[netcdfgroup] Netcdf checker problem

[Rosalyn Hatcher]

Hi Philippe,


The reason the checker has flagged an error is because the contents of 
the attribute
flag_values should be of type "string" (see attributes appendix in CF 
conventions doc.
If you put "" around the value i.e. flag_values = "0b, 1b";  then the 
error will go away.

I notice that the example in the CF Conventions document doesn't use quotes
either, so I will raise this with the CF bods to determine if I need to 
make a change
to the checker or if the example is incorrect.

Regards,
Rosalyn.

Subject:
[netcdfgroup] Netcdf checker problem
From:
Philippe Poilbarbe <Philippe.Poilbarbe at cls.fr>
Date:
Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:52:29 +0200

To:
Netcdf group <netcdfgroup at unidata.ucar.edu>


Hello,

For a new satellite launch, we have decided to use NetCDF files to
deliver product data.
They will be CF-1.0 compliant and we are checking our definitions with
the online checker (http://titania.badc.rl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/cf-checker.pl).

For a variable (in fact for all variables which have the flag_values
attribute) we
have the error message:

ERROR: Attribute flag_values of incorrect type

The variable definition is:

byte alt_echo_type(time) ;
        alt_echo_type:long_name = "altimeter echo type" ;
        alt_echo_type:_FillValue = 127b ;
        alt_echo_type:flag_values = 0b, 1b ;
        alt_echo_type:flag_meanings = "ocean_like non_ocean_like" ;
        alt_echo_type:coordinates = "lon lat" ;


As recommended in the CF-1.0 documentation, the type of the
flag_values attribute is the same as the variable one.

So here is my question: what is wrong ? In my definition or
in the checker ?

Thanks,
Ph.P.

-- Philippe Poilbarbe CLS - Space Oceanography Division

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rosalyn Hatcher
NCAS Computational Modelling Support
Dept. of Meteorology, University of Reading, 
Earley Gate, Reading. RG6 6BB
Email: r.s.hatcher at reading.ac.uk     Tel: +44 (0) 118 378 6016