Extract text from Dataset description files (NAMES)
To convert NAMES Metadata files to another format, you need Weka or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Machine Learning Metadata File" file type, you need software like Weka or a similar tool.
A .names file is a plain text file that stores metadata, feature definitions, and class labels for machine learning datasets. It is most prominently used by the UCI Machine Learning Repository, the Weka data mining software suite, and the legacy C4.5 decision tree algorithm. In computer vision, object detection frameworks like Darknet (YOLO) use .names files to map numerical class IDs to human-readable text labels (e.g., "car", "person").
Because they contain plain text, you can open .names files with source code editors like Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code. However, the lack of a universal syntax makes them annoying to use. A .names file from UCI uses a completely different internal structure than one used for YOLO models. Furthermore, they do not contain the actual dataset - which is usually stored in a companion data file. This separation forces users to write custom parsing scripts in Python or R just to stitch the headers and rows back together. Standard spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel will not automatically read or format them.
To integrate this metadata into modern data pipelines, conversion is necessary. Convert to JSON to create a structured, easily parsed schema for web applications and APIs. Convert to CSV to align the definitions into standard spreadsheet columns.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NAMES file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted ARFF, TES, GOLD and NUMBERS files.
If you want to convert NAMES file to NUMBERS, TMP, TEMP, CACHE, LOG, BAK, OLD, NEW, PART, DOWNLOAD, CRDOWNLOAD or LOCK, you can use Weka or similar software from the "Dataset Attribute Definition" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DEVICE, CACHE, SOCK, SYMLINK, PID, MOUNT, FIFO, LOG, PIPE, TMP, JUNCTION or TEMP files to NAMES, try Weka or another comparable tool in the "Dataset Attribute Definition" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our NAMES converter.