I'm planning on using netCDF format data files for our new
acquisition/playback system. The data are a number of
channels of analog data (1-8), which are either recorded or
being used to drive VCO's, and a number of channels of
timestamps of significant events which are recorded. A set
of such data can occur any number of times within one experiment.
The analog data can be set to a fixed number of data points,
however the event data count is unknown beforehand. The number
of sets is also unknown beforehand.
My problem is, how can I store a number of sets in one netCDF
file, if I have two unlimited dimensions, namely the event
timestamps, and the number of data sets? It looks like I
have to use a seperate file for each data set, is that right?
If an experiment's data is stored in 100's of little files, we're
bound to lose one of them :(. Should I use a preset number
of sets? I would prefer to keep the all the data for an experiment
in one big file.
This is partial CDL of my file:
netcdf file{
dimensions:
sample = 10000; <- for example, we know this before the experiment
analog_channel = 8; ditto
event_channel = 6; ditto
set = unlimited;
timestamp = unlimited;
variables:
short analog(set, channel, sample);
long event( set, channel, timestamp);
}
Thanks for any advice. Is netCDF a good data format for such data?
Any other common format that would be better?
Bill Morrow Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary
e-mail: morrow@cns.ucalgary.ca voice: (403) 220-6275 fax: (403) 283-8770
http://www.cns.ucalgary.ca/~morrow
HMRB 105, 3330 Hospital Drive NW Calgary, Alberta, CANADA T2N 4N1