This archive contains answers to questions sent to Unidata support through mid-2025. Note that the archive is no longer being updated. We provide the archive for reference; many of the answers presented here remain technically correct, even if somewhat outdated. For the most up-to-date information on the use of NSF Unidata software and data services, please consult the Software Documentation first.
David Brown <address@hidden> writes: > Hi, > > When we recently relinked our software products, NCL and PyNIO, with > the newly released version of > the NetCDF 4.0 library we discovered that there seems to have been a > change in the actual, as opposed > to the documented, rules for variable names. Specifically it appears > that names that begin with a digit can no longer > be written to NetCDF files. Howdy All! As David points out, creating names beginning with a digit are no longer allowed in version 3.6.3 and version 4.0. This is in accordance with the documented rules, but was never enforced in previous versions. We are changing the code (and the documentation) so that names beginning with a digit are allowed again. Users should note that such names also violate the CF conventions, and possibly other conventions. I'll announce here when the code has been changed, and those who need to create objects with names that begin with a digit can grab the daily snapshot. Thanks, Ed -- Ed Hartnett -- address@hidden