# Supported DICOM metadata types

**URL:** https://discourse.itk.org/t/supported-dicom-metadata-types/665
**Category:** Beginner Questions
**Created:** [February 9, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/supported-dicom-metadata-types/665 "2018-02-09T21:34:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Fijoy\_Vadakkumpadan](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/fijoy_vadakkumpadan/32/1287_2.png) [@Fijoy\_Vadakkumpadan](https://discourse.itk.org/u/Fijoy_Vadakkumpadan)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/supported-dicom-metadata-types/665/1 "2018-02-09T21:34:39Z")

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Hello,

Are DICOM metadata values of all types supported in ITK?

I’d retrieve metadata value of any type from a DICOM image, given an arbitrary DICOM tag. All examples I see in documentation are for string metadata, so wondering if other types (e.g., integers, arrays, etc.) are supported.

Thanks,  
–Fijoy

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### Author: ![dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/dzenanz/32/1093_2.png) [@dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/u/dzenanz)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/supported-dicom-metadata-types/665/2 "2018-02-09T21:51:03Z")

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If I remember correctly, all tags can be accessed. But: binary tags are encoded using Base64 scheme, and private tags are not loaded by default - you have to explicitly request them.

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### Author: ![Fijoy\_Vadakkumpadan](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/fijoy_vadakkumpadan/32/1287_2.png) [@Fijoy\_Vadakkumpadan](https://discourse.itk.org/u/Fijoy_Vadakkumpadan)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/supported-dicom-metadata-types/665/3 "2018-02-09T22:22:53Z")

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Thank you Dženan. So, the call GetMetaDataObjectValue() always returns a string, regardless of the DICOM tag type (please correct me if I’m wrong).

Does ITK provide routines to convert the base64 string back to the original binary data?

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### Author: ![dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/dzenanz/32/1093_2.png) [@dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/u/dzenanz)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/supported-dicom-metadata-types/665/4 "2018-02-10T16:37:59Z")

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GDCM (part of ITK) does. Also see [this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43328520/base64-decoding-in-itk-4-7-for-dicom) and [this](https://public.kitware.com/pipermail/community/2016-August/011782.html).