Opened 4 years ago

Closed 4 years ago

#158 closed enhancement (wontfix)

data_type=char|string

Reported by: bob.simons Owned by: cf-conventions@…
Priority: medium Milestone:
Component: cf-conventions Version:
Keywords: Cc: bob.simons@…

Description

In NetCDF-3 files, in order to make it clear whether an array of chars should be interpreted as an array of chars or an array of Strings, I propose that we replace this sentence in CF section 2.2:

NetCDF does not support a character string type, so these must be represented as character arrays. In this document, a one dimensional array of character data is simply referred to as a "string".

with:

Since NetCDF-3 files do not have a built-in string data type, strings in NetCDF-3 files must be represented as character arrays. To clarify how a char array should be interpreted, char arrays must have a "data_type" attribute with a value of "char" (for individual chars) or "string". (In older files with char variables that lack a data_type attribute, it remains ambiguous whether a char array should be interpreted as an array of individual characters or an array of Strings.)

Change History (1)

comment:1 Changed 4 years ago by bob.simons

  • Resolution set to wontfix
  • Status changed from new to closed
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