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/3438#issuecomment-545590827,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3438,545590827,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDU0NTU5MDgyNw==,14808389,2019-10-23T19:05:18Z,2019-10-23T19:05:18Z,MEMBER,"I don't know whether that is intended or not, but I think that the operation of replacing `observations` with `individuals` is better done with `swap_dims`: ```python >>> xr.__version__ '0.14.0' >>> ds.rename_dims(observations=""individuals"").stack(observations=[""individuals"", ""genes""]) Dimensions: (observations: 4, subtissues: 2) Coordinates: * observations (observations) MultiIndex - individuals (observations) int64 0 0 1 1 - genes (observations) object 'a' 'b' 'a' 'b' * subtissues (subtissues) >> ds.swap_dims({""observations"": ""individuals""}).stack(observations=[""individuals"", ""genes""]) Dimensions: (observations: 4, subtissues: 2) Coordinates: * observations (observations) MultiIndex - individuals (observations) object 'x' 'x' 'y' 'y' - genes (observations) object 'a' 'b' 'a' 'b' * subtissues (subtissues)