Goal: Learn about getting time axis range in CDAT.

Let's start by opening a file we will query

import cdms,sys,cdtime
f=cdms.open(sys.prefix+'/sample_data/hadcrut2_sample.nc')

and get start and end time in an easy to understand form (with asComponentTime())

start_time = f.getAxis('time').asComponentTime()[0] 
end_time = f.getAxis('time').asComponentTime()[-1]

now print them

print 'start time = ',start_time, ',   end time= ',end_time             

  start time =  1991-1-1 0:0:0.0 ,   end time=  1993-12-1 0:0:0.0