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/1193#issuecomment-270737056,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1193,270737056,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDI3MDczNzA1Ng==,6645714,2017-01-05T19:38:47Z,2017-01-05T20:01:34Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"I found that changing char_to_string resulted in dropping the 0 length dimension:

before:

```
<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions:  (dim0: 1, dim1: 0)
Coordinates:
  * dim0     (dim0) int64 0
  * dim1     (dim1) int64 
Data variables:
    x        (dim0, dim1) |S1 
```

after:

```
<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions:  (dim0: 1)
Coordinates:
  * dim0     (dim0) int64 0
Data variables:
    x        (dim0) |S1 
```

So, instead I modified conventions.decode_cf_variable to not wrap character arrays with a terminal zero length dimension as CharToStringArray:

```
    if concat_characters:
        if data.dtype.kind == 'S' and data.dtype.itemsize == 1 and data.shape[-1] != 0:
            dimensions = dimensions[:-1]
            data = CharToStringArray(data)
```

And this appears to round-trip correctly.

EDIT: fixed output when modifying char_to_string","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,199032440
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/pull/633#issuecomment-149673897,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/633,149673897,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDE0OTY3Mzg5Nw==,6645714,2015-10-20T19:19:17Z,2015-10-20T19:19:17Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"Done!
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,112424213
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/pull/529#issuecomment-130761187,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/529,130761187,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDEzMDc2MTE4Nw==,6645714,2015-08-13T17:01:16Z,2015-08-13T17:01:16Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"Any idea why the new test class is failing in python 3.4? I would expect the corresponding netcdf3 tests to fail as well, unless they are disabled.
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,100692054
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/526#issuecomment-130536778,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/526,130536778,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDEzMDUzNjc3OA==,6645714,2015-08-13T05:06:46Z,2015-08-13T05:08:02Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"I did some more investigating while working on a fix for this issue. It turns out that only the F8 format is supported and this fix is applicable to all NETCDF3-compatible formats.

https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/netcdf-c/NetCDF_002d3-Variable-Types.html

| Type | C #define | Bits |
| --- | --- | --- |
| byte | NC_BYTE | 8 |
| char | NC_CHAR | 8 |
| short | NC_SHORT | 16 |
| int | NC_INT | 32 |
| float | NC_FLOAT | 32 |
| double | NC_DOUBLE | 64 |

I have updated the issue title to reflect this.
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,100601294
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/526#issuecomment-130416921,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/526,130416921,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDEzMDQxNjkyMQ==,6645714,2015-08-12T19:19:51Z,2015-08-12T19:19:51Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"Sure, I'll take a look at it tonight if I get a chance. Do you need corresponding unit tests for any changes? I haven't looked...
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,100601294