Re: reading variable attributes

Thanks Dennis but that's the answer to a different question from what I
had in mind. I was just trying to confirm whether NCL is reading in the
whole variable when performing an operation to get an attribute, like
the example you provided. My understanding of the netCDF library is
that it shouldn't have to. But I'm either misunderstanding or NCL is
reading it all since my few tests have taken about the same time to read
the var or read its attribute. I was hoping an up-front investment to
read the var/save the stats as attributes would pay off later when I
just read the attributes.

If I haven't already spent too much time (mine and yours) on this, I
suspect I'll be there soon...

Thanks,
Dave

Dennis Shea said the following on 7/18/12 1:54 PM:
> f = addfile("foo.nc", "r")
>
> Q_MinMax = f->Q@min_max
>
>
> On 7/18/12 1:36 PM, David B. Reusch wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I have this idea that by adding min/max values for variables as
>> attributes in the netCDF file I might be able to save time later when
>> trying to create consistent colorbars/contouring, i.e., my script just
>> reads the attribute instead of crunching through all the data. Some
>> experience has suggested I won't actually be saving anything since it
>> seems to be taking just as long to read the attributes as it does to
>> read the whole var (though it will still be nice to have the stats
>> easily viewable as attributes...). Hence my actual question: does NCL
>> have to read the whole var to get its attributes? I wouldn't have
>> thought the netCDF data model would require this but I'm not an expert.
>> And it's also possible something else is still slowing it down, I
>> haven't had a chance to really dig into this much.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Dave
>>
>
>

-- 
Associate Research Professor of Climatology
Dept of Earth and Environmental Science
MSEC 304; 801 Leroy Place
New Mexico Tech
Socorro, NM 87801
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