preserve original dimension, coordinate and variable order in concat

doc/whats-new.rst

@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ Bug fixes
   By `Jens Svensmark <https://github.com/jenssss>`_
 - Fix incorrect legend labels for :py:meth:`Dataset.plot.scatter` (:issue:`4126`).
   By `Peter Hausamann <https://github.com/phausamann>`_.
+- Preserve dimension and coordinate order during :py:func:`xarray.concat` (:issue:`2811`, :issue:`4072`, :pull:`4419`).
+  By `Kai Mühlbauer <https://github.com/kmuehlbauer>`_.
 - Avoid relying on :py:class:`set` objects for the ordering of the coordinates (:pull:`4409`)
   By `Justus Magin <https://github.com/keewis>`_.
 - Fix indexing with datetime64 scalars with pandas 1.1 (:issue:`4283`).

xarray/core/concat.py

@@ -463,6 +463,9 @@ def ensure_common_dims(vars):
             combined = concat_vars(vars, dim, positions)
             assert isinstance(combined, Variable)
             result_vars[k] = combined
+        elif k in result_vars:
+            # preserves original variable order
+            result_vars[k] = result_vars.pop(k)
 
     result = Dataset(result_vars, attrs=result_attrs)
     absent_coord_names = coord_names - set(result.variables)

xarray/tests/test_concat.py

@@ -558,3 +558,36 @@ def test_concat_merge_single_non_dim_coord():
     for coords in ["different", "all"]:
         with raises_regex(ValueError, "'y' not present in all datasets"):
             concat([da1, da2, da3], dim="x")
+
+
+def test_concat_preserve_coordinate_order():
+    x = np.arange(0, 5)
+    y = np.arange(0, 10)
+    time = np.arange(0, 4)
+    data = np.zeros((4, 10, 5), dtype=bool)
+
+    ds1 = Dataset(
+        {"data": (["time", "y", "x"], data[0:2])},
+        coords={"time": time[0:2], "y": y, "x": x},
+    )
+    ds2 = Dataset(
+        {"data": (["time", "y", "x"], data[2:4])},
+        coords={"time": time[2:4], "y": y, "x": x},
+    )
+
+    expected = Dataset(
+        {"data": (["time", "y", "x"], data)},
+        coords={"time": time, "y": y, "x": x},
+    )
+
+    actual = concat([ds1, ds2], dim="time")
+
+    # check dimension order
+    for act, exp in zip(actual.dims, expected.dims):
+        assert act == exp
+        assert actual.dims[act] == expected.dims[exp]
+
+    # check coordinate order
+    for act, exp in zip(actual.coords, expected.coords):
+        assert act == exp
+        assert_identical(actual.coords[act], expected.coords[exp])