.. highlightlang:: us

.. _nc_vardef:

nc_vardef
=========

.. index:: nc_vardef

.. us.tag  nc_vardef ENGLISH NC_Var

:ref:`nc_vardef` adds a new variable to
an open netCDF file in define mode.

.. function::  varid = nc_vardef(ncid, ssName, nDataType, rvDimids)

.. us.return

**Return Value**

*varid* is the ID of the variable. If a error occurs, *varid*
is -1.

.. us.params

**Parameters**

.. uparam:: ncid

   Identifies the netCDF file.

.. uparam:: ssName

   *ssName* is the name of the variable. Must begin with an alphabetic
   character or an underscore, followed by zero or more alphanumeric characters
   including the underscore (``_``) or numbers.
   Channel names may contain the following special characters:
   ``.``, ``-``, ``+``, ``$``, ``#``, ``~``, ``!``, ``^``, ``&``, ``%``.
   Case is significant.

.. uparam:: nDataType

   *nDataType* is the data type of the variable and is
   one of the following: ``NC_BYTE``, ``NC_CHAR``, ``NC_SHORT``, ``NC_LONG``, ``NC_FLOAT``,
   ``NC_DOUBLE``.

.. uparam:: rvDimids

   *rvDimids* is vector of dimension ID's and
   defines the shape of a netCDF variable.

.. seealso::
   :ref:`overview-netcdf-files`,
   :ref:`nc_create`

:sub:`id-1963459`