huggingface / huggingface/datasets
Introduce subset_name as an alias of config_name
- Dominant language
- Python
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- 5d 7h
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Description
### Feature request
Add support for `subset_name` as an alias for `config_name` in the datasets library and related tools (such as loading scripts, documentation, and metadata).
### Motivation
The Hugging Face Hub dataset viewer displays a column named **"Subset"**, which refers to what is currently technically called config_name in the datasets library. This inconsistency has caused confusion for many users, especially those unfamiliar with the internal terminology.
I have repeatedly received questions from users trying to understand what "config" means, and why it doesn’t match what they see as "subset" on the Hub. Renaming everything to `subset_name` might be too disruptive, but introducing subset_name as a clear alias for config_name could significantly improve user experience without breaking backward compatibility.
This change would:
- Align terminology across the Hub UI and datasets codebase
- Reduce user confusion, especially for newcomers
- Make documentation and examples more intuitive
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