[netcdfgroup] ncgen Gives Error with Dimension Named "string"

• To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [netcdfgroup] ncgen Gives Error with Dimension Named "string"
• From: Daren Stotler <dstotler@xxxxxxxx>
• Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2020 11:18:51 -0400

Since its inception (~1992), our code has had a netCDF "dimension"
named "string".  This has never caused a problem in writing (classic)
netCDF files via the Fortran interface.

However, if I run ncdump on one of these files, followed by ncgen:

ncdump -p 7,17 bk_ncsx.nc > bk_ncsx.cdl
ncgen -o test_ncsx.nc bk_ncsx.cdl
ncgen: bk_ncsx.cdl line 4: syntax error, unexpected '='

Where line 4 contains:

string = 300 ;

If I change "string" to anything else, ncgen succeeds.  Moreover,
ncgen3 accepts the use of "string" as is; in fact, we have been using
ncgen3 as a workaround for some time.

As I understand it, there are no reserved names for dimensions or
variables in the netCDF specification; this is consistent with our
ability to write these netCDF files via the Fortran interface.  So, is
there a problem with ncgen here?

Thanks,
Daren Stotler


-- 
_______________________________________________________________
Daren Stotler
Senior Physicist
http://w3.pppl.gov/~dstotler
609-243-2063
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
MS 27
P.O. Box 451
Princeton, NJ 08543