# xarray.Dataset.to_netcdf

#### Dataset.to_netcdf(path=None, mode='w', format=None, group=None, engine=None, encoding=None, unlimited_dims=None, compute=True, invalid_netcdf=False, auto_complex=None)[[source]](https://github.com/pydata/xarray/blob/main/xarray/core/dataset.py#L2130-L2238)

Write dataset contents to a netCDF file.

* **Parameters:**
  * **path** ([`str`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/stdtypes.html#str), [path-like](https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-path-like-object), [file-like](https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-file-like-object) or [`None`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/constants.html#None), *optional*) – Path to which to save this datatree, or a file-like object to write
    it to (which must support read and write and be seekable) or None
    (default) to return in-memory bytes as a memoryview.
  * **mode** (`{"w", "a"}`, *default*: `"w"`) – Write (‘w’) or append (‘a’) mode. If mode=’w’, any existing file at
    this location will be overwritten. If mode=’a’, existing variables
    will be overwritten.
  * **format** (`{"NETCDF4", "NETCDF4_CLASSIC", "NETCDF3_64BIT", "NETCDF3_CLASSIC"}`, *optional*) – File format for the resulting netCDF file:
    * NETCDF4: Data is stored in an HDF5 file, using netCDF4 API
      features.
    * NETCDF4_CLASSIC: Data is stored in an HDF5 file, using only
      netCDF 3 compatible API features.
    * NETCDF3_64BIT: 64-bit offset version of the netCDF 3 file format,
      which fully supports 2+ GB files, but is only compatible with
      clients linked against netCDF version 3.6.0 or later.
    * NETCDF3_CLASSIC: The classic netCDF 3 file format. It does not
      handle 2+ GB files very well.

    All formats are supported by the netCDF4-python library.
    scipy.io.netcdf only supports the last two formats.

    The default format is NETCDF4 if you are saving a file to disk and
    have the netCDF4-python library available. Otherwise, xarray falls
    back to using scipy to write netCDF files and defaults to the
    NETCDF3_64BIT format (scipy does not support netCDF4).
  * **group** ([`str`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/stdtypes.html#str), *optional*) – Path to the netCDF4 group in the given file to open (only works for
    format=’NETCDF4’). The group(s) will be created if necessary.
  * **engine** (`{"netcdf4", "h5netcdf", "scipy"}`, *optional*) – Engine to use when writing netCDF files. If not provided, the
    default engine is chosen based on available dependencies, by default
    preferring “netcdf4” over “h5netcdf” over “scipy” (customizable via
    `netcdf_engine_order` in `xarray.set_options()`).
  * **encoding** ([`dict`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/stdtypes.html#dict), *optional*) – Nested dictionary with variable names as keys and dictionaries of
    variable specific encodings as values, e.g.,
    `{"my_variable": {"dtype": "int16", "scale_factor": 0.1,
    "zlib": True}, ...}`.
    If `encoding` is specified the original encoding of the variables of
    the dataset is ignored.

    The h5netcdf engine supports both the NetCDF4-style compression
    encoding parameters `{"zlib": True, "complevel": 9}` and the h5py
    ones `{"compression": "gzip", "compression_opts": 9}`.
    This allows using any compression plugin installed in the HDF5
    library, e.g. LZF.
  * **unlimited_dims** ([iterable](https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html#term-iterable) of [hashable](../user-guide/terminology.html.md#term-name), *optional*) – Dimension(s) that should be serialized as unlimited dimensions.
    By default, no dimensions are treated as unlimited dimensions.
    Note that unlimited_dims may also be set via
    `dataset.encoding["unlimited_dims"]`.
  * **compute** ([`bool`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/functions.html#bool), *default*: [`True`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/constants.html#True)) – If true compute immediately, otherwise return a
    `dask.delayed.Delayed` object that can be computed later.
  * **invalid_netcdf** ([`bool`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/functions.html#bool), *default*: [`False`](https://docs.python.org/3/builtins/constants.html#False)) – Only valid along with `engine="h5netcdf"`. If True, allow writing
    hdf5 files which are invalid netcdf as described in
    [https://github.com/h5netcdf/h5netcdf](https://github.com/h5netcdf/h5netcdf).
* **Returns:**
  * `* ``memoryview`` if path is None\`
  * `* ``dask.delayed.Delayed`` if compute is False\`
  * `* ``None`` otherwise\`

#### SEE ALSO
[`DataArray.to_netcdf`](xarray.DataArray.to_netcdf.html.md#xarray.DataArray.to_netcdf)