pydata / pydata/xarray

Concurrent loading of coordinate arrays from Zarr

Open
#5,092 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

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

Description

When you open a dataset with Zarr, xarray loads coordinate arrays corresponding to indexes in serial. This can be slow (multiple seconds) even with only a handful of such arrays if they are stored in a remote filesystem (e.g., cloud object stores). This is similar to the use-cases for consolidated metadata.

In principle, we could speed up loading datasets from Zarr into Xarray significantly by reading the data corresponding to these arrays in parallel (e.g., in multiple threads).

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 by tracing how Zarr datasets load coordinate arrays corresponding to indexes, particularly the serial loading path described in the issue. No files or tests are named, so identify the relevant entry points and existing coverage before deciding on an approach. Done means coordinate arrays load concurrently where appropriate and remote-filesystem loading is measurably faster without changing dataset behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.