HL_CompoundTypeAttribute

This type is designed to describe an individual node with a complicated structure, ie. one which consists of more than atomic data types. It contains all the information required to interpret the contents of the node:

typedef struct {
   char attrname[256];  /* the Attribute's name */
   size_t offset;       /* the offset to where the data begins */
   char format[256];    /* the string representation of the atomic data type */
   int ndims;           /* the number of dimensions in the array */
   size_t dims[4];      /* the dimensions of each of ndims */
} HL_CompoundTypeAttribute;