Support more data types?

[Yaqiang]

Is it possible to add more data types in DataType enum, for example Date and Complex. I know OBJECT data type can include them, but it will be more clear with specific names.

[ethanrd]

The DataType enum is a list of the data types supported by the netCDF data model. The Object type is just a helper-type which is only used in a few places in Arrays and when converting an unsigned long type to the appropriate type in Java, BigInteger.

So, no, that's not really the right place for new types like Date or Complex.

[ethanrd]

@Yaqiang - I forgot to mention user defined types. The netCDF Enhanced Data model supports compound data types. You could create a Ccompound type to represent, for example, complex numbers. (In netCDF-Java, the compound type is handled by the Structure class.) The CDL might look something like:

types:
  compound complex_number_t {
    float real ;
    float imaginary ;
    }
dimensions:
    lat = 18 ;
    lon = 36 ;
variables:
    complex_number_t my_data( lat, lon) ;

Best practices around using compound types in netCDF is still developing and there aren't a lot of widely used conventions that support compound types. However, depending on your needs, it might be a good option.

[Yaqiang]

@ethanrd Thanks for your explain and suggestion!