Hi Barb, > We looked at netCDF years ago and found the only extensible > parameter was time. We have sparse data sets in the CEDAR > DB with really variable altitude or range arrays, and did not > see how to get around finding the longest array to define range > or height. We currently define the range or height at each time > step. Is this variable length array problem solved in netCDF4? > (or netCDF3?) Yes, netCDF-4 supports definition and use of variable-length types for data. Their use is documented starting here: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/netcdf/docs/netcdf-c.html#Variable-Length-Array > Are netCDF4 and HDF5 converging? We think HDF5 does not have a > problem with variable length arrays. We are trying to decide > if we should convert our entire 32-bit integer DB to netCDF4 > or HDF5 or whatever. NetCDF-4 provides many of the useful features of HDF5, because it uses HDF5 as a storage layer. NetCDF-4 is intentionally simpler than HDF5, so it will never converge to HDF5, but the simplicity is intended to be a feature. A list of the differences between netCDF-4 and HDF5 is here: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/netcdf/docs/faq.html#fv15 --Russ Russ Rew UCAR Unidata Program address@hidden http://www.unidata.ucar.edu Ticket Details =================== Ticket ID: LRP-531622 Department: Support netCDF Priority: Normal Status: Closed
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