source filename tracking when using open_mfdataset()

[Marston]

Is there a way for xarray to keep track of each source filename when using xr.open_mfdataset() such that if I take a time slice (which would correspond to a single source file), that the name can be found in the attributes? See the latter part of the code.

import pandas as pd
import xarray as xr
from datetime import timedelta

# Each file contains multiple variables that differ across
files = ['file1.zarr',  'file2.zarr', 'file3.zarr', 'file4.zarr', 'file5.zarr', 'file6.zarr']
ref_data_path = 'data.csv'

# open the csv file:
master = pd.read_csv(ref_data_path)

# open the galwem files as a set
mf = xr.open_mfdataset(files, engine='zarr', parallel=True)

# Define the time tolerance (5 minutes)
tolerance = timedelta(minutes=15)

def build_timestamp(timeid):
    time_segs = timeid.split('_')[:2]
    assert len(time_segs) == 2, 'Ref time string components more than 2'
    ymd = time_segs[0]
    hms = time_segs[1]
    timestamp = pd.Timestamp(
        f'{ymd[:4]}-{ymd[4:6]}-{ymd[6:]} {hms[:2]}:{hms[2:4]}:{hms[4:]}'
        )
    return timestamp

# iterate over the rows in the dataframe
for index, row in master.iterrows():
    print(row)
    # extract time
    ref_time = build_timestamp(row['scene_id'])
    ref_lat = row['lat']
    ref_lon = row['lon']
    ref_alt = row['alt_geom_ft']
    # Use sel() with a tolerance and nearest argument to
    # find the nearest time within the tolerance
    try:
        slot_array = mf.sel(
            time=ref_time, method='nearest', tolerance=tolerance
            )
    except KeyError as ke:
        print(f'No match found for time: {ref_time}')
        print(f'Exception: {ke}')
        continue
    # find file that slot_array is associated with
    # assumes filename (source file) is a global attribute 
    filename = slot_array.attrs['filename']
    pass

[dcherian]

You'll have to add the file name using a preprocess function.

def preprocess(ds):
    # something like this with the right dimension name instead of "time"
    # The file name *should* be in `.encoding["source"]`
    ds.coords["filename"] = ("time", ds.encoding["source"])
	return ds

xr.open_mfdataset(..., preprocess=preprocess)

[TomNicholas]

Is there a way for xarray to keep track of each source filename

Yes, by adding it explicitly to the dataset as a new coordinate variable (the easiest way being to use preprocess) as Deepak's example shows.

the name can be found in the attributes?

Not in the .attrs though. The attributes don't have rules for propagation, so whilst you can imagine opening each file separately and storing the filename (it's already there under ds.encoding["source"]), this will get lost/overwritten during concatenation operations. See #1614 for an explantion of why this is complicated in general.

[Marston]

@dcherian @TomNicholas

Brilliant guys! Loving xarray more and more. Thanks for that solution.