ncap2 cannot find variable with "-" in its name

[joaquim pereira bento]

Dears

I have a nc file (in.nc) with a variable called "CHL-OC5_mean". When I try:

ncap2 -O -h -s 'where(CHL-OC5_mean>30) CHL-OC5_mean=30' in.nc out.nc

I got this error:

ncap2: WARNING prs_cls::ncap_var_init(): Unable to find variable CHL in in.nc
ncap2: ERROR out(): Could not read var CHL

if I change the name of the variable to "var" with:

ncrename -v CHL-OC5_mean,var in.nc

and run the first command again, I got the result, there is no problem.

ncap2 -O -h -s 'where(var>30) var=30' in.nc out.nc

So, I guess the problem is the "-" sign. The point is that I have "-" and it is really not convenient to change this. In fact the variable's name goes inside a variable in bash, like this:

varname="CHL-OC5_mean"
ncap2 -O -h -s "where($varname>30) $varname=30" in.nc out.nc

My question is: Is there any way to force ncap2 to understand the "-" sign as being part of the variable's name?

All the best,

jb

[henry Butowsky]

quote the variable with ' '

ncap2 -O -h -s "where('CHL-OC5'_mean>30) 'CHL-OC5_mean'=30" in.nc out.nc