What is the reason for hard-coding decode_times=False in ux.open_dataset() and ux.open_mfdataset()?

[tomvothecoder]

Hi, I'm just wondering why decode_times=False is hard-coded in ux.open_dataset() and ux.open_mfdataset()?

uxarray/uxarray/core/api.py

Lines 170 to 171 in 54da444

	# UxDataset
	ds = xr.open_dataset(filename_or_obj, decode_times=False, **kwargs) # type: ignore

uxarray/uxarray/core/api.py

Lines 259 to 260 in 54da444

	# UxDataset
	ds = xr.open_mfdataset(paths, decode_times=False, **kwargs) # type: ignore

I'm trying to use xCDAT's temporal APIs on uxarray.UxDataset objects, but those APIs require time coordinates to be decoded as datetime or cftime objects (decode_times=True).

Workaround

I was able to decode time coordinates using xarray.decode_cf() with decode_times=True and use_cftime=True. All downstream xCDAT temporal APIs worked.

However, the issue is that xarray.decode_cf() returns an xarray.Dataset object, rather than the uxarray.UxDataset object. This means all of the uxarray attributes and operators are no longer accessible on the returned object.

[philipc2]

Hi @tomvothecoder

This shouldn't be hard coded, thanks for the catch! Will handle this with #766

[tomvothecoder]

Thanks @philipc2!