;Open the netcdf file, ncid is an idl string ncid = NCDF_OPEN('filename') ;get a variable out of the data NCDF_VARGET, ncid, varid, var_name ;Close the netcdf file NCDF_CLOSE, ncid
However, by far the simplest method, that will suffice for most peoples needs is to use of 'cdf2idl.pro' routine. This can be downloaded from
http://www-c4.ucsd.edu/~cids/software/visual.htmlIts use is described at,
http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/woce_V2/disk02/netcdf/netcdf_primer.htmThe cdf2idl.pro routine is one of a suite of similar routines available for Fortran, C and Matlab which may also be useful.
Basically it reads a netCDF file and then generates each of the above commands in sequence for each variable in the netcdf file. It also gets global attributes.
For instance, if you have a netcdf file 'test.nc', you have a command line cdf2idl,file,outfile='/path/to/outfile',/verbose
You then type @/path/to/outfile (i.e. cdf2idl generates a batch script)