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flt2string

Converts values of type float to values of type string.

Prototype

load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/contributed.ncl"  ; This library is automatically loaded
                                                             ; from NCL V6.2.0 onward.
                                                             ; No need for user to explicitly load.

	function flt2string (
		x  : float   
	)

	return_val [dimsizes(x)] :  string

Arguments

A scalar or array of type float of any dimensionality.

Return value

The results are returned in an array of type string of the same size and shape as x. Metadata is preserved.

Description

This function converts float data to string data.

Note 1: this function is slightly different than the built-in set of conversion functions (like floattointeger) because it requires loading the "contributed.ncl" script and it preserves metadata. It has a slightly different naming style than the built-in functions, just to set it apart from these other functions.

Note 2: It is not guaranteed that if stringtofloat is applied to the result of flt2string that the returned values will exactly match the original float values.

Examples

Example 1

     x    = fspan(12, 23.5, 10)
     x(3) = 1.e20  
     x(6) = 1.e20  
     x@_FillValue = 1.e20
     print(x)

     x_str = flt2string(x)
     print(x_str)

     X    = stringtofloat( x_str ) 
     print(X)

The float and string variables look like: