GDALMDIMINFO(1)

💅 GDALMDIMINFO 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the gdalmdiminfo(1) page — yes that's the GDAL manual, and yes this utility is lowkey iconic. it lives in the GDAL family and it's about to spill all the tea on your multidimensional datasets ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

gdalmdiminfo — reports structure and content of a multidimensional dataset. that's it, that's the vibe. it literally just tells you what's inside 🫶

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⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

gdalmdiminfo [--help-general] [-oo NAME=VALUE]* [-arrayoption NAME=VALUE]*
             [-detailed] [-nopretty] [-array {array_name}] [-limit {number}]
             [-stats] <datasetname>

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the gdalmdiminfo program lists various information about a GDAL supported multidimensional raster dataset as JSON output. it follows the following JSON schema 💖

the following command line parameters can appear in any order — no cap, order does not matter here, she's flexible like that:

• -detailed — the most verbose output. report attribute data types and array values. it's giving "tell me EVERYTHING" energy 👑
• -nopretty — outputs on a single line without any indentation. for when you want your JSON compact and unbothered 💀
• -array {array_name} — name of the array used to restrict the output to the specified array. basically spotlight one array and let it be the main character ✨
• -limit {number} — number of values in each dimension that is used to limit the display of array values. by default, unlimited. only taken into account if used with -detailed. so like, if you're not doing -detailed, this flag is literally not invited to the party 🙈
• -oo <NAME=VALUE> — dataset open option (format specific). this option may be used several times. stack 'em, bestie 🎀
• -arrayoption <NAME=VALUE> — option passed to GDALGroup::GetMDArrayNames() to filter reported arrays. such option is format specific. consult driver documentation. this option may be used several times. iykyk, go read the driver docs 🌈
• -stats — read and display image statistics. force computation if no statistics are stored in an image. ✨ new in version 3.2 ✨

🫶 tiny reminder: -oo and -arrayoption are the repeat offenders — you can use each of them several times. not a one-and-done situation.

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🧚 C API 🧚

this utility is also callable from C with GDALMultiDimInfo(). yes, C girlies, you're included too 💜

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🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

• display general structure1

$ gdalmdiminfo netcdf-4d.nc

{
  "type": "group",
  "name": "/",
  "attributes": {
    "Conventions": "CF-1.5"
  },
  "dimensions": [
    {
      "name": "levelist",
      "full_name": "/levelist",
      "size": 2,
      "type": "VERTICAL",
      "indexing_variable": "/levelist"
    },
    {
      "name": "longitude",
      "full_name": "/longitude",
      "size": 10,
      "type": "HORIZONTAL_X",
      "direction": "EAST",
      "indexing_variable": "/longitude"
    },
    {
      "name": "latitude",
      "full_name": "/latitude",
      "size": 10,
      "type": "HORIZONTAL_Y",
      "direction": "NORTH",
      "indexing_variable": "/latitude"
    },
    {
      "name": "time",
      "full_name": "/time",
        "size": 4,
      "type": "TEMPORAL",
      "indexing_variable": "/time"
      }
  ],
  "arrays": {
    "levelist": {
      "datatype": "Int32",
      "dimensions": [
          "/levelist"
        ],
      "attributes": {
        "long_name": "pressure_level"
      },
      "unit": "millibars"
    },
    "longitude": {
      "datatype": "Float32",
      "dimensions": [
        "/longitude"
      ],
      "attributes": {
        "standard_name": "longitude",
        "long_name": "longitude",
        "axis": "X"
      },
      "unit": "degrees_east"
    },
    "latitude": {
      "datatype": "Float32",
      "dimensions": [
        "/latitude"
      ],
      "attributes": {
        "standard_name": "latitude",
        "long_name": "latitude",
        "axis": "Y"
      },
      "unit": "degrees_north"
    },
    "time": {
      "datatype": "Float64",
      "dimensions": [
        "/time"
      ],
      "attributes": {
        "standard_name": "time",
        "calendar": "standard"
      },
      "unit": "hours since 1900-01-01 00:00:00"
    },
    "t": {
      "datatype": "Int32",
      "dimensions": [
        "/time",
        "/levelist",
        "/latitude",
        "/longitude"
      ],
      "nodata_value": -32767
    }
  },
  "structural_info": {
    "NC_FORMAT": "CLASSIC"
  }
}

look at all those dimensions and arrays living their best lives 😭 the t array ate and left no crumbs, honestly 🍓

• display detailed information about a given array

$ gdalmdiminfo netcdf-4d.nc -array t -detailed -limit 3

see how -array t spotlights the t array, -detailed goes full detective mode, and -limit 3 keeps things cute and capped at 3 values per dimension? chef's kiss 💅

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Even Rouault <even.rouault@spatialys.com> — the icon, the legend, the moment 🎀

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🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

1998-2026

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okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially fluent in gdalmdiminfo 🧚✨ this gem comes straight from the GDAL source/version and landed on Jan 08, 2026 — go forth and inspect those multidimensional datasets, no cap, periodt 💖💅🦋