Merge branch 'master' of github.com:Alexander-Barth/NCDatasets.jl

README.md

@@ -230,6 +230,9 @@ Pkg.installed()["NCDatasets"]
 Pkg.test("NCDatasets")
 ```
 
+# Alternative
+
+The package [NetCDF.jl](https://github.com/JuliaGeo/NetCDF.jl) from Fabian Gans and contributors is an alternative to this package which supports a more Matlab/Octave-like interface for reading and writing NetCDF files.
 
 # Credits
 

src/NCDatasets.jl

@@ -138,15 +138,23 @@ function defmode(ncid,isdefmode::Vector{Bool})
 end
 
 """
-    timeunits(units)
+    t0,plength = timeunits(units)
 
-Parse time units and returns the start time and the scaling factor in
-milliseconds.
+Parse time units and returns the start time `t0` and the scaling factor 
+`plength` in milliseconds.
 """
 function timeunits(units)
     tunit,starttime = strip.(split(units," since "))
     tunit = lowercase(tunit)
 
+    starttime = replace(starttime,"T"," ")
+
+    # remove Z time zone indicator
+    # all times are assumed UTC anyway
+    if endswith(starttime,"Z")
+        starttime = starttime[1:end-1]
+    end
+
     t0 = DateTime(starttime,"y-m-d H:M:S")
 
     plength = if (tunit == "days") || (tunit == "day")

src/netcdf_c.jl

@@ -254,8 +254,16 @@ end
 
 function nc_open(path,mode::Integer)
     ncidp = Vector{Cint}(1)
-    check(ccall((:nc_open,libnetcdf),Cint,(Ptr{UInt8},Cint,Ptr{Cint}),path,mode,ncidp))
-    return ncidp[1]
+
+    code = ccall((:nc_open,libnetcdf),Cint,(Ptr{UInt8},Cint,Ptr{Cint}),path,mode,ncidp)
+
+    if code == Cint(0)
+        return ncidp[1]
+        # otherwise throw an error message
+    else
+        # return a more helpful error message (i.e. with the path)
+        throw(NetCDFError(code, "Opening path $(path): $(nc_strerror(code))"))
+    end
 end
 
 function nc_inq_path(ncid::Integer)

test/test_timeunits.jl

@@ -30,3 +30,9 @@ for (timeunit,factor) in [("days",1),("hours",24),("minutes",24*60),("seconds",2
     rm(filename)
 
 end
+
+
+t0,plength = NCDatasets.timeunits("days since 1950-01-02T03:04:05Z")
+
+@test t0 == DateTime(1950,1,2, 3,4,5)
+@test plength == 86400000