pydata / pydata/xarray

sel(method=x) is not propagated for MultiIndex

Open
#2,978 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

topic-error reporting topic-indexing
Dominant language
Python
Stars
4.2k
Forks
1.4k
Avg merge
2d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
14

Description

When passing a method different from None to the selection method (e.g. .sel(method='nearest')), it is not propagated if the index is a MultiIndex.
Specifically, the passing of the method key seems to be missing in xarray/core/indexing.py:convert_label_indexer https://github.com/pydata/xarray/blob/0811141e8f985a1f3b95ead92c3850cc74e160a5/xarray/core/indexing.py#L158-L159

For a normal index, the method is passed properly: https://github.com/pydata/xarray/blob/0811141e8f985a1f3b95ead92c3850cc74e160a5/xarray/core/indexing.py#L181

This leads to an unexpected KeyError when the selection value is not in the index, even if a nearest value could have been found.

Output of xr.show_versions()
INSTALLED VERSIONS ------------------ commit: None python: 3.6.7.final.0 python-bits: 64 OS: Linux OS-release: 4.4.0-143-generic machine: x86_64 processor: x86_64 byteorder: little LC_ALL: None LANG: en_US.UTF-8 LOCALE: en_US.UTF-8

xarray: 0.10.8
pandas: 0.24.2
numpy: 1.16.2
scipy: 1.1.0
netCDF4: 1.4.2
h5netcdf: None
h5py: 2.8.0
Nio: None
zarr: None
bottleneck: None
cyordereddict: None
dask: 0.20.0
distributed: None
matplotlib: 3.0.1
cartopy: None
seaborn: 0.9.0
setuptools: 40.8.0
pip: 19.0.3
conda: None
pytest: 3.10.0
IPython: 7.1.1
sphinx: None

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in xarray/core/indexing.py at convert_label_indexer, comparing the MultiIndex path with the normal-index path where method is passed. Reproduce a .sel(method='nearest') lookup on a MultiIndex whose requested value is absent. Done means nearest selection no longer raises the unexpected KeyError when a suitable indexed value exists.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
pandas, python
Domain
data
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.