issues: 1292284929

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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
1292284929 I_kwDOAMm_X85NBrQB 6749 What should `Dataset.count` return for missing dims? 43316012 open 0     5 2022-07-03T11:49:12Z 2022-07-14T17:27:23Z   COLLABORATOR      

What is your issue?

When using a dataset with multiple variables and using Dataset.count("x") it will return ones for variables that are missing dimension "x", e.g.: ```python import xarray as xr ds = xr.Dataset({"a": ("x", [1, 2, 3]), "b": ("y", [4, 5])}) ds.count("x")

returns:

<xarray.Dataset>

Dimensions: (y: 2)

Dimensions without coordinates: y

Data variables:

a int32 3

b (y) int32 1 1

``` I can understand why "1" can be a valid answer, but the result is probably a bit philosophical.

For my usecase I would like it to return an array of ds.sizes["x"] / 0. I think this is also a valid return value, considering the broadcasting rules, where the size of the missing dimension is actually known in the dataset.

Maybe one could make this behavior adjustable with a kwarg, e.g. "missing_dim_value: {int, "size"}, default 1. 

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