.. highlightlang:: us

.. _nc_makevalidname:

nc_makevalidname
================

.. index:: nc_makevalidname

.. us.tag  nc_makevalidname ENGLISH NC_Var Changed5145

:ref:`nc_makevalidname` returns a valid netCDF variable name for a given name.

.. function::  ssNewName = nc_makevalidname(ncid, ssName)
    ssNewName = nc_makevalidname(ncid, ssName, bToUnderscore)

.. us.return

**Return Value**

*ssNewName* is a valid NC name.Special characters will be replaced by an
underscore (_). Umlauts will be replaced as following: Ä->A, ä->a, Ö->O, ö->o,
Ü->U, ü->u, ß->s. In UniPlot 5.14.5 channel names may contain the following
special characters: ``.``, ``-``, ``+``, ``$``, ``#``, ``~``, ``!``, ``^``,
``&``, ``%``.

If an error occurs, *ssNewName* is empty ("").

.. us.params

**Parameters**

.. uparam:: ncid

   Identifies the netCDF file. If *ncid* is -1 a valid name will be returned.

.. uparam:: ssName

   *ssName* is the name of the netCDF variable.

.. uparam:: bToUnderscore

   If *bToUnderscore* is TRUE (1) the special characters in the channel name are
   replaced by underscores. For the value 0 the special characters remain in the 
   channel name. Allowed special characters: ``.``, ``-``, ``+``, ``$``, ``#``,
   ``~``, ``!``, ``^``, ``&``, ``%``.  Default value is -1.  If set to -1 the
   settings set with :ref:`nc_set_option` are used.

.. us.comment

**Comment**

If *ncid* is a valid NC-handle the function returns a unique name. If the same 
variable name already exists an underscore followed by a number will be added to
the name.

.. us.history

**History**

.. list-table::
   :header-rows: 1

   * - Version
     - Description
   * - 5.14.5
     - New parameter bToUnderscore.

.. seealso::
   :ref:`overview-netcdf-files`,
   :ref:`nc_create`,
   :ref:`nc_varid`,
   :ref:`nc_set_option`,
   :ref:`nc_vardef`

:sub:`id-1001849`