6.29 Releasing Memory for a NC_STRING: nc_free_string
When a STRING is read into user memory from the file, the HDF5 library
performs memory allocations for each of the variable length character
arrays contained within the STRING structure. This memory must be
freed by the user to avoid memory leaks.
This violates the normal netCDF expectation that the user is
responsible for all memory allocation. But, with NC_STRING arrays, the
underlying HDF5 library allocates the memory for the user, and the user
is responsible for deallocating that memory.
To save the user the trouble calling free() on each element of the
NC_STRING array (i.e. the array of arrays), the nc_free_string
function is provided.
Usage
int nc_free_string(size_t len, char **data);
len- The number of character arrays in the array.
**data- The pointer to the data array.
Return Codes
NC_NOERR- No error.
Example
if (nc_get_att(ncid, NC_GLOBAL, ATT_NAME, data_in)) ERR;
...
if (nc_free_string(att_len, (char **)data_in)) ERR;
