Re: [netcdfgroup] changing from fixed to unlimited dimensions in place

• To: Ben <Benjamin.M.Auer@xxxxxxxx>
• Subject: Re: [netcdfgroup] changing from fixed to unlimited dimensions in place
• From: Russ Rew <russ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2014 13:11:02 -0700

Hi Ben,

> I'm guessing this is not possible but I thought I would ask just in case 
> there is something I missed.
> Is it possible to change a dimension from a fixed length dimension to a 
> record or unlimited dimension in place without having to rewrite the 
> entire file.

No, it requires rewriting.

> In my case I have a bunch of 2D (lat, lon) or 3D (lon,lat,lev) plus time 
> netcdf 4 files where time is the last dimension (1 time per file) that I 
> want to concatenate with the nco utility. The files were created with 
> time a fixed dimension of length one and are large and nco seems to be 
> making a copy of the whole file when converting the time to an unlimited 
> dimension. Looking at the API it doesn't seem it can be done without 
> making a new file.

Right, unfortunately.

--Russ

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: [netcdfgroup] changing from fixed to unlimited dimensions in place
    • From: Chris Barker

• References:
  • [netcdfgroup] changing from fixed to unlimited dimensions in place
    • From: Ben