# Reading and writing DICOM files

Common pydicom functions called by user code

## File Reading/Parsing

The main function to read and parse DICOM files using pydicom is `dcmread()`. It’s part of the pydicom.filereader module, but is also imported when the `pydicom` package is imported

>     >>> import pydicom
>     >>> dataset = pydicom.dcmread('path/to/file')

If you need fine control over the reading, you can either call `read_partial()` or use `dcmread()`.

## File Writing

DICOM files can also be written using pydicom. There are two ways to do this.

- The first is to use `dcmwrite()` with a prexisting `FileDataset` (derived from `Dataset`) instance.
- The second is to use the `Dataset.save_as()` method on a `FileDataset` or `Dataset` instance.