[netcdf-java] Removing a dimension from a variable

[Ethan Davis]

Hi Christopher,

Christopher Mueller wrote:
> I am subsetting an opendap nc file to a local nc file and I’m running 
> into a bit of a problem. After subsetting, the variable of interest 
> has 4 dimensions (x, y, level, record) however there is only 1 level. 
> I would like to remove the level dimension as it is unnecessary and 
> causes some problems later in the application. Is there a way to do 
> this? I’ve tried removing the dimension from the “root group” of the 
> NetcdfWritable file with no luck. I’ve also tried iterating through 
> the dimensions (var.getDimensions().remove(i)) and removing the one 
> with length = 1, also no luck.
>
> Has anyone done this before? Is it possible, or do I need to extract 
> the data, reduce the resulting array, and then recreate the variable 
> by hand?

I haven't tried this but you can create a new Variable without the level 
dimension by calling Variable.slice() on the existing Variable and 
specifying the level dimension. Then, before you call create() on your 
NetcdfFileWritable, you can remove the old Variable and add the new one.

Hope that helps,

Ethan

-- 
Ethan R. Davis                                Telephone: (303) 497-8155
Software Engineer                             Fax:       (303) 497-8690
UCAR Unidata Program Center                   E-mail:    edavis at ucar.edu
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Boulder, CO  80307-3000                       http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
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