# Example Datasets (`pydicom.examples`)

The `examples` module contains the following DICOM datasets:

Module Attribute | File | SOP Class
--- | --- | ---
`ct` | `CT_small.dcm` | CT Image
`mr` | `MR_small.dcm` | MR Image
`rt_plan` | `rtplan.dcm` | RT Plan
`rt_dose` | `rtdose.dcm` | RT Dose
`rt_ss` | `rtstruct.dcm` | RT Structure Set
`overlay` | `examples_overlay.dcm` | MR Image
`waveform` | `waveform_ecg.dcm` | 12 Lead ECG
`rgb_color` | `examples_rgb_color.dcm` | US Image
`palette_color` | `OBXXXX1A.dcm` | US Image
`ybr_color` | `examples_ybr_color.dcm` | US Multi-frame Image
`jpeg2k` | `examples_jpeg2k.dcm` | US Image
`dicomdir` | `DICOMDIR` | Media Storage

As well as the utility function:

`get_path`(name) | Return the path to the example dataset with the attribute name name as `pathlib.Path`.

## Usage

The module attributes are all normal `FileDataset` instances:

    >>> from pydicom import examples
    >>> type(examples.ct)
    <class 'pydicom.dataset.FileDataset'>
    >>> examples.ct.PatientName
    'CompressedSamples^CT1'

Each time the module attribute is accessed a new `FileDataset` instance of the dataset will be returned:

    >>> examples.ct is examples.ct
    False
    >>> examples.ct == examples.ct
    True

Because of this, best practice is to assign the returned dataset to a local variable:

    >>> ds = examples.ct

The `get_path()` function can be used to return the path to an example dataset as a `pathlib.Path` instance:

    >>> examples.get_path("ct")
    PosixPath('/home/user/pydicom/src/pydicom/data/test_files/CT_small.dcm')