Feature request: raise more informative error message for xr.open_dataset(list_of_paths)

[aaronspring]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

I sometimes use xr.open_dataset instead of xr.open_mfdataset on multiple paths. I propose to raise a more informative error message than ValueError: did not find a match in any of xarray's currently installed IO backends ['netcdf4', 'h5netcdf', 'scipy', 'cfgrib']. Consider explicitly selecting one of the installed engines via the ``engine`` parameter, or installing additional IO dependencies, see: https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stable/getting-started-guide/installing.html https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stable/user-guide/io.html.

import xarray as xr

xr.__version__ # '2022.3.0'

ds = xr.tutorial.load_dataset("air_temperature")

ds.isel(time=slice(None,1500)).to_netcdf("file1.nc")
ds.isel(time=slice(1500,None)).to_netcdf("file2.nc")

xr.open_mfdataset(["file1.nc","file2.nc"]) # works
xr.open_mfdataset("file?.nc") # works

# I understand what I need to do here
xr.open_dataset("file?.nc") # fails FileNotFoundError: No such file or directory: b'/dir/file?.nc'

# I dont here; I also first try to check whether one of these files is corrupt
xr.open_dataset(["file1.nc","file2.nc"]) # fails ValueError: did not find a match in any of xarray's currently installed IO backends ['netcdf4', 'h5netcdf', 'scipy', 'cfgrib']. Consider explicitly selecting one of the installed engines via the ``engine`` parameter, or installing additional IO dependencies, see: links

Describe the solution you'd like

directing the user towards the solution, i.e. "found path as list, please use open_mfdataset"

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[dcherian]

Sounds good to me. PR welcome!

[aaronspring]

To be implemented here

xarray/xarray/backends/plugins.py

Line 102 in d479009

def guess_engine(store_spec):

[smartlixx]

More generally, when the specified file(s) can't be found (e.g., a wrong file name is given), a more precise error message like 'file(s) specified can't be found' instead of currently 'ValueError: did not find a match in any of xarray's currently installed IO backends'.

[dcherian]

For wrong file name, we have this issue: #5329 and this PR: #5351