WIP Add a CFTimeIndex-enabled xr.cftime_range function

doc/api.rst

@@ -555,6 +555,13 @@ Custom Indexes
 
    CFTimeIndex
 
+Creating custom indexes
+-----------------------
+.. autosummary::
+   :toctree: generated/
+
+   cftime_range
+
 Plotting
 ========
 

doc/time-series.rst

@@ -258,7 +258,16 @@ coordinate with a no-leap calendar within a context manager setting the
    calendar, its times will be decoded into ``cftime.datetime`` objects,
    regardless of whether or not they can be represented using
    ``np.datetime64[ns]`` objects.
-
+
+xarray also includes a :py:func:`cftime_range` function, which enables creating a
+``CFTimeIndex`` with regularly-spaced dates.  For instance, we can create the
+same dates and DataArray we created above using:
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   dates = xr.cftime_range(start='0001', periods=24, freq='MS', calendar='noleap')
+   da = xr.DataArray(np.arange(24), coords=[dates], dims=['time'], name='foo')
+
 For data indexed by a ``CFTimeIndex`` xarray currently supports:
 
 - `Partial datetime string indexing`_ using strictly `ISO 8601-format`_ partial

doc/whats-new.rst

@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ Enhancements
   now displayed as `a b ... y z` rather than `a b c d ...`.
   (:issue:`1186`)
   By `Seth P <https://github.com/seth-p>`_.
+- A new CFTimeIndex-enabled :py:func:`cftime_range` function for use in
+  generating dates from standard or non-standard calendars.  By `Spencer Clark 
+  <https://github.com/spencerkclark>`_. 
 
 - When interpolating over a ``datetime64`` axis, you can now provide a datetime string instead of a ``datetime64