id,node_id,number,title,user,state,locked,assignee,milestone,comments,created_at,updated_at,closed_at,author_association,active_lock_reason,draft,pull_request,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,state_reason,repo,type
2142410162,I_kwDOAMm_X85_spWy,8770,Error in xr.date_range with exactly three parameters provided.,46948104,closed,0,,,2,2024-02-19T13:45:00Z,2024-02-24T12:43:20Z,2024-02-24T12:43:20Z,CONTRIBUTOR,,,,"### What happened?

I was trying to create a list of a fixed number of N dates from start to end using the ""periods"" argument of  xr.date_range.

### What did you expect to happen?

To obtain a DatetimeIndex object with N period's dates between the starting date and the ending date.

### Minimal Complete Verifiable Example

```Python
import xarray as xr
from datetime import datetime

# Attempt to create a date range with exactly three parameters
xr.date_range(start=datetime(1961, 1, 1), end=datetime(1991, 1, 1), periods=3)
```


### MVCE confirmation

- [X] Minimal example — the example is as focused as reasonably possible to demonstrate the underlying issue in xarray.
- [x] Complete example — the example is self-contained, including all data and the text of any traceback.
- [x] Verifiable example — the example copy & pastes into an IPython prompt or [Binder notebook](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/pydata/xarray/main?urlpath=lab/tree/doc/examples/blank_template.ipynb), returning the result.
- [X] New issue — a search of GitHub Issues suggests this is not a duplicate.
- [x] Recent environment — the issue occurs with the latest version of xarray and its dependencies.

### Relevant log output

```Python
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ""<stdin>"", line 1, in <module>
  File ""/home/roberto/miniconda3/envs/gs1/lib/python3.11/site-packages/xarray/coding/cftime_offsets.py"", line 1225, in date_range
    return pd.date_range(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File ""/home/roberto/miniconda3/envs/gs1/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pandas/core/indexes/datetimes.py"", line 1009, in date_range
    dtarr = DatetimeArray._generate_range(
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File ""/home/roberto/miniconda3/envs/gs1/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pandas/core/arrays/datetimes.py"", line 400, in _generate_range
    raise ValueError(
ValueError: Of the four parameters: start, end, periods, and freq, exactly three must be specified
```


### Anything else we need to know?

When running:

```
import pandas as pd
from datetime import datetime

pd.date_range(start=datetime(1961, 1, 1), end=datetime(1991, 1, 1), periods=2)
```

Outputs:
`DatetimeIndex(['1961-01-01', '1991-01-01'], dtype='datetime64[ns]', freq=None)`

### Environment

<details>

/home/roberto/miniconda3/envs/gs1/lib/python3.11/site-packages/_distutils_hack/__init__.py:33: UserWarning: Setuptools is replacing distutils.
  warnings.warn(""Setuptools is replacing distutils."")

INSTALLED VERSIONS
------------------
commit: None
python: 3.11.6 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Oct  3 2023, 10:40:35) [GCC 12.3.0]
python-bits: 64
OS: Linux
OS-release: 6.5.0-14-generic
machine: x86_64
processor: x86_64
byteorder: little
LC_ALL: None
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
LOCALE: ('en_US', 'UTF-8')
libhdf5: 1.12.2
libnetcdf: 4.9.1

xarray: 2023.12.0
pandas: 2.1.4
numpy: 1.26.4
scipy: 1.12.0
netCDF4: 1.6.3
pydap: None
h5netcdf: 1.3.0
h5py: 3.8.0
Nio: 1.5.5
zarr: None
cftime: 1.6.3
nc_time_axis: None
iris: None
bottleneck: 1.3.5
dask: 2023.12.1
distributed: 2023.12.1
matplotlib: 3.8.2
cartopy: 0.22.0
seaborn: 0.13.0
numbagg: None
fsspec: 2023.12.2
cupy: None
pint: None
sparse: None
flox: None
numpy_groupies: None
setuptools: 68.2.2
pip: 23.3.2
conda: None
pytest: None
mypy: None
IPython: 8.20.0
sphinx: None

</details>
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