Support non-str Hashables in DataArray (#8559)

* support hashable dims in DataArray
* add whats-new
* remove uneccessary except ImportErrors
* improve some typing

doc/whats-new.rst

@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ Deprecations
 Bug fixes
 ~~~~~~~~~
 
+- Support non-string hashable dimensions in :py:class:`xarray.DataArray` (:issue:`8546`, :pull:`8559`).
+  By `Michael Niklas <https://github.com/headtr1ck>`_.
 - Reverse index output of bottleneck's rolling move_argmax/move_argmin functions (:issue:`8541`, :pull:`8552`).
   By `Kai Mühlbauer <https://github.com/kmuehlbauer>`_.
 - Vendor `SerializableLock` from dask and use as default lock for netcdf4 backends (:issue:`8442`, :pull:`8571`).

xarray/core/dataarray.py

@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
     Generic,
     Literal,
     NoReturn,
+    TypeVar,
+    Union,
     overload,
 )
 
@@ -61,6 +63,7 @@
     ReprObject,
     _default,
     either_dict_or_kwargs,
+    hashable,
 )
 from xarray.core.variable import (
     IndexVariable,
@@ -73,23 +76,11 @@
 from xarray.util.deprecation_helpers import _deprecate_positional_args, deprecate_dims
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from typing import TypeVar, Union
-
+    from dask.dataframe import DataFrame as DaskDataFrame
+    from dask.delayed import Delayed
+    from iris.cube import Cube as iris_Cube
     from numpy.typing import ArrayLike
 
-    try:
-        from dask.dataframe import DataFrame as DaskDataFrame
-    except ImportError:
-        DaskDataFrame = None
-    try:
-        from dask.delayed import Delayed
-    except ImportError:
-        Delayed = None  # type: ignore[misc,assignment]
-    try:
-        from iris.cube import Cube as iris_Cube
-    except ImportError:
-        iris_Cube = None
-
     from xarray.backends import ZarrStore
     from xarray.backends.api import T_NetcdfEngine, T_NetcdfTypes
     from xarray.core.groupby import DataArrayGroupBy
@@ -140,7 +131,9 @@ def _check_coords_dims(shape, coords, dim):
 
 
 def _infer_coords_and_dims(
-    shape, coords, dims
+    shape: tuple[int, ...],
+    coords: Sequence[Sequence | pd.Index | DataArray] | Mapping | None,
+    dims: str | Iterable[Hashable] | None,
 ) -> tuple[Mapping[Hashable, Any], tuple[Hashable, ...]]:
     """All the logic for creating a new DataArray"""
 
@@ -157,8 +150,7 @@ def _infer_coords_and_dims(
 
     if isinstance(dims, str):
         dims = (dims,)
-
-    if dims is None:
+    elif dims is None:
         dims = [f"dim_{n}" for n in range(len(shape))]
         if coords is not None and len(coords) == len(shape):
             # try to infer dimensions from coords
@@ -168,16 +160,15 @@ def _infer_coords_and_dims(
                 for n, (dim, coord) in enumerate(zip(dims, coords)):
                     coord = as_variable(coord, name=dims[n]).to_index_variable()
                     dims[n] = coord.name
-        dims = tuple(dims)
-    elif len(dims) != len(shape):
+    dims_tuple = tuple(dims)
+    if len(dims_tuple) != len(shape):
         raise ValueError(
             "different number of dimensions on data "
-            f"and dims: {len(shape)} vs {len(dims)}"
+            f"and dims: {len(shape)} vs {len(dims_tuple)}"
         )
-    else:
-        for d in dims:
-            if not isinstance(d, str):
-                raise TypeError(f"dimension {d} is not a string")
+    for d in dims_tuple:
+        if not hashable(d):
+            raise TypeError(f"Dimension {d} is not hashable")
 
     new_coords: Mapping[Hashable, Any]
 
@@ -189,17 +180,21 @@ def _infer_coords_and_dims(
             for k, v in coords.items():
                 new_coords[k] = as_variable(v, name=k)
         elif coords is not None:
-            for dim, coord in zip(dims, coords):
+            for dim, coord in zip(dims_tuple, coords):
                 var = as_variable(coord, name=dim)
                 var.dims = (dim,)
                 new_coords[dim] = var.to_index_variable()
 
-    _check_coords_dims(shape, new_coords, dims)
+    _check_coords_dims(shape, new_coords, dims_tuple)
 
-    return new_coords, dims
+    return new_coords, dims_tuple
 
 
-def _check_data_shape(data, coords, dims):
+def _check_data_shape(
+    data: Any,
+    coords: Sequence[Sequence | pd.Index | DataArray] | Mapping | None,
+    dims: str | Iterable[Hashable] | None,
+) -> Any:
     if data is dtypes.NA:
