Validation rules for header/value consistency?

[bonnland]

Hello,
I am curious if there is a list of requirements for consistency between the header description and the data values?

For example:

• Does the number of described variables have to match between the header and the CSV section?
• Do the variable names have to match between header and CSV section?
• Do variable names have to be distinct from each other?
• Do variable names have to begin with an alphabetic character, or are these valid variable names: "?Strange_var", "101.5s"
• Other rules?

On a related note, are there any "best practices" for standard field names in the YAML section? For example, how would someone best describe the units and other standard metadata for the list of variables in the file? If there were such standards, then automatically reading in and using the metadata would be much more straightforward. Otherwise, it seems that all of that potentially useful metadata is not guaranteed to be in any predictable form, and automated readers will be throwing darts to see if it's there.

Also, are there plans for checking variable names and/or units against standards, such as CF-conventions and SI units?

Thanks!