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yyyymm_time

Creates a one-dimensional array containing year-month (yyyymm) values.

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 yyyymm_time (
		yrStrt [1] : integer,  
		yrLast [1] : integer,  
		TYPE       : string    
	)

Arguments

yrStrt

An integer specifying the initial year.

yrLast

An integer specifying the last year.

TYPE

A string specifying the numeric type to be returned ["integer", "float", "double"].

Return value

A one dimensional array containing values of the form yyyymm. The first value will correspond to January of yrStrt. The last value will correspond to December of yrLast. In addition, the attributes "long_name" and "units" will be set, and the return value will have a named dimension "time".

Description

For each month of each year, the value yyyymm = (yyyy*100 + mm) is returned. The 'mm' values start at 1 [January] and end at 12 [December].

Examples

The following require that contributed.ncl be loaded prior to invoking the function.

       load "$NCARG_ROOT/lib/ncarg/nclscripts/csm/contributed.ncl"

Example 1

Create a one-dimensional [1D] array of type integer spanning 1850 through 2001.

      yyyymm = yyyymm_time(1850, 2001, "integer")
      print(yyyymm)

The above returns a 1D array of length 1824 values.

Variable: yyyymm
Type: integer
Total Size: 7296 bytes
            1824 values
Number of Dimensions: 1
Dimensions and sizes:   [time | 1824]
Coordinates: 
            time: [185001..200112]
Number Of Attributes: 4
  long_name :   time
  units :       yyyymm
(0)     185001
(1)     185002
(2)     185003
[snip]
(1821)  200110
(1822)  200111
(1823)  200112

Example 2

Create a yyyymm variable named "time" that spans April 1901 to September 2001. Make the yrStrt and yrLast span the required years. Then use NCL's Coordinate Subscripting to subset the returned 1D array.

      TIME = yyyymm_time(1901, 2001, "integer")
      time = TIME({190104:200109})    ; coordinate subscripting
      print(time)

The above returns a 1D array of length 1194 values.