> Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:33:26 +0100 > From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.greg...@reading.ac.uk> > Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] standard names for stations > Dear Nan > > > Do we need to specify whether the _id is numeric or character? I'd > > prefer to leave that to the user and his code. > > Yes, I think we have to specify this for standard_names; in the standard > name table, all of them are either assigned units => numeric, or stated to be > "string". Of course, a number can be written in a string, and maybe that's the > right thing to do if this variable would never be processed as a number. > > Best wishes > > Jonathan >
Dear Jonathan, ... but strings may be formatted differently. "001" is not the same as "1" or "01". I think you are right about using strings instead of numbers (if sometimes the ID can actually be a string), but someone (in the user community) then needs to define the formatting of number IDs. Martin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich Sitz der Gesellschaft: Juelich Eingetragen im Handelsregister des Amtsgerichts Dueren Nr. HR B 3498 Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: MinDirig Dr. Karl Eugen Huthmacher Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr. Achim Bachem (Vorsitzender), Karsten Beneke (stellv. Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Bolt, Prof. Dr. Sebastian M. Schmidt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ CF-metadata mailing list CF-metadata@cgd.ucar.edu http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata