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# spacepy.pycdf.Var

class `spacepy.pycdf.``Var`(cdf_file, var_name, *args)

  > A CDF variable.

  > This object does not directly store the data from the CDF; rather, it provides access to the data in a format that much like a Python list or numpy `ndarray`. General list information is available in the python docs: 1, 2, 3.

  > The CDF user’s guide, section 2.3, provides background on variables.

  > Note

  > Not intended to be created directly; use methods of `CDF` to gain access to a variable.

  > A record-varying variable’s data are viewed as a hypercube of dimensions n_dims+1 (the extra dimension is the record number). They are indexed in row-major fashion, i.e. the last index changes most frequently / is contiguous in memory. If the CDF is column-major, the data are transformed to row-major before return.

  > Non record-varying variables are similar, but do not have the extra dimension of record number.

  > Variables can be subscripted by a multidimensional index to return the data. Indices are in row-major order with the first dimension representing the record number. If the CDF is column major, the data are reordered to row major. Each dimension is specified by standard Python slice notation, with dimensions separated by commas. The ellipsis fills in any missing dimensions with full slices. The returned data are lists; Python represents multidimensional arrays as nested lists. The innermost set of lists represents contiguous data.

  > Note

  > numpy ‘fancy indexing’ is not supported.

  > Degenerate dimensions are ‘collapsed’, i.e. no list of only one element will be returned if a single subscript is specified instead of a range. (To avoid this, specify a slice like 1:2, which starts with 1 and ends before 2).

  > Two special cases:

  > > 1. requesting a single-dimension slice for a record-varying variable will return all data for that record number (or those record numbers) for that variable.
  > > 2. Requests for multi-dimensional variables may skip the record-number dimension and simply specify the slice on the array itself. In that case, the slice of the array will be returned for all records.

  > In the event of ambiguity (e.g., single-dimension slice on a one-dimensional variable), case 1 takes priority. Otherwise, mismatch between the number of dimensions specified in the slice and the number of dimensions in the variable will cause an `IndexError` to be thrown.

  > This all sounds very complicated but it is essentially attempting to do the ‘right thing’ for a range of slices.

  > An unusual case is scalar (zero-dimensional) non-record-varying variables. Clearly they cannot be subscripted normally. In this case, use the `[...]` syntax meaning ‘access all data.’:

  >     >>> from spacepy import pycdf
  >     >>> testcdf = pycdf.CDF('test.cdf', '')
  >     >>> variable = testcdf.new('variable', recVary=False,
  >     ...     type=pycdf.const.CDF_INT4)
  >     >>> variable[...] = 10
  >     >>> variable
  >     <Var:
  >     CDF_INT4 [] NRV
  >     >
  >     >>> variable[...]
  >     10

  > As a list type, variables are also iterable; iterating over a variable returns a single complete record at a time.

  > This is all clearer with examples. Consider a variable `B_GSM`, with three elements per record (x, y, z components) and fifty records in the CDF. Then:

  > > 1. `B_GSM[0, 1]` is the y component of the first record.
  > > 2. `B_GSM[10, :]` is a three-element list, containing x, y, and z components of the 11th record. As a shortcut, if only one dimension is specified, it is assumed to be the record number, so this could also be written `B_GSM[10]`.
  > > 3. `B_GSM[...]` reads all data for `B_GSM` and returns it as a fifty-element list, each element itself being a three-element list of x, y, z components.

  > Multidimensional example: consider fluxes stored as a function of pitch angle and energy. Such a variable may be called Flux and stored as a two-dimensional array, with the first dimension representing (say) ten energy steps and the second, eighteen pitch angle bins (ten degrees wide, centered from 5 to 175 degrees). Assume 100 records stored in the CDF (i.e. 100 different times).

  > > 1. `Flux[4]` is a list of ten elements, one per energy step, each element being a list of 18 fluxes, one per pitch bin. All are taken from the fifth record in the CDF.
  > > 2. `Flux[4, :, 0:4]` is the same record, all energies, but only the first four pitch bins (roughly, field-aligned).
  > > 3. `Flux[..., 0:4]` is a 100-element list (one per record), each element being a ten-element list (one per energy step), each containing fluxes for the first four pitch bins.

  > This slicing notation is very flexible and allows reading specifically the desired data from the CDF.

  > All data are, on read, converted to appropriate Python data types; EPOCH, EPOCH16, and TIME_TT2000 types are converted to `datetime`. Data are returned in numpy arrays.

  > Note

  > Although pycdf supports TIME_TT2000 variables, the Python `datetime` object does not support leap seconds. Thus, on read, any seconds past 59 are truncated to 59.999999 (59 seconds, 999 milliseconds, 999 microseconds).

  > Potentially useful list methods and related functions:
  >   - count
  >   - in
  >   - index
  >   - len
  >   - list comprehensions
  >   - sorted

  > The topic of array majority can be very confusing; good background material is available at IDL Array Storage and Indexing. In brief, regardless of the majority stored in the CDF, pycdf will always present the data in the native Python majority, row-major order, also known as C order. This is the default order in NumPy. However, packages that render image data may expect it in column-major order. If the axes seem ‘swapped’ this is likely the reason.

