Reading in variable containing different length strings throws error

[alex-s-gardner]

julia> mydataset.dem_names[1]
"AST_L1A_00307282000230229_final.zip"

julia> mydataset.dem_names[:]
241-element YAXArray{String,1} with dimensions: 
  Ti Sampled{DateTime} DateTime[2000-07-28T00:00:00, …, 2019-08-18T00:00:00] ForwardOrdered Irregular Points
name: dem_names
Error showing value of type YAXArray{String, 1, YAXArrayBase.NetCDFVariable{String, 1}, Tuple{DimensionalData.Dimensions.Ti{DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Sampled{DateTime, Vector{DateTime}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.ForwardOrdered, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Irregular{Tuple{Nothing, Nothing}}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Points, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.NoMetadata}}}}:
ERROR: Type String does not have a definite size.
Stacktrace:
  [1] sizeof(x::Type)
    @ Base ./essentials.jl:559
  [2] cubesize(c::YAXArray{String, 1, YAXArrayBase.NetCDFVariable{String, 1}, Tuple{DimensionalData.Dimensions.Ti{DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Sampled{DateTime, Vector{DateTime}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.ForwardOrdered, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Irregular{Tuple{Nothing, Nothing}}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Points, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.NoMetadata}}}})
    @ YAXArrays.Cubes ~/Documents/GitHub/YAXArrays.jl/src/Cubes/Cubes.jl:496
  [3] show_after(io::IOContext{Base.TTY}, mime::MIME{Symbol("text/plain")}, c::YAXArray{String, 1, YAXArrayBase.NetCDFVariable{String, 1}, Tuple{DimensionalData.Dimensions.Ti{DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Sampled{DateTime, Vector{DateTime}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.ForwardOrdered, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Irregular{Tuple{Nothing, Nothing}}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Points, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.NoMetadata}}}})
    @ YAXArrays.Cubes ~/Documents/GitHub/YAXArrays.jl/src/Cubes/Cubes.jl:509
  [4] show(io::IOContext{Base.TTY}, mime::MIME{Symbol("text/plain")}, A::YAXArray{String, 1, YAXArrayBase.NetCDFVariable{String, 1}, Tuple{DimensionalData.Dimensions.Ti{DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Sampled{DateTime, Vector{DateTime}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.ForwardOrdered, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Irregular{Tuple{Nothing, Nothing}}, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.Points, DimensionalData.Dimensions.LookupArrays.NoMetadata}}}})
    @ DimensionalData ~/.julia/packages/DimensionalData/pS9IE/src/array/show.jl:27
  [5] (::REPL.var"#55#56"{REPL.REPLDisplay{REPL.LineEditREPL}, MIME{Symbol("text/plain")}, Base.RefValue{Any}})(io::Any)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:276
  [6] with_repl_linfo(f::Any, repl::REPL.LineEditREPL)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:557
  [7] display(d::REPL.REPLDisplay, mime::MIME{Symbol("text/plain")}, x::Any)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:262
  [8] display(d::REPL.REPLDisplay, x::Any)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:281
  [9] display(x::Any)
    @ Base.Multimedia ./multimedia.jl:340
 [10] print_response(errio::IO, response::Any, show_value::Bool, have_color::Bool, specialdisplay::Union{Nothing, AbstractDisplay})
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:0
 [11] (::REPL.var"#57#58"{REPL.LineEditREPL, Pair{Any, Bool}, Bool, Bool})(io::Any)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:287
 [12] with_repl_linfo(f::Any, repl::REPL.LineEditREPL)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:557
 [13] print_response(repl::REPL.AbstractREPL, response::Any, show_value::Bool, have_color::Bool)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:285
 [14] (::REPL.var"#do_respond#80"{Bool, Bool, REPL.var"#93#103"{REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.REPLHistoryProvider}, REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.LineEdit.Prompt})(s::REPL.LineEdit.MIState, buf::Any, ok::Bool)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:899
 [15] (::VSCodeServer.var"#98#101"{REPL.var"#do_respond#80"{Bool, Bool, REPL.var"#93#103"{REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.REPLHistoryProvider}, REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.LineEdit.Prompt}})(mi::REPL.LineEdit.MIState, buf::IOBuffer, ok::Bool)
    @ VSCodeServer ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.47.2/scripts/packages/VSCodeServer/src/repl.jl:122
 [16] #invokelatest#2
    @ ./essentials.jl:816 [inlined]
 [17] invokelatest
    @ ./essentials.jl:813 [inlined]
 [18] run_interface(terminal::REPL.Terminals.TextTerminal, m::REPL.LineEdit.ModalInterface, s::REPL.LineEdit.MIState)
    @ REPL.LineEdit ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/LineEdit.jl:2647
 [19] run_frontend(repl::REPL.LineEditREPL, backend::REPL.REPLBackendRef)
    @ REPL ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.9.0-rc3+0.aarch64.apple.darwin14/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/REPL/src/REPL.jl:1300
 [20] (::REPL.var"#62#68"{REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.REPLBackendRef})()
    @ REPL ./task.jl:514

[felixcremer]

It seems as if this is happening in the show method and therefore you could try to suppress the printing with a semicolon at the end.
I think, it is not that the Strings are different length but more that the printing expects that the values in the cube have all the same expected size and for Strings this is not defined.
But should these dem_names actually be in the data or is it that the dem_names should be used as input for one Dimension?

[alex-s-gardner]

If I suppress printing then I just get a warning:

mydataset.dem_names[:];
┌ Warning: Can not determine size of element type. Using DiskArrays.fallback_element_size[] = 100 bytes
└ @ DiskArrays ~/.julia/packages/DiskArrays/dnhik/src/chunks.jl:287

should these dem_names actually be in the data or is it that the dem_names should be used as input for one Dimension

In this dataset dem_names[1] is the path to the file used to populate all fields at time[1]

[lazarusA]

this should be fix now by #444