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/4285#issuecomment-1210268984,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4285,1210268984,IC_kwDOAMm_X85IIz04,14371165,2022-08-10T07:24:55Z,2022-08-10T07:25:24Z,MEMBER,"> If that point is negotiable, I could introduce an `ak.shape_dtype(array)` function that returns a shape and dtype if `array` has the right properties and raise an exception if it doesn't. That would be more normal: you're asking if it satisfies a specific constraint, and if so, to get some information about it. Then we would also be able to deal with the fact that
> 
>     * some people are going to want the `shape` to specify the maximum of ""var"" dimensions (what you asked for): ""virtually padding"",
> 
>     * some people are going to want the `shape` to specify the minimum of ""var"" dimensions because that tells you what upper bounds are legal to slice: ""virtually truncating"",
> 
>     * and some people are going to want the string `""var""` or maybe `None` or maybe `np.nan` in place of ""var"" dimensions because no integer is correct. Then they would have to deal with the fact that this `shape` is not a tuple of integers.

Getting non-ints out of `.shape` is not uncommon already. 

dask, which is one of our favorite duck arrays, uses `np.nan` to imply undefined shape (`-> tuple(int | type(np.nan), ...)`), which happens EVERY time a dask array is masked. I don't think it would be super strange to get -`> tuple(int | type(np.nan) | Literal[""var""], ...)` out of awkwards shape.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,667864088