pydata / pydata/xarray

`Dataset.to_array()` throws `IndexError` for empty datasets

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bug
Dominant language
Python
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

What happened?
>>> xr.__version__
'2023.4.2'
>>> xr.Dataset().to_array()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/mnt/qb/work2/goswami0/gkd021/conda/envs/wb/lib/python3.10/site-packages/xarray/core/dataset.py", line 6114, in to_array
    data = duck_array_ops.stack([b.data for b in broadcast_vars], axis=0)
  File "/mnt/qb/work2/goswami0/gkd021/conda/envs/wb/lib/python3.10/site-packages/xarray/core/duck_array_ops.py", line 326, in stack
    xp = get_array_namespace(arrays[0])
IndexError: list index out of range
What did you expect to happen?

The most reasonable way to handle this in my opinion would be to return an empty, i.e. default constructed, xr.DataArray:

>>> xr.DataArray()
<xarray.DataArray ()>
array(nan)
Minimal Complete Verifiable Example

No response

MVCE confirmation
  • Minimal example — the example is as focused as reasonably possible to demonstrate the underlying issue in xarray.
  • Complete example — the example is self-contained, including all data and the text of any traceback.
  • Verifiable example — the example copy & pastes into an IPython prompt or Binder notebook, returning the result.
  • New issue — a search of GitHub Issues suggests this is not a duplicate.
Relevant log output

No response

Anything else we need to know?

No response

Environment

INSTALLED VERSIONS

commit: None
python: 3.10.9 (main, Jan 11 2023, 15:21:40) [GCC 11.2.0]
python-bits: 64
OS: Linux
OS-release: 3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64
machine: x86_64
processor: x86_64
byteorder: little
LC_ALL: None
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
LOCALE: ('en_US', 'UTF-8')
libhdf5: 1.12.2
libnetcdf: 4.9.1

xarray: 2023.4.2
pandas: 1.5.2
numpy: 1.23.5
scipy: 1.9.3
netCDF4: 1.6.3
pydap: None
h5netcdf: 1.1.0
h5py: 3.8.0
Nio: None
zarr: 2.14.2
cftime: 1.6.2
nc_time_axis: None
PseudoNetCDF: None
iris: None
bottleneck: 1.3.5
dask: 2022.7.0
distributed: 2022.7.0
matplotlib: 3.6.2
cartopy: 0.21.1
seaborn: None
numbagg: None
fsspec: 2022.11.0
cupy: None
pint: None
sparse: None
flox: None
numpy_groupies: None
setuptools: 65.6.3
pip: 22.3.1
conda: None
pytest: 7.1.2
mypy: None
IPython: 8.8.0
sphinx: 5.0.2

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/dataset.py at Dataset.to_array, then reproduce the issue with xr.Dataset().to_array() using the example in the report. The change is complete when an empty Dataset returns an empty, default-constructed DataArray instead of raising IndexError, with regression coverage for that case.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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