xinter

A comprehensive linting and data quality checking tool for xarray datasets.

Overview

xinter provides automated data quality checks for xarray datasets, helping you identify issues like missing values, outliers, incorrect units, and other data anomalies. It features an extensible architecture that allows you to easily add custom checkers for your specific data validation needs.

Features

• 25 Built-in Checkers: Comprehensive checks for data quality including:
  • Missing values (NaNs)
  • Statistical properties (mean, std, skewness, kurtosis)
  • Outlier detection (IQR method)
  • Data type validation
  • Units verification and parsing
  • Coordinate uniformity checks
  • Shape and size validation
  • And many more…
• Extensible Architecture: Easily add custom checkers using a simple decorator pattern
• Rich CLI Output: Beautiful terminal output with tables showing results
• DataFrame Export: Convert results to pandas DataFrames for further analysis
• Coordinate Checking: Optionally check coordinate arrays in addition to data variables
• Group Support: Handle datasets with hierarchical groups (e.g., Zarr, NetCDF4)

Installation

pip install xinter

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/samueljackson92/xinter.git
cd xinter
pip install -e .

Quick Start

Command Line Interface

Lint a single file:

xl mydata.zarr

Lint multiple files:

xl file1.nc file2.zarr file3.nc

Check coordinates in addition to data variables:

xl mydata.zarr --coords

Specify a group within the dataset:

xl mydata.zarr --group=/equilibrium

Python API

from xinter.cli import lint_dataset, reports_to_dataframe

# Lint a dataset
reports = lint_dataset("mydata.zarr", check_coords=True)

# Convert to DataFrame for analysis
df = reports_to_dataframe(reports)

# Filter for failed checks
failures = df[~df["success"]]
print(failures)

# Export to CSV
df.to_csv("lint_report.csv", index=False)

Built-in Checkers

Checker	Description
NaNs	Proportion of NaN values
Mean	Mean value
Standard deviation	Standard deviation
IQR outliers	Proportion of values outside IQR range
Range	Range of values (max - min)
Max	Maximum value
Min	Minimum value
Duplicate values	Proportion of duplicate values
Negative values	Proportion of negative values
Zero values	Proportion of zero values
Constant values	Whether all values are constant
Infinite values	Proportion of infinite values
Skewness	Skewness of the distribution
Kurtosis	Kurtosis of the distribution
Entropy	Shannon entropy of the distribution
Data type	Data type of the variable
Units	Units attribute
Units parsable	Whether units can be parsed by pint
Diff	Mean of first differences
Diff constant	Whether differences are constant (coordinates only)
Shape	Shape of the variable
Size	Total number of elements
Variable name	Name of the variable
Dimension names	Names of the dimensions
Constant along dimension	Whether values are constant along the first dimension

Creating Custom Checkers

You can easily extend xinter with custom checkers:

from xinter.linters import DataArrayChecker, LinterRegistry, CheckerResult
import xarray as xr

@LinterRegistry.register()
class MyCustomChecker(DataArrayChecker):
    """Check if values are within expected range."""
    
    name = "Value range check"
    description = "Checks if values fall within [0, 100]"
    
    def check(self, var: xr.DataArray) -> CheckerResult:
        min_val = var.min().item()
        max_val = var.max().item()
        in_range = 0 <= min_val and max_val <= 100
        
        return CheckerResult(
            value=in_range,
            message=f"Range: [{min_val}, {max_val}]",
            success=in_range,
        )

Your custom checker will automatically be included in all linting operations.

Output Format

The reports_to_dataframe() function produces a DataFrame with the following columns:

• file_path: Path to the dataset file
• target_type: Either “data_vars” or “coords”
• variable_name: Name of the variable
• checker_name: Name of the checker
• value: The check result value
• message: Descriptive message about the result
• success: Boolean indicating if the check passed

Web Dashboard (GUI)

xinter includes a modern, interactive web-based dashboard for visualizing linting results. The dashboard provides:

• 📊 Interactive Charts: Explore data quality metrics with beautiful Plotly visualizations
• 🔍 Real-time Filtering: Filter results by file and group
• 📈 Comprehensive Analytics: NaN distribution, data types, statistical distributions, entropy analysis, and more

Installation

Install with GUI support:

pip install -e ".[gui]"

Usage

Launch the dashboard for any linting report:

xl-gui linting_report.parquet

Or with custom options:

xl-gui thomson_scattering.parquet --port 8080 --title "Thomson Scattering Analysis"

The dashboard will open in your browser at http://localhost:8050 (or your specified port).

See GUI_README.md for detailed documentation and examples.

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/xinter.git
cd xinter

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Format code
ruff format .

# Lint code
ruff check .

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Authors

• Samuel Jackson (samuel.jackson@ukaea.uk)

Acknowledgments

xinter builds on the excellent work of the xarray, pandas, and pint communities.

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