[CF-metadata] Dealing with large numbers of flag values in netcdf cf

[John Graybeal]

Love the question! :->

Are you saying every map location has one index value, which is one of  
the numbers from 1 to 827?  So these are mutually exclusive?  Or are  
there 827 flag values assigned independently for each map location?

When I wrestled with something similar to the latter case, I wished  
for a pseudo-standard name that just indicated these were flag values  
(and not anything else).  But in the end, if we agree that the purpose  
of the standard name is to decide if two data values can be compared,  
it seems to me you really have 827 different parameters.  (It isn't  
like these are flag values about some other data item in your data  
set, is it?)  The fact they are all flags is really just a notation  
about how the information is stored.

John


On Oct 26, 2009, at 0710, <martin.juckes at stfc.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I wonder if anyone can help with this problem:
>
> I have a file with a map of index values, ranging from 1 to 827. The  
> flag meanings range from “Admiralty Islands lowland rain forests” to  
> “Zambezian halophytics”. I’m reluctant to combine all 827 flag  
> meanings into a single string for the “flag_meanings” attribute – is  
> there a better way?
>
> Note that this is not my dataset, so that while suggestions for  
> presenting the data in a different way may be useful, they won’t  
> solve my current problem. The dataset is a eco-region analysis  
> distributed by the WWF and has wide usage in its present form.
>
> Sincerely,
> Martin Juckes
>
> -- 
> Scanned by iCritical.
>
>
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--------------
I have my new work email address: jgraybeal at ucsd.edu
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John Graybeal   <mailto:jgraybeal at ucsd.edu>
phone: 858-534-2162
Development Manager
Ocean Observatories Initiative Cyberinfrastructure Project: http://ci.oceanobservatories.org
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org




---------------
John Graybeal
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org
graybeal at marinemetadata.org




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