Hello CF
> From: CF-metadata [cf-metadata-bounces at cgd.ucar.edu] on behalf of Jonathan Gregory [j.m.gregory at reading.ac.uk]
> Yes, there are some standard names which imply string values, as Karl says. If the standard_name table says 1, that means the quantity is dimensionless, so it's also fine to omit the units, as Jim says.
I would like to raise question about this statement. Omitting the units and stating that the units are '1' are two very different things;
dimensionless != no_unit
is an important statement which should be clear to data consumers and producers.
If the standard name table defines a canonical unit for a standard_name of '1' then I expect this quantity to be dimensionless, with a unit of '1' or some multiple there of.
If the standard name states that the canonical unit for a standard_name is '' then I expect that quantity to have no unit stated.
Any deviation from this behaviour is a break with the conventions. I have code which explicitly checks this for data sets.
Are people aware of examples of the pattern of use described by Jonathan, such as a categorical quantities identified by a standard_name with a canonical unit of '1'?
thank you
mark
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Received on Thu Oct 30 2014 - 02:37:14 GMT
