# Random question about mnist datasets. Why does it come in ubyte ext rather than a traditional image ext?

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/random-question-about-mnist-datasets-why-does-it-come-in-ubyte-ext-rather-than-a-traditional-image-ext/21994>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [June 19, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/random-question-about-mnist-datasets-why-does-it-come-in-ubyte-ext-rather-than-a-traditional-image-ext/21994 "2020-06-19T11:17:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paulgoux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@paulgoux](https://discourse.processing.org/u/paulgoux)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/random-question-about-mnist-datasets-why-does-it-come-in-ubyte-ext-rather-than-a-traditional-image-ext/21994/1 "2020-06-19T11:17:53Z")

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Apologies this is not necessarily related to processing, I just couldn’t find an answer online.

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**Author:** ![SomeOne](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/someone/32/8639_2.png) [@SomeOne](https://discourse.processing.org/u/SomeOne)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/random-question-about-mnist-datasets-why-does-it-come-in-ubyte-ext-rather-than-a-traditional-image-ext/21994/2 "2020-06-19T14:07:10Z")

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I’ve only used mnist data with Python and Keras. But funny enough same question has been asked before and you can find there how to use mnist with processing.

> [@How do I import an "idx3-ubyte" file?](https://discourse.processing.org/t/how-do-i-import-an-idx3-ubyte-file/3577):
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> I am wondering how to import the files found on this website into Processing: [http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/](http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/) They’re supposed to contain thousands of 28x28 byte arrangements, each with its own “grayscale” value. In essence, they’re images. But the files don’t have a .dat extension, an extension I’ve learned to use thanks to the saveBytes() and loadBytes() reference tutorials on the Processing website. I don’t know what an .idx3-ubyte extension is and how to import it into an arbitrary Proce…

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**Author:** ![paulgoux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@paulgoux](https://discourse.processing.org/u/paulgoux)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/random-question-about-mnist-datasets-why-does-it-come-in-ubyte-ext-rather-than-a-traditional-image-ext/21994/3 "2020-06-19T15:32:31Z")

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thanks for this, I figured out how to read the data, I was just wandering if a specific benefit to using the ubyte format over a traditional image format?