Enumerated types may be used to represent a small number of named values more concisely than strings, because small numeric values are stored even though the corresponding text symbols are displayed when the data is dumped.

Example CDL for enumeration types: vlens

Potential uses for vlen types include:

• improving self-description while keeping data compact
• provide a better alternative to using strings for flags for such purposes as data quality indicators, soil type, cloud type, and similar situations

2012 Unidata NetCDF Workshop > Utilities for NetCDF-4