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cdfinfo

Information about Common Data Format (CDF) file

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Syntax

info = cdfinfo(filename)

Description

info = cdfinfo(filename) returns information about the Common Data Format (CDF) file specified by filename. Specify filename as a character vector or string scalar.

Note

Because cdfinfo creates temporary files, the current working directory must be writeable.

The following table lists the fields returned in the structure, info. The table lists the fields in the order that they appear in the structure.

Field

Description

Filename

Character vector specifying the name of the file

FileModDate

Character vector indicating the date the file was last modified

FileSize

Double scalar specifying the size of the file, in bytes

Format

Character vector specifying the file format

FormatVersion

Character vector specifying the version of the CDF library used to create the file

FileSettings

Structure array containing library settings used to create the file

Subfiles

Filenames containing the CDF file's data, if it is a multi-file format CDF

Variables

N-by-6 cell array, where N is the number of variables, containing information about the variables in the file. The columns present the following information:

Column 1

Character vector specifying name of variable

Column 2

Double array specifying the dimensions of the variable, as returned by the size function

Column 3

Double scalar specifying the number of records assigned for the variable

Column 4

Character vector specifying the data type of the variable, as stored in the CDF file

Column 5

Character vector specifying the record and dimension variance settings for the variable. The single T or F to the left of the slash designates whether values vary by record. The zero or more T or F letters to the right of the slash designate whether values vary at each dimension. Here are some examples.

T/  (scalar variable 
F/T (one-dimensional variable)

T/TFF (three-dimensional variable)

GlobalAttributes

Structure array that contains one field for each global attribute. The name of each field corresponds to the name of an attribute. The data in each field, contained in a cell array, represents the entry values for that attribute.

VariableAttributes

Structure array that contains one field for each variable attribute. The name of each field corresponds to the name of an attribute. The data in each field is contained in a n-by-2 cell array, where n is the number of variables. The first column of this cell array contains the variable names associated with the entries. The second column contains the entry values.

Note

Attribute names returned by cdfinfo might not match the names of the attributes in the CDF file exactly. Attribute names can contain characters that are illegal in MATLAB® field names. cdfinfo removes illegal characters that appear at the beginning of attributes and replaces other illegal characters with underscores ('_'). When cdfinfo modifies an attribute name, it appends the attribute's internal number to the end of the field name. For example, the attribute name Variable%Attribute becomes Variable_Attribute_013.

Note

To improve performance, turn off the file validation which the CDF library does by default when opening files. For more information, see cdflib.setValidate.

Examples

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Open Live Script

Get information about the sample file, example.cdf.

info = cdfinfo('example.cdf')
info = struct with fields:
              Filename: 'example.cdf'
           FileModDate: '10-May-2010 21:35:01'
              FileSize: 1310
                Format: 'CDF'
         FormatVersion: '2.7.0'
          FileSettings: [1x1 struct]
              Subfiles: {}
             Variables: {6x6 cell}
      GlobalAttributes: [1x1 struct]
    VariableAttributes: [1x1 struct]

View information about the variables in the file.

info.Variables
ans=6×6 cell array
    {'Time'            }    {[    1 1]}    {[24]}    {'epoch' }    {'T/'    }    {'Full'}
    {'Longitude'       }    {[    2 2]}    {[ 1]}    {'int8'  }    {'F/FT'  }    {'Full'}
    {'Latitude'        }    {[    2 2]}    {[ 1]}    {'int8'  }    {'F/TF'  }    {'Full'}
    {'Data'            }    {[  2 2 4]}    {[ 1]}    {'double'}    {'T/TTT' }    {'Full'}
    {'multidimensional'}    {[2 2 3 4]}    {[ 1]}    {'uint8' }    {'T/TTTT'}    {'Full'}
    {'Temperature'     }    {[    3 2]}    {[10]}    {'int16' }    {'T/TT'  }    {'Full'}

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

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See Also

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