• Object-oriented interface
• Fairly well documented: Users Guide is complete and up-to-date.
• Type safety: better than the C interface.
• Less code than an equivalent C program.
• Short argument lists, because there are no IDs for variables, dimensions, or attributes.
• Easier memory management, because space for blocks of data is allocated by the library.

• Showing its age: written before C++ standards for templates, exceptions, and namespaces
• No garbage collection: you have to delete blocks of data and NcAtt objects (attributes) allocated by the library when done with them.
• Less tested than C, Fortran, and Java interfaces.
• No ncgen support: ncgen cannot (yet) generate any C++ code.
• Old-fashioned error handling: no C++ Exceptions used, so need to check return status from method calls.

• Implemented as a thin layer on top of C library
• Not used in other Unidata libraries or applications.

Annotated examples of complete C++ netCDF programs are available from the program examples page.

NetCDF-4 note:  Student assistant/user have updated the C++ interface for netCDF-4, but not complete yet.

2009 Unidata NetCDF Workshop for Developers and Data Providers > NetCDF APIs