         data = np.nan
     if coords is not None and utils.is_scalar(data, include_0d=False):
@@ -405,10 +400,8 @@ class DataArray(
     def __init__(
         self,
         data: Any = dtypes.NA,
-        coords: Sequence[Sequence[Any] | pd.Index | DataArray]
-        | Mapping[Any, Any]
-        | None = None,
-        dims: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] | None = None,
+        coords: Sequence[Sequence | pd.Index | DataArray] | Mapping | None = None,
+        dims: str | Iterable[Hashable] | None = None,
         name: Hashable | None = None,
         attrs: Mapping | None = None,
         # internal parameters

xarray/core/dataset.py

@@ -130,6 +130,8 @@
 from xarray.util.deprecation_helpers import _deprecate_positional_args
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from dask.dataframe import DataFrame as DaskDataFrame
+    from dask.delayed import Delayed
     from numpy.typing import ArrayLike
 
     from xarray.backends import AbstractDataStore, ZarrStore
@@ -164,15 +166,6 @@
     )
     from xarray.core.weighted import DatasetWeighted
 
-    try:
-        from dask.delayed import Delayed
-    except ImportError:
-        Delayed = None  # type: ignore[misc,assignment]
-    try:
-        from dask.dataframe import DataFrame as DaskDataFrame
-    except ImportError:
-        DaskDataFrame = None
-
 
 # list of attributes of pd.DatetimeIndex that are ndarrays of time info
 _DATETIMEINDEX_COMPONENTS = [

xarray/tests/__init__.py

@@ -59,7 +59,11 @@ def _importorskip(
                 raise ImportError("Minimum version not satisfied")
     except ImportError:
         has = False
-    func = pytest.mark.skipif(not has, reason=f"requires {modname}")
+
+    reason = f"requires {modname}"
+    if minversion is not None:
+        reason += f">={minversion}"
+    func = pytest.mark.skipif(not has, reason=reason)
     return has, func
 
 
@@ -122,10 +126,7 @@ def _importorskip(
     not has_pandas_version_two, reason="requires pandas 2.0.0"
 )
 has_numpy_array_api, requires_numpy_array_api = _importorskip("numpy", "1.26.0")
-has_h5netcdf_ros3 = _importorskip("h5netcdf", "1.3.0")
-requires_h5netcdf_ros3 = pytest.mark.skipif(
-    not has_h5netcdf_ros3[0], reason="requires h5netcdf 1.3.0"
-)
+has_h5netcdf_ros3, requires_h5netcdf_ros3 = _importorskip("h5netcdf", "1.3.0")
 
 has_netCDF4_1_6_2_or_above, requires_netCDF4_1_6_2_or_above = _importorskip(
     "netCDF4", "1.6.2"

xarray/tests/test_dataarray.py

@@ -401,8 +401,8 @@ def test_constructor_invalid(self) -> None:
         with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=r"not a subset of the .* dim"):
             DataArray(data, {"x": [0, 1, 2]})
 
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=r"is not a string"):
-            DataArray(data, dims=["x", None])
+        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=r"is not hashable"):
+            DataArray(data, dims=["x", []])  # type: ignore[list-item]
 
         with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=r"conflicting sizes for dim"):
             DataArray([1, 2, 3], coords=[("x", [0, 1])])

xarray/tests/test_hashable.py

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from enum import Enum
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Union
+
+import pytest
+
+from xarray import DataArray, Dataset, Variable
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from xarray.core.types import TypeAlias
+
+    DimT: TypeAlias = Union[int, tuple, "DEnum", "CustomHashable"]
+
+
+class DEnum(Enum):
+    dim = "dim"
+
+
+class CustomHashable:
+    def __init__(self, a: int) -> None:
+        self.a = a
+
+    def __hash__(self) -> int:
+        return self.a
+
+
+parametrize_dim = pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "dim",
+    [
+        pytest.param(5, id="int"),
+        pytest.param(("a", "b"), id="tuple"),
+        pytest.param(DEnum.dim, id="enum"),
+        pytest.param(CustomHashable(3), id="HashableObject"),
+    ],
+)
+
+
+@parametrize_dim
+def test_hashable_dims(dim: DimT) -> None:
+    v = Variable([dim], [1, 2, 3])
+    da = DataArray([1, 2, 3], dims=[dim])
+    Dataset({"a": ([dim], [1, 2, 3])})
+
+    # alternative constructors
+    DataArray(v)
+    Dataset({"a": v})
+    Dataset({"a": da})
+
+
+@parametrize_dim
+def test_dataset_variable_hashable_names(dim: DimT) -> None:
+    Dataset({dim: ("x", [1, 2, 3])})