nc4fortran API

This document provides a listing of nc4fortran public scoped user-facing procedures and methods with a summary of their parameters.

All examples assume:

use nc4fortran, only: netcdf_file

type(netcdf_file) :: h

Query NetCDF4 library version:

use nc4fortran, only : nc4version
print *, nc4version()

Open NetCDF4 file reference

More than one NetCDF4 file can be open in a program, by declaring unique file handle (variable) like:

type(netcdf_file) :: h1, h2, h3

call h%open(filename, action, comp_lvl)
!! Opens hdf5 file

character(*), intent(in) :: filename
character(*), intent(in), optional :: action  !< r, w, rw
integer, intent(in), optional      :: comp_lvl  !< 0: no compression. 1-9: ZLIB compression, higher is more compressior

Close NetCDF4 file reference

call h%close()
!! This must be called on each open file to flush buffers to disk
!! data loss can occur if program terminates before this procedure

To avoid memory leaks or corrupted files, always "close" files before STOPping the Fortran program.

Flush data to disk while file is open

call h%flush()

Disk variable (dataset) inquiry

To allocate variables before reading data, inquire about dataset characteristics with these procedures.

rank = h%ndim(dataset_name)

character(*), intent(in) :: dataset_name

Get disk dataset shape (1D vector)

call h%shape(dataset_name, dims)

character(*), intent(in) :: dataset_name
integer(HSIZE_T), intent(out), allocatable :: dims(:)

Does dataset "dname" exist in this HDF5 file?

tf = h%exist(dname)

character(*), intent(in) :: dname

Is dataset "dname" contiguous on disk?

tf = h%is_contig(dname)

character(*), intent(in) :: dname

These are more advanced inquiries into the memory layout of the dataset, for advanced users:

call h%chunks(dname, chunk_size)

character(*), intent(in) :: dname
integer, intent(out) :: chunk_size(:)

file write operations

call h%write(dname,value, istart, iend, stride, chunk_size)
!! write 0d..7d dataset
character(*), intent(in) :: dname
class(*), intent(in) :: value(:)  !< array to write
integer, intent(in), optional :: chunk_size(rank(value))
integer, intent(in), optional, dimension(:) :: istart, iend, stride  !< array slicing

Write dataset attribute (e.g. units or instrument)

call h%writeattr(dname, attr, attrval)

character(*), intent(in) :: dname, attr  !< dataset name, attribute name
class(*), intent(in) :: attrval(:)  !< character, real, integer

file read operations

Read data from disk to memory

call h%read(dname, value, istart, iend, stride)
character(*), intent(in)         :: dname
class(*), intent(out) :: value(:)  !< read array to this ALLOCATED variable
integer, intent(in), optional, dimension(:) :: istart, iend, stride !< array slicing

Read dataset attribute into memory

call h%readattr(dname, attr, attrval)
character(*), intent(in) :: dname, attr  !< dataset name, attribute name
class(*), intent(out) :: attrval(:)  !< character, real, integer