diff --git a/test/test_corner_cases.jl b/test/test_corner_cases.jl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3dbb9e36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_corner_cases.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+using Base.Test
+fname = tempname()
+
+# known quirks
+
+NCDatasets.Dataset(fname,"c") do ds
+    
+    ds.attrib["single_element"] = [1]
+
+    ds.attrib["vector_of_chars"] = ['a','b','c']
+
+    ds.attrib["single_char"] = 'a'
+    
+    # issue 12
+    str = "some_string_with_null\0"
+    ccall((:nc_put_att,NCDatasets.libnetcdf),Cint,
+          (Cint,Cint,Cstring,NCDatasets.nc_type,Csize_t,Ptr{Void}),
+          ds.ncid,NCDatasets.NC_GLOBAL,"attrib",NCDatasets.NC_CHAR,length(str),pointer.(str))
+    
+end
+
+NCDatasets.Dataset(fname,"r") do ds
+    # same behaviour in python netCDF4 1.3.1
+    @test ds.attrib["single_element"] == 1
+
+    # no chars in python and numpy.charray are not supported
+    @test ds.attrib["vector_of_chars"] == "abc"
+
+    # all chars are strings in python
+    @test ds.attrib["single_char"] == "a"
+
+    # issue 12
+    @test ds.attrib["attrib"] == "some_string_with_null"
+end