Order of plots in a recipe

[mo-abodas]

Hello, I'm developing a new recipe that produces 5 plots per dataset. The order in which the plots are displayed seems to be random, which is not helpful for comparing results from different datasets. Is there a way to keep the order fixed?

For instance, I'm getting the following order when I run the recipe for two datasets:

figure4_CERES-EBAF.png
figure1_CERES-EBAF.png
figure5_CERES-EBAF.png
figure4_BCC-ESM1.png
figure3_BCC-ESM1.png
figure2_BCC-ESM1.png
figure1_BCC-ESM1.png
figure5_BCC-ESM1.png
figure3_CERES-EBAF.png
figure2_CERES-EBAF.png

I loop over datasets, so I'd like to get this:

figure1_BCC-ESM1.png
figure2_BCC-ESM1.png
figure3_BCC-ESM1.png
figure4_BCC-ESM1.png
figure5_BCC-ESM1.png
figure1_CERES-EBAF.png
figure2_CERES-EBAF.png
figure3_CERES-EBAF.png
figure4_CERES-EBAF.png
figure5_CERES-EBAF.png

Thanks!

[schlunma]

Are you using shared diagnostic functions to select/group your input data like select_metadata or group_metadata? There is also a function sorted_metadata which sorts your input data, which should also sort your plots. For group_metadata, there is a sort keyword.

Example that uses this:

ESMValTool/esmvaltool/diag_scripts/climate_metrics/ecs.py

Lines 312 to 313 in ab888f9

	input_data = deepcopy(list(cfg['input_data'].values()))
	input_data = sorted_metadata(input_data, ['short_name', 'exp', 'dataset'])

[bouweandela]

I made a pull request to add this to the upcoming v2.8 release: ESMValGroup/ESMValCore#1899.

[valeriupredoi]

many thanks to all who chipped in here! @mo-abodas did you have a chance to test @bouweandela 's feature in (the now merged) ESMValGroup/ESMValCore#1899

[mo-abodas]

@valeriupredoi I did, and it works great. Thanks!

[valeriupredoi]

excellent news! Would you mind marking Bouwe's answer as the answer please? We keep track of these Discussions (the unanswered ones) - or, at least, we try to 😁

[mo-abodas]

Just done it, if that's what you meant (not that familiar with all the github stuff)!

[valeriupredoi]

brilliant, cheers, mate 🍺