Re: Printing multi-dimensional variables

What about "write_matrix"?

http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Document/Functions/Built-in/write_matrix.shtml

Jan Ploski wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a feature request or question concerning pretty-printing of
> multi-dimensional variables. Consider the following NCL script:
>
> names = (/ "first", "second" /)
> hours = (/ 0, 6, 12, 18 /)
>
> var = new((/ 2, 4 /), float, -999.0)
> var!0 = "name"
> var!1 = "hour"
> var&name = names
> var&hour = hours
>
> var({"first"},{0}) = 1
> var({"first"},{6}) = 2
> var({"first"},{12}) = 3
> var({"first"},{18}) = 4
> var({"second"},{12}) = 7
> var({"second"},{18}) = 8
>
> print(var)
>
> The NCL output is:
>
> Variable: var
> Type: float
> Total Size: 32 bytes
> 8 values
> Number of Dimensions: 2
> Dimensions and sizes: [name | 2] x [hour | 4]
> Coordinates:
> name: [first..second]
> hour: [0..18]
> Number Of Attributes: 1
> _FillValue : -999
> (0,0) 1
> (0,1) 2
> (0,2) 3
> (0,3) 4
> (1,0) -999
> (1,1) -999
> (1,2) 7
> (1,3) 8
>
> In this trivial example it may be easy to translate in your head (1,2) to
> a particular combination of dimension names and coordinate values, but
> when the variables get higher dimensionality and the size of dimensions
> increases, you quickly get lost. In fact, I have a user who considers
> turning away from NCL in favor of Fortran because of this lack of
> comfortable output formatting (his other major trouble is understanding
> slicing/hyperslab operations, but that can be only cured by practice IMO).
> Anyway, what he'd like to see in the output is:
>
> Variable: var
> Type: float
> Total Size: 32 bytes
> 8 values
> Number of Dimensions: 2
> Dimensions and sizes: [name | 2] x [hour | 4]
> Coordinates:
> name: [first..second]
> hour: [0..18]
> Number Of Attributes: 1
> _FillValue : -999
> (name=first,hour=0) 1
> (name=first,hour=6) 2
> (name=first,hour=12) 3
> (name=first,hour=18) 4
> (name=second,hour=12) 7
> (name=second,hour=18) 8
>
> That is, (optional) dimension names, (optional) coordinates translated
> using the subscript variable, and missing values optionally left out of
> the output.
>
> I guess this kind of output would be rather easy to support in a future
> version of NCL?... In the meanwhile, I'd like to ask which solution you
> think would be easiest:
> 1) a custom NCL routine to be used instead of print
> 2) a custom Fortran routine to be used instead of print
> 3) hacking the NCL source of the print routine directly
> 4) writing an NCL wrapper/post-processor in Perl (that would require the
> values of coordinate variables to be available somewhere in the output)
>
> Regards,
> Jan Ploski
> _______________________________________________
> ncl-talk mailing list
> ncl-talk_at_ucar.edu
> http://mailman.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/ncl-talk
>

-- 
======================================================
Dennis J. Shea                  tel: 303-497-1361    |
P.O. Box 3000                   fax: 303-497-1333    |
Climate Analysis Section                             |
Climate & Global Dynamics Div.                       |
National Center for Atmospheric Research             |
Boulder, CO  80307                                   |
USA                        email: shea 'at' ucar.edu |
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