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/4079#issuecomment-631075010,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4079,631075010,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDYzMTA3NTAxMA==,703554,2020-05-19T20:50:26Z,2020-05-19T20:50:51Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"> In the specific example from your notebook, where do the dimensions lengths `__variants/BaseCounts_dim1`, `__variants/MLEAC_dim1` and `__variants/MLEAF_dim1` come from?
> 
> `BaseCounts_dim1` is length 4, so maybe that corresponds to DNA bases ATGC?

In this specific example, I do actually know where these dimension lengths come from. In fact I should've used the shared dimension `alt_alleles` instead of `__variants/MLEAC_dim1` and `__variants/MLEAF_dim1`. And yes `BaseCounts_dim1` does correspond to DNA bases.

But two points.

First, I don't care about these dimensions. The only dimensions I care about and will use are `variants`, `samples` and `ploidy`. 

Second, more important, this kind of data can come from a number of different sources, each of which includes a different set of arrays with different names and semantics. While there are some common arrays and naming conventions where I can guess what the dimensions mean, in general I can't know all of those up front and bake them in as special cases.  ","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,621078539
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/4079#issuecomment-630924754,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4079,630924754,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDYzMDkyNDc1NA==,703554,2020-05-19T16:14:27Z,2020-05-19T16:14:27Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"Thanks @shoyer. 

For reference, I'm exploring putting some genome variation data into xarray, here's an [initial experiment](https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/gist/alimanfoo/b74b08465727894538d5b161b3ced764) and [discussion here](https://discourse.smadstatgen.org/t/xarray-conventions-for-variation-data/44/2).

In general I will have some arrays where I won't know what some of the dimensions mean, and so cannot give them a meaningful name.

No worries if this is hard, was just wondering if it was supported already.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,621078539
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/4079#issuecomment-630913851,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4079,630913851,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDYzMDkxMzg1MQ==,703554,2020-05-19T15:55:54Z,2020-05-19T15:55:54Z,CONTRIBUTOR,Thanks so much @rabernat for quick response.,"{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,621078539