxDataSize": 10000
}

Changelog

v1.2.0 (2026-05-15)

Security

• Fixed XSS vulnerability with HTML escaping
• Added Content-Security-Policy to webview

Bug Fixes

• Fixed critical memory leak in message handling
• Fixed export commands not working in custom editor
• Fixed infinite retry loop — limited to 3 with backoff
• Fixed process leak on slice timeout
• Fixed NaN/Inf JSON serialization
• Fixed 4D+ tensors showing raw JSON
• Fixed empty arrays showing blank content

Performance

• Canvas rendering with requestAnimationFrame
• Debounced slice slider (50ms)
• HDF5 stats sampling for large datasets

New Features

• Image zoom controls (+/-/1:1)
• Adaptive image sizing
• Zoom persistence across slices
• 4D+ tensor support
• Cross-platform venv support

v1.1.2 (2026-04-24)

• Fixed v7.3 (HDF5) MAT file parsing
• Fixed NaN/Inf JSON serialization errors
• Modernized webview architecture
• Added colormap, histogram, sparkline visualizations

v1.1.1 (2026-04-20)

• Welcome page with dependency check
• Auto-detect Python and required packages

v1.1.0 (2026-04-07)

• Multi-level Tree Navigation
• Lazy Loading for 3D Tensors
• v7.3 MAT File Support

v1.0.0 (2026-04-05)

• Initial release

License

MIT License