Recommendation:

We recommend that all coordinate values be stored in coordinate variables. No coordinate values, or any part thereof, should be stored in attributes, variable names or group names.

Recommendation Details: Coordinate values are essential for putting all the other data in the proper physical domain context. Storing coordinate values in coordinate variables improves the consistency of data access, especially by software, which is directly related to data interoperability. Storing any part of coordinate values in attributes, variable names or group names is strongly discouraged. For example, avoid encoding time coordinate data in group hierarchies like 2017/01/30 (these are three groups named 2017, 01, and 30, respectively).