html_url,issue_url,id,node_id,user,created_at,updated_at,author_association,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,issue
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3830#issuecomment-596056046,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3830,596056046,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDU5NjA1NjA0Ng==,35968931,2020-03-07T07:14:36Z,2020-03-07T07:14:36Z,MEMBER,@lukelbd great! Tag me when you do and I'll review :) ,"{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,575939446
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3830#issuecomment-595150750,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3830,595150750,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDU5NTE1MDc1MA==,35968931,2020-03-05T10:24:07Z,2020-03-05T10:24:07Z,MEMBER,"Thanks @lukelbd for pointing this, this is certainly a common operation, and there should be a clear example in the docs. 

The method you suggest (`open_mfdataset(files, combine='nested', concat_dim='record')`) is the intended way to do it.

We have a section in the docs on [combining data](http://xarray.pydata.org/en/stable/combining.html#combining-along-multiple-dimensions), but it seems to go straight to the multi-dimensional ""nested"" case before showing the simpler case you're asking about. (FWIW the ""nested"" name was motivated by these more complex use cases, but I agree it's not the most intuitive name when in 1D.) That page also doesn't go into much detail about how everything `combine_nested` and `combine_by_coords` can do `open_mfdataset` can also do.

I suggest there should be another section ""combining data from files"" at the end of that page, which has a few examples but on files instead of dataset objects. Then we link to that from the `open_mfdataset` docstring? Do you think that would be sufficiently clear/accessible?

It would also be nice if at some point one of [the examples](https://github.com/pydata/xarray/tree/master/doc/examples) demonstrated this.

@lukelbd would you be interested in submitting a PR for this?","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,575939446