how to assign a list of values to a python netcdf4 variable object?

Question

I am trying to use the netCDF4 package with python. I want to do something which I think should be straightforward, but I can't make it work and I can't find any documentation on it. I have a list, and I simply want to store the list in a netCDF4.Variable object. I thought this code would store "newlist" in the netCDF4.Variable object "x_data", which is a component of the Dataset object "netdata":

netdata.variables['x_data'][:]=numpy.array(newlist)

But it's no go. I get the error message:

ValueError: setting an array element with a sequence.

BTW, I have imported both netCDF4 and numpy. Also BTW, this is the same error I get if I do this without converting newlist to a numpy array.

Surely there's a way to do this. Anyone know how? Thanks.

Addendum: This simple change gets me past the error message:

netdata.variables['x_data']=newlist

But I'm still not out of the woods. The data definitely gets stored in netdata.variables['x_data'], but then I close netdata and exit python, and examine the netCDF output, and the data just isn't there. Any ideas? Thanks again.

Answer 1

OK, if anyone is interested, apparently the way to do it is:

netdata.variables['x_data'][:]=newlist[:]

Hint to anyone who might be working on the netCDF4 python package: It's a great package in many ways, but I couldn't find this anywhere in the documentation.