2012 Unidata NetCDF Workshop > Formats and Performance
14.1 Parts of a File in Classic Format
A netCDF classic or 64-bit offset file is stored in three parts.
- The header, containing information
about dimensions, attributes, variables, and all attribute values.
- The fixed-size data, containing
data values for variables that
don't have an unlimited dimension (if there are any)
- The record data, containing data
values for variables that have an unlimited dimension (if there are any)
This format has some characteristics important for performance:
- no extra space in the header (by default) or fixed-size data part
- little storage overhead
- a file can grow efficiently only by appending records to the
end, growing all record variables together
2012 Unidata NetCDF Workshop > Formats and Performance
