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4.3 Get a Dimension ID from Its Name: nc_inq_dimid

The function nc_inq_dimid returns (as an argument) the ID of a netCDF dimension, given the name of the dimension. If ndims is the number of dimensions defined for a netCDF dataset, each dimension has an ID between 0 and ndims-1.

Usage

When searching for a dimension, the specified group is searched, and then its parent group, and then its grandparent group, etc., up to the root group.

     int nc_inq_dimid (int ncid, const char *name, int *dimidp);

ncid

NetCDF ID, from a previous call to nc_open or nc_create.

name

Dimension name, a character string beginning with a letter and followed by any sequence of letters, digits, or underscore ('_') characters. Case is significant in dimension names.

dimidp

Pointer to location for the returned dimension ID.

Errors

nc_inq_dimid returns the value NC_NOERR if no errors occurred. Otherwise, the returned status indicates an error. Possible causes of errors include:

The name that was specified is not the name of a dimension in the netCDF dataset. The specified netCDF ID does not refer to an open netCDF dataset.

Example

Here is an example using nc_inq_dimid to determine the dimension ID of a dimension named lat, assumed to have been defined previously in an existing netCDF dataset named foo.nc:

     #include <netcdf.h>
        ...
     int status, ncid, latid;
        ...
     status = nc_open("foo.nc", NC_NOWRITE, &ncid);  /* open for reading */
     if (status != NC_NOERR) handle_error(status);
        ...
     status = nc_inq_dimid(ncid, "lat", &latid);
     if (status != NC_NOERR) handle_error(status);

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