If join='exact', raise an error for non-aligned objects

doc/api.rst

@@ -481,6 +481,14 @@ Testing
    testing.assert_identical
    testing.assert_allclose
 
+Exceptions
+==========
+
+.. autosummary::
+   :toctree: generated/
+
+   MergeError
+
 Advanced API
 ============
 

doc/whats-new.rst

@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ Enhancements
   to ``py.test`` (:issue:`1393`).
   By `Matthew Gidden <https://github.com/gidden>`_.
 
+- :py:func:`~xarray.align` now supports ``join='exact'``, which raises
+  an error instead of aligning when indexes to be aligned are not equal.
+  By `Stephan Hoyer <https://github.com/shoyer>`_.
+
 Bug fixes
 ~~~~~~~~~
 

xarray/__init__.py

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# flake8: noqa
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 from __future__ import division
 from __future__ import print_function

xarray/core/alignment.py

@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ def _get_joiner(join):
         return operator.itemgetter(0)
     elif join == 'right':
         return operator.itemgetter(-1)
+    elif join == 'exact':
+        # We cannot return a function to "align" in this case, because it needs
+        # access to the dimension name to give a good error message.
+        return None
     else:
         raise ValueError('invalid value for join: %s' % join)
 
@@ -47,13 +51,15 @@ def align(*objects, **kwargs):
     ----------
     *objects : Dataset or DataArray
         Objects to align.
-    join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right'}, optional
+    join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right', 'exact'}, optional
         Method for joining the indexes of the passed objects along each
         dimension:
         - 'outer': use the union of object indexes
         - 'inner': use the intersection of object indexes
         - 'left': use indexes from the first object with each dimension
         - 'right': use indexes from the last object with each dimension
+        - 'exact': instead of aligning, raise `ValueError` when indexes to be
+          aligned are not equal
     copy : bool, optional
         If ``copy=True``, data in the return values is always copied. If
         ``copy=False`` and reindexing is unnecessary, or can be performed with
@@ -120,6 +126,10 @@ def align(*objects, **kwargs):
             if (any(not matching_indexes[0].equals(other)
                     for other in matching_indexes[1:]) or
                     dim in unlabeled_dim_sizes):
+                if join == 'exact':
+                    raise ValueError(
+                        'indexes along dimension {!r} are not equal'
+                        .format(dim))
                 index = joiner(matching_indexes)
                 joined_indexes[dim] = index
             else:

xarray/core/computation.py

@@ -599,6 +599,8 @@ def apply_ufunc(func, *args, **kwargs):
         - 'inner': use the intersection of object indexes
         - 'left': use indexes from the first object with each dimension
         - 'right': use indexes from the last object with each dimension
+        - 'exact': raise `ValueError` instead of aligning when indexes to be
+          aligned are not equal
     dataset_join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right'}, optional
         Method for joining variables of Dataset objects with mismatched
         data variables.

xarray/core/dataset.py

@@ -1944,13 +1944,14 @@ def merge(self, other, inplace=False, overwrite_vars=frozenset(),
             - 'no_conflicts': only values which are not null in both datasets
               must be equal. The returned dataset then contains the combination
               of all non-null values.
-        join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right'}, optional
+        join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right', 'exact'}, optional
             Method for joining ``self`` and ``other`` along shared dimensions:
 
             - 'outer': use the union of the indexes
             - 'inner': use the intersection of the indexes
             - 'left': use indexes from ``self``
             - 'right': use indexes from ``other``
+            - 'exact': error instead of aligning non-equal indexes
 
         Returns
         -------

xarray/core/merge.py

@@ -457,7 +457,7 @@ def merge(objects, compat='no_conflicts', join='outer'):
         - 'no_conflicts': only values which are not null in both datasets
           must be equal. The returned dataset then contains the combination
           of all non-null values.
-    join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right'}, optional
+    join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right', 'exact'}, optional
         How to combine objects with different indexes.
 
     Returns

xarray/core/ops.py

@@ -133,6 +133,8 @@ def fillna(data, other, join="left", dataset_join="left"):
         - 'inner': use the intersection of object indexes
         - 'left': use indexes from the first object with each dimension
         - 'right': use indexes from the last object with each dimension
+        - 'exact': raise `ValueError` instead of aligning when indexes to be
+          aligned are not equal
     dataset_join : {'outer', 'inner', 'left', 'right'}, optional
         Method for joining variables of Dataset objects with mismatched
         data variables.

xarray/tests/test_dataset.py

@@ -1245,6 +1245,17 @@ def test_align(self):
         with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
             align(left, right, foo='bar')
 
+    def test_align_exact(self):
+        left = xr.Dataset(coords={'x': [0, 1]})
+        right = xr.Dataset(coords={'x': [1, 2]})
+
+        left1, left2 = xr.align(left, left, join='exact')
+        self.assertDatasetIdentical(left1, left)
+        self.assertDatasetIdentical(left2, left)
+
+        with self.assertRaisesRegexp(ValueError, 'indexes .* not equal'):
+            xr.align(left, right, join='exact')
+
     def test_align_exclude(self):
         x = Dataset({'foo': DataArray([[1, 2], [3, 4]], dims=['x', 'y'],
                                       coords={'x': [1, 2], 'y': [3, 4]})})

xarray/tests/test_merge.py

@@ -63,6 +63,12 @@ def test_merge_error(self):
         with self.assertRaises(xr.MergeError):
             xr.merge([ds, ds + 1])
 
+    def test_merge_alignment_error(self):
+        ds = xr.Dataset(coords={'x': [1, 2]})
+        other = xr.Dataset(coords={'x': [2, 3]})
+        with self.assertRaisesRegexp(ValueError, 'indexes .* not equal'):
+            xr.merge([ds, other], join='exact')
+
     def test_merge_no_conflicts_single_var(self):
         ds1 = xr.Dataset({'a': ('x', [1, 2]), 'x': [0, 1]})
         ds2 = xr.Dataset({'a': ('x', [2, 3]), 'x': [1, 2]})