Any existing netCDF applications can be converted to generate netCDF-4/HDF5 files. Simply change the file creation call to include the correct mode flag.
For example, in one of the C examples which write a data file, change the nc_create call so that NC_NETCDF4 is one of the flags set on the create.
The corresponding read example will work without modification; netCDF will notice that the file is a NetCDF-4/HDF5 file, and will read it automatically, just as if it were a netCDF classic format file.
In the example in this section we show some of the advanced features of netCDF-4. More examples will be added in future releases.