  > The `attrs` Python attribute acts as a dictionary referencing zAttributes (do not confuse the two); all the dictionary methods above also work on the attribute dictionary. See `zAttrList` for more on the dictionary of attributes.

  > With writing, as with reading, every attempt has been made to match the behavior of Python lists. You can write one record, many records, or even certain elements of all records. There is one restriction: only the record dimension (i.e. dimension 0) can be resized by write, as all records in a variable must have the same dimensions. Similarly, only whole records can be deleted.

  > For these examples, assume Flux has 100 records and dimensions [2, 3].

  > Rewrite the first record without changing the rest:

  >     >>> Flux[0] = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]]

  > Writes a new first record and delete all the rest:

  >     >>> Flux[...] = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]]

  > Write a new record in the last position and add a new record after:

  >     >>> Flux[99:] = [[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]],
  >     ...              [[11, 12, 13], [14, 15, 16]]]

  > Insert two new records between the current number 5 and 6:

  >     >>> Flux[5:6] = [[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]],  [[11, 12, 13],
  >     ...               [14, 15, 16]]]

  > This operation can be quite slow, as it requires reading and rewriting the entire variable. (CDF does not directly support record insertion.)

  > Change the first element of the first two records but leave other elements alone:

  >     >>> Flux[0:2, 0, 0] = [1, 2]

  > Remove the first record:

  >     >>> del Flux[0]

  > Removes record 5 (the sixth):

  >     >>> del Flux[5]

  > Due to the need to work around a bug in the CDF library, this operation can be quite slow.

  > Delete all data from `Flux`, but leave the variable definition intact:

  >     >>> del Flux[...]

  > Note

  > Although this interface only directly supports zVariables, zMode is set on opening the CDF so rVars appear as zVars. See p.24 of the CDF user’s guide; pyCDF uses zMode 2.

  > `attrs` | zAttributes for this zVariable in a dict-like format.
  > `compress`([comptype, param]) | Set or check the compression of this variable
  > `copy`() | Copies all data and attributes from this variable
  > `dtype` | Provide the numpy dtype equivalent to the CDF type of this variable.
  > `dv`([new_dv]) | Gets or sets dimension variance of each dimension of variable.
  > `insert`(index, data) | Inserts a single record before an index
  > `name`() | Returns the name of this variable
  > `rename`(new_name) | Renames this variable
  > `rv`([new_rv]) | Gets or sets whether this variable has record variance
  > `shape` | Provides the numpy array-like shape of this variable.
  > `type`([new_type]) | Returns or sets the CDF type of this variable

  > `attrs`

  >   zAttributes for this zVariable in a dict-like format. See `zAttrList` for details.

  > `compress`(comptype=None, param=None)

  >   Set or check the compression of this variable

  >   Compression may not be changeable on variables with data already written; even deleting the data may not permit the change.

  >   See section 2.6 of the CDF user’s guide for more information on compression.

  >   Returns: | out : tuple the (comptype, param) currently in effect
  >   Other Parameters:
  >   | comptype : ctypes.c_long type of compression to change to, see CDF C reference manual section 4.10. Constants for this parameter are in `const`. If not specified, will not change compression. param : ctypes.c_long Compression parameter, see CDF CRM 4.10 and `const`. If not specified, will choose reasonable default (5 for gzip; other types have only one possible parameter.)

  > `copy`()

  >   Copies all data and attributes from this variable

  >   Returns: | out : `VarCopy` list of all data in record order

  > `dtype`

  >   Provide the numpy dtype equivalent to the CDF type of this variable.

  >   Data from this variable will be returned in numpy arrays of this type.

  >   See also

  >   `type`

  > `dv`(new_dv=None)

  >   Gets or sets dimension variance of each dimension of variable.

  >   If the variance is unknown, True is assumed (this replicates the apparent behavior of the CDF library on variable creation).

  >   Parameters: | new_dv : list of boolean Each element True to change that dimension to dimension variance, False to change to not dimension variance. (Unspecified to simply check variance.)
  >   Returns: | out : list of boolean True if that dimension has variance, else false.

  > `insert`(index, data)

  >   Inserts a single record before an index

  >   Parameters: | index : int index before which to insert the new record data : : the record to insert

  > `name`()

  >   Returns the name of this variable

  >   Returns: | out : str variable’s name

  > `rename`(new_name)

  >   Renames this variable

  >   Parameters: | new_name : str the new name for this variable

  > `rv`(new_rv=None)

  >   Gets or sets whether this variable has record variance

  >   If the variance is unknown, True is assumed (this replicates the apparent behavior of the CDF library on variable creation).

  >   Returns: | out : Boolean True if record varying, False if NRV
  >   Other Parameters:
  >   | new_rv : boolean True to change to record variance, False to change to NRV, unspecified to simply check variance.

  > `shape`

  >   Provides the numpy array-like shape of this variable.

  >   Returns a tuple; first element is number of records (RV variable only) And the rest provide the dimensionality of the variable.

  >   Note

  >   Assigning to this attribute will not change the shape.

  > `type`(new_type=None)

  >   Returns or sets the CDF type of this variable

  >   Parameters: | new_type : ctypes.c_long the new type from `const`
  >   Returns: | out : int CDF type

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