On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 11:38 AM, Bob Simons - NOAA Federal < [email protected]> wrote:
> >> We need to either specify the "string" dimension, or have a consistent >> convention: >> >> A 10x8 CHAR array could be either 10 8 character strings or 8 ten >> character strings. And it gets more confusing with higher dimensions. >> > > There is no standard naming system in CF to denote a String dimension (ie, > the number of chars, vs a char array). That is a different approach to > solving the problem. I don't like that approach as much because so many > people have written so much software that writes and reads files using > dimension names of their choice. I don't want to tell everyone to rewrite > all their exiting files and software/scripts to read/write those files in > order to comply with new CF rules. > > Instead, I'm proposing a separate, new attribute (data_type=string|char), > partly because it doesn't interfere with existing dimension names or > attribute names. > I wasn't clear -- even if you know a CHAR array is supposed to be an array of strings, you don't know which dimension is the "string" dimension, and which is the array dimension. If you have a 3x4 array of length-5 strings, what is your CHAR array dimension? either of these would make sense: (3,4,5) (5,3,4) and (3,5,4) would be possible, though a bit insane :-) even worse, if you see a "string" array that has dimensions of (3,4,5) what is that? and (3,4) array of length-5 strings? a (4,5) array or length 3 strings? -CHB -- Christopher Barker, Ph.D. Oceanographer Emergency Response Division NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice 7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception [email protected]
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