NetCDF4 Python String Attribute Experiments

netcdfstringstest.py

import netCDF4
import sys

filename = sys.argv[1]

unicode_string = u"\N{GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA}"
normal_string = "bob"

nc = netCDF4.Dataset(filename, 'w')
nc.uni = unicode_string
nc.encoded_uni = unicode_string.encode('utf8')
nc.normal_string = normal_string
nc.encoded_normal_string = normal_string.encode('utf8')
nc.close()

Shell Output.txt

$ python2 netcdfstringstest.py py2test.nc

$ python3 netcdfstringstest.py py3test.nc

$ ncdump py2test.nc
netcdf py2test {

// global attributes:
                string :uni = "Δ" ;
                :encoded_uni = "Δ" ;
                :normal_string = "bob" ;
                :encoded_normal_string = "bob" ;
}

$ ncdump py3test.nc
netcdf py3test {

// global attributes:
                string :uni = "Δ" ;
                :encoded_uni = "Δ" ;
                string :normal_string = "bob" ;
                :encoded_normal_string = "bob" ;
}