Re: NCVDEF Error

>To: address@hidden
>From: "GOOKYOUNG HEO" <address@hidden>
>Subject: Re: 20041228: NCVDEF Error
>Organization: Center for Energy and Environmental Resources, University of 
>Texas at Austin
>Keywords: 200412272308.iBRN8YlI006891

Gookyoung,

> I couldn't still have a netCDF type output from uam2ncf of SMOKE
> (http://www.cmascenter.org/html/models.html).
> The error message was as follows:
>     Value for IOAPI_CHECK_HEADERS not defined;returning default:  FALSE
>     NCVDEF: : Attribute or variable name contains illegal characters
> 
> What's the meaning of that error message?

It means you have tried to create a netCDF variable using a name that
contains some special characters such as space, '@', '!', etc.  The
names for netCDF variables are much like the names for variables in
Fortran.  According to the documentation:

  2.1.1 Naming Conventions

  The names of dimensions, variables and attributes consist of
  arbitrary sequences of alphanumeric characters (as well as
  underscore '_', period '.' and hyphen '-'), beginning with a letter
  or underscore. (However names commencing with underscore are
  reserved for system use.) Case is significant in netCDF names. A
  zero-length name is not allowed.

Check that the names you use for netCDF variables don't include
spaces, for example.  Although it's not documented, a few other
characters are actually permitted in netCDF names, but most
non-alphanumeric characters are not allowed.

Also, please send questions about netCDF to
"address@hidden" rather than directly to me, so they
will be sent to someone who can answer them even when I'm on vacation.
Thanks.

--Russ

_____________________________________________________________________

Russ Rew                                         UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden          http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/russ