data_type=char|string

[bob.simons]

In NetCDF-3 files, in order to make it clear whether an array of chars should be interpreted as an array of chars or an array of Strings, I propose that we replace this sentence in CF section 2.2:

NetCDF does not support a character string type, so these must be represented as character arrays. In this document, a one dimensional array of character data is simply referred to as a "string".

with:

Since NetCDF-3 files do not have a built-in string data type, strings in NetCDF-3 files must be represented as character arrays. To clarify how a char array should be interpreted, char arrays must have a "data_type" attribute with a value of "char" (for individual chars) or "string". (In older files with char variables that lack a data_type attribute, it remains ambiguous whether a char array should be interpreted as an array of individual characters or an array of Strings.)