[ncl-talk] difficulty reading multiple files with different dimensions.
Jonathan Vigh
jvigh at ucar.edu
Mon Feb 23 11:02:14 MST 2026
Hi Geeta,
I'm glad it helped! I'll be curious to see how tools like ChatGPT can
augment help lists like ncl-talk. Possibly, many of the issues people have
can be helped with these tools. I'm sure there will always be some
challenging cases, such as actual bugs or deficiencies in the underlying
language of NCL itself (e.g, GRIB tables getting outdated), that may
require further attention and effort.
Best regards,
Jonathan
Jonathan Vigh
Scientist V, Environmental Resilience Applications Program
Research Applications Laboratory (RAL)
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR)
P.O. Box 3000 tel: +1 (303) 497-8205
Boulder, CO 80307-3000 fax: +1 (303) 497-8171Jonathan's Staff Web
Page <http://staff.ral.ucar.edu/jvigh/> (CV, publications,
etc.)Tropical Cyclone Guidance Project
<http://hurricanes.ral.ucar.edu/> (real-time hurricane data)
Tropical Cyclone Data Project <https://verif.rap.ucar.edu/tcdata/>
(FLIGHT+, VDM+, TC-OBS datasets)
HurricaneRiskCalculator®️ <https://wxrisk.io/> (Now available --
Personalized hurricane wind hazard assessments for decision support)
On Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 12:46 AM Geeta Geeta <geetag54 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Sir, I looked at the chat GPT link and found the explanation useful. My
> code is working with reassignment operator/
>
> Thank you
>
>
> Geeta.
>
>
> On Thursday, 19 February 2026 at 09:42:12 am IST, Jonathan Vigh <
> jvigh at ucar.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Geeta,
>
> I don't know if anyone has replied to you yet. This appears to be a
> typical programming challenge, in which arrays that are different shapes
> can't be assigned in NCL. One of your files probably has a different
> dimension from the others.
>
> Tools like ChatGPT "know" NCL and can be very helpful in explaining what
> is going on with your code and offering potential solutions. Here's a link
> to a chat where I simply put the text of your email into it and asked if it
> could figure out what was going on. It provided a good explanation and
> solution.
> https://chatgpt.com/share/69968a1a-b73c-800f-a291-aab0c2136ec0
>
> I don't recommend using free-tier AI tools to blindly write or patch code
> for complex tasks, as I've observed them to lose context and lead one
> around in circles. However, for debugging errors like this, they are often
> very helpful. As with anything AI, one always needs to carefully check to
> ensure that the code solution works.
>
> Best regards,
> Jonathan
>
>
>
> Jonathan Vigh
> Scientist V, Environmental Resilience Applications Program
> Research Applications Laboratory (RAL)
> NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR)
> P.O. Box 3000 tel: +1 (303) 497-8205
> Boulder, CO 80307-3000 fax: +1 (303) 497-8171Jonathan's Staff Web Page <http://staff.ral.ucar.edu/jvigh/> (CV, publications, etc.)Tropical Cyclone Guidance Project <http://hurricanes.ral.ucar.edu/> (real-time hurricane data)
>
> Tropical Cyclone Data Project <https://verif.rap.ucar.edu/tcdata/> (FLIGHT+, VDM+, TC-OBS datasets)
>
> HurricaneRiskCalculator®️ <https://wxrisk.io/> (Now available -- Personalized hurricane wind hazard assessments for decision support)
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2026 at 2:15 AM Geeta Geeta via ncl-talk <
> ncl-talk at mailman.ucar.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi
> I have multiple files (TEXT files) like this
>
> Variable: files
> Type: string
> Total Size: 248 bytes
> 31 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [31]
> Coordinates:
> (0)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_01.his
> (1)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_02.his
> (2)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_03.his
> (3)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_04.his
> (4)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_05.his
> (5)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_06.his
> (6)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_07.his
> (7)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_08.his
> (8)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_09.his
> (9)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_10.his
> (10)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_11.his
> (11)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_12.his
> (12)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_13.his
> (13)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_14.his
> (14)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_15.his
> (15)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_16.his
> (16)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_17.his
> (17)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_18.his
> (18)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_19.his
> (19)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_20.his
> (20)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_21.his
> (21)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_22.his
> (22)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_23.his
> (23)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_24.his
> (24)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_25.his
> (25)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_26.his
> (26)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_27.his
> (27)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_28.his
> (28)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_29.his
> (29)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_30.his
> (30)
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_31.his
>
>
> Variable: Nfile
> Type: integer
> Total Size: 4 bytes
> 1 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [1]
> Coordinates:
> (0) 31
>
> Code that is reading these
> files = systemfunc("ls
> /mnt/c/Users/ACER/Downloads/CELIOMETER/AWOS/AWOSdata/2024/Aug/CLOUD_ALL_*")
> printVarSummary(files)
> print(files)
> Nfile = dimsizes(files)
> ; printVarSummary(Nfile)
> print(Nfile)
>
>
>
> do NF = 0, Nfile-1
> ReadFile = asciiread(files(NF),-1,"string") ; Read each file as string
> DimFile = dimsizes(ReadFile)
> print(DimFile)
> ; print(ReadFile);
> end do
>
> This code is NOT executed till end as dimensions of 6th and 7th file are
> different.
>
> Variable: DimFile
> Type: integer
> Total Size: 4 bytes
> 1 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [1]
> Coordinates:
> (0) 5762
>
>
> Variable: DimFile
> Type: integer
> Total Size: 4 bytes
> 1 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [1]
> Coordinates:
> (0) 5762
>
>
> Variable: DimFile
> Type: integer
> Total Size: 4 bytes
> 1 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [1]
> Coordinates:
> (0) 5762
>
>
> Variable: DimFile
> Type: integer
> Total Size: 4 bytes
> 1 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [1]
> Coordinates:
> (0) 5762
>
>
> Variable: DimFile
> Type: integer
> Total Size: 4 bytes
> 1 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [1]
> Coordinates:
> (0) 5762
>
>
> Variable: DimFile
> Type: integer
> Total Size: 4 bytes
> 1 values
> Number of Dimensions: 1
> Dimensions and sizes: [1]
> Coordinates:
> (0) 5762
> fatal:Dimension sizes of left hand side and right hand side of assignment
> do not match
>
> fatal:["Execute.c":8637]:Execute: Error occurred at or near line 33 in
> file c1.ncl
>
>
> I Request to help me sort out this
>
>
> Geeta.
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