BUG: io.netcdf: make createVariable() work better with dtype specifiers.

Also add a regression test for the previous commit.

scipy/io/netcdf.py

@@ -280,14 +280,12 @@ def createVariable(self, name, type, dimensions):
         shape = tuple([self.dimensions[dim] for dim in dimensions])
         shape_ = tuple([dim or 0 for dim in shape])  # replace None with 0 for numpy
 
-        if isinstance(type, basestring): type = dtype(type)
+        type = dtype(type)
         typecode, size = type.char, type.itemsize
         if (typecode, size) not in REVERSE:
             raise ValueError("NetCDF 3 does not support type %s" % type)
-        dtype_ = '>%s' % typecode
-        if size > 1: dtype_ += str(size)
 
-        data = empty(shape_, dtype=dtype_)
+        data = empty(shape_, dtype=type)
         self.variables[name] = netcdf_variable(data, typecode, size, shape, dimensions)
         return self.variables[name]
 

scipy/io/tests/test_netcdf.py

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 from numpy.compat import asbytes
+from numpy.testing import assert_
 
 from scipy.io.netcdf import netcdf_file
 
@@ -150,3 +151,29 @@ def test_write_invalid_dtype():
             f.createVariable, 'time', dt, ('time',)
     f.close()
 
+
+def test_flush_rewind():
+    stream = BytesIO()
+    f = make_simple(stream, mode='w')
+    x = f.createDimension('x',4)
+    v = f.createVariable('v', 'i2', ['x'])
+    v[:] = 1
+    f.flush()
+    len_single = len(stream.getvalue())
+    f.flush()
+    len_double = len(stream.getvalue())
+    f.close()
+    assert_(len_single == len_double)
+
+
+def test_dtype_specifiers():
+    # Numpy 1.7.0-dev had a bug where 'i2' wouldn't work.
+    # Specifying np.int16 or similar only works from the same commit as this
+    # comment was made.
+    f = make_simple(BytesIO(), mode='w')
+    x = f.createDimension('x',4)
+    v1 = f.createVariable('v1', 'i2', ['x'])
+    v2 = f.createVariable('v2', np.int16, ['x'])
+    v3 = f.createVariable('v3', np.dtype(np.int16), ['x'])
+    f.close()
+