The einops module is a bit particular because the wrapers adapt the call signature and syntax to xarray but they don’t extend it. The reductions and rearrangements you’ll be able to do with xarray_einstats.einops are the same you can do in einops. What changes is the objects on which they work and how you specify those operations.

Why change the notation? There are three main reasons, each concerning one of the elements respectively: ->, space as delimiter and parenthesis:

• In xarray dimensions are already labeled. In many cases, the left side in the einops notation is only used to label the dimensions. In fact, 5/7 examples in https://einops.rocks/api/rearrange/ fall in this category. This is not necessary when working with xarray objects.

• In xarray dimension names can be any hashable. xarray-einstats only supports strings as dimension names, but the space can’t be used as delimiter.

• In xarray dimensions are labeled and the order doesn’t matter. This might seem the same as the first reason but it is not. When splitting or stacking dimensions you need (and want) the names of both parent and children dimensions. In some cases, for example stacking, we can autogenerate a default name, but in general you’ll want to give a name to the new dimension. After all, dimension order in xarray doesn’t matter and there isn’t much to be done without knowing the dimension names.

Attention

We also provide some cruder wrappers with syntax closer to einops. We are experimenting on trying to find the right spot between being clear, semantic and flexible yet concise.

These raw_ wrappers like xarray_einstats.einops.raw_rearrange impose several extra constraints to accepted xarray inputs, in addition to dimension names being strings.

The example data we are using on this page uses single word alphabetical dimensions names which allows us to demonstrate both side by side.

The guiding principle of the einops module is to take the input expressions in our list of str/list/dict and translate them to valid einops expressions using placeholders given the actual dimension names might not be valid in einops expressions. Moreover, given that we already have the dimensions labeled, we can take advantage of that during the translation process and thus support “partial” expressions that cover only the dimensions that will be modified.

Another important consideration is to take into account that in xarray, dimension names should not matter, hence the constraint of using dicts on the left side. Imposing this constraint also makes our job of filling in the “partial” expressions much easier. We do accept that in the right side as we can generate sensible default names.

As for the raw_ wrappers, in order to avoid rewriting the partial expression filling logic, their behaviour is very simplified:

1. Split the expression in two if possible using ->

2. Convert each side to list of str/list/dict following the rules of the complete wrappers

3. Call the complete wrapper

This has an extra and a bit hidden advantage. einops supports explicit ellipsis but we don’t, to us an ellipsis is not writing the dimension name in the expression. Therefore, . are valid in our raw_ expressions, we convert those to “full xarray” expressions which support everything and we don’t need extra logic to handle dots either.