A.3 gAttributes Section

The gAttributes section contains the definition of each gAttribute as well as any gEntries for those gAttributes. The format of the gAttributes section is as follows:

#GLOBALattributes

[<global-scope-attribute-definition>
 <global-scope-attribute-definition>
 <global-scope-attribute-definition>
                  .
                  .
                  .
 <global-scope-attribute-definition>]

Where <global-scope-attribute-definition>, needless to say, is a gAttribute definition.

Zero or more gAttribute definitions are allowed. (There is no limit on the number of attributes that a CDF may have.) The format of each gAttribute definition is as follows:

! Attribute        Entry       Data
! Name             Number      Type           Value
! ---------        ------      ----           -----

  <attr-name>   [<entry-n>:    <data-type>    <value>
                 <entry-n>:   [<data-type>]   <value>
                 <entry-n>:   [<data-type>]   <value>
                     .              .            .
                     .              .            .
                     .              .            .
                 <entry-n>:   [<data-type>]   <value>] .         ! note the "."

The fields are defined as follows:

<attr-name>
The name of the gAttribute. The name must be delimited with a character not appearing in the name itself (e.g., "TITLE" or 'History'). The delimiting characters are not part of the gAttribute name in the CDF.

<entry-n>
The gEntry number. Zero or more gEntries may be specified for a gAttribute, and there are no restrictions on the gEntry numbers that may be used (except that they must be greater than zero).

<data-type>
The data type for the gEntry. The data type must be one of the following: CDF_BYTE, CDF_INT1, CDF_UINT1, CDF_INT2, CDF_UINT2, CDF_INT4, CDF_UINT4, CDF_REAL4, CDF_FLOAT, CDF_REAL8, CDF_DOUBLE, CDF_EPOCH, CDF_CHAR, or CDF_UCHAR. The <data-type> field is optional for all but the first gEntry specified. If omitted, the data type of the previous gEntry is assumed.

<value>
The value(s) for the gEntry. A period ( .) follows the value(s) of the last gEntry for a gAttribute.

Attribute Entry Values

An attribute entry can have more than one element of the specified data type. For character string data types ( CDF_CHAR and CDF_UCHAR), each character is an element. The character string must be delimited with a character not appearing in the string itself, and the entire delimited string must be enclosed in braces (e.g., { "The CDF title." }). If the string will not fit on one line, it may be continued on additional lines. The substrings are each delimited with a unique character, and a dash ( -) is placed at the end (after the terminating delimiter) of each line except the last one. For example,

   { "This is a longer " -
     "CDF title that will" -
     " not fit on one line." }

For non-character string data types, the elements are enclosed in braces and separated by commas (e.g., SPM_quot 1, 2, 3 "). If the elements will not all fit on one line, they may be continued on additional lines. For example,

   { 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0,
     6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0 }

Note that an individual element value may not be split across lines.

The format of a value for the CDF_EPOCH data type (which is also considered a non-character string data type) is defined in Section 2.2.10. A CDF_EPOCH value may not be split across two lines.

#GLOBALattributes

! Attribute         Entry       Data
! Name              Number      Type       Value
! ---------         ------      ----       -----

  "TITLEa"              1:    CDF_CHAR     { "CDAW-9A; SABRE" }.

  ^TITLEb^              1:    CDF_CHAR     { "CDAW-9A; SABRE " -
                                             "Backscatter Radar, 20s." }.

  "History"             1:    CDF_CHAR     { "CDF created 02-Jan-1961" }
                        2:                 { "CDF modified 23-Oct-1964" }.

  "TIMES"               1:    CDF_EPOCH    { 04-Jul-1976 12:00:00.000,
                                             31-Oct-1976 00:00:00.000 }
                        2:                 { 25-Dec-1976 01:10:00.000,
                                             01-Jan-1977 01:10:30.000 }.

  &Factors&             1:    CDF_REAL4    { 12.5 }
                        2:                 { 17.4 }
                        3:                 {  8.5 }
                        4:    CDF_INT2     { 7 }
                        5:                 { 12 }.