Table of Contents
SD1.2.5.1.1.11-B NetCDF Perl API
Background
Aim
Outcomes
Subskills
SD1.2.5.1.1.11-B NetCDF Perl API
Background
There are two Perl APIs for NetCDF:
PDL::NetCDF, an object-oriented interface between NetCDF files and PDL objects.
NetCDFPerl, developed at Unidata, but now in maintenance mode only, and no further development is currently planned.
Aim
To use PERL for working with NetCDF data.
To exploit the strengths of the PDL::NetCDF:
Newer, based on NetCDF-4.
Uses PDL (the Perl Data Language) with capabilities similar to Matlab and IDL.
Installation is straightforward.
perldl, a simple interactive shell for PDL, is available for interactive prototyping of scripts.
Fast when dealing with large multidimensional arrays.
To exploit the strengths of the NetCDFPerl:
Installation on RedHat systems easy from RPMs.
The NetCDFPerl documentation is fairly complete.
The ncmanipulate package is available for modifying the schema of a NetCDF file (adding, deleting, or renaming dimensions, variables, and attributes).
Outcomes
Write a two-dimensional array of sample data and read data from this file.
Write some variables with units attributes and coordinate dimensions and read data variables and attributes from this file.
Write some four-dimensional variables using a record dimension and read from the variables from this file.
Subskills