[Nexus] WARNING: multi-dimensional character arrays are not reallysupported?

[tieman]

Freddie,

I think the offending portion of the code is in napi.c:

  NXstatus CALLING_STYLE NXgetinfo (NXhandle fid, int *rank,
                    int dimension[], int *iType)
...
    if ( (*iType == NX_CHAR) && (*rank > 1) )
    {
    NXIReportError(NXpData,
      "WARNING: multi-dimensional character arrays are not really 
supported");
    }
...

In my case, rank is 2--I have a 2D character array.  The error pops up 
and then the program bombs...

Reading this code, I don't see how it's possible to read 
multidimensional character arrays from any format as this routine gets 
called by all...at any rate, I've verified that napi does open my 
specific file as an HDF4 file.

I' have posted a bug report.  I am trying to use Nexus3.0.0...should I 
be using a different version of the code?

Thanks!

Brian

Akeroyd, FA (Freddie) wrote:
> Brian,
>
> I believe multi-dimensional character arrays should work with the HDF4
> interface, but maybe not with HDF5/XML. For more details see:
>
> http://lists.nexusformat.org/pipermail/nexus/2004/000179.html
> http://lists.nexusformat.org/pipermail/nexus/2004/000180.html
>
> If you are having problems with HDF4 then please post a bug report, with
> a small example file if possible, to http://trac.nexusformat.org/code/
> to assist with investigation of your HDF4 problem.
>
> With regard to HDF5/XML, I personally would like to see
> multi-dimensional character arrays supported; however neatly handling
> the presence of trailing spaces/embedded newlines etc. may require some
> thought with the XML API. 
>
> Regards,
>
> Freddie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nexus-bounces at nexusformat.org
> [mailto:nexus-bounces at nexusformat.org] On Behalf Of tieman
> Sent: 12 December 2006 16:33
> To: Nexus List
> Subject: [Nexus] WARNING: multi-dimensional character arrays are not
> reallysupported?
>
> Well, now that I've got most of my stuff built to use Nexus 3.0.0, I've 
> started validating that all works as before...and of course it doesn't
> :(
>
> In particular, I now get a "WARNING: multi-dimensional character arrays 
> are not really supported" when trying to read 2 dimensional character 
> data.  I do this routinely to store a list of file names relevant to the
>
> data set.  For example, I may have a list of file names for the bright 
> fields taken with the CCD for an experiment.  And another list with the 
> names of the raw files.  The lists were all saved with Napi1.3.2 and 
> previous as a 2D char arrays.
>
> I can not read these files with Nexus3.0.0.  Is this due to issues with 
> HDF5 and/or XML?  I haven't started hacking into the napi code too much 
> other than to find the location of the error (NXgetinfo) and compare it 
> to napi1.3.2 to see what's changed. 
>
> I literally have thousands of data sets already collected that have this
>
> issue if I make the switch to Nexus3.0.0--I need a solution even if it 
> means hacking into the Napi code myself...any suggestions?
>
> Brian
>
>
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