title: String handling in python/netcdf4
body: <p>I am new to <code>netCDF4</code> but I have the following:</p>
  <pre><code>import netCDF4
  nc = netCDF4.Dataset('test.nc','w',format='NETCDF4_CLASSIC')
  lat = nc.createVariable('lat','d')
  lon = nc.createVariable('lon','d')
  place = nc.createVariable('place','c')
  lat[:]=17.002
  lon[:]=-81.501
  #place[:]='test'
  nc.close()
  </code></pre>
  <p>I want to assign the variable 'place' with a value that is more than 1 character. how do you do it without using attributes (e.g. <code>place.name='test'</code>)?</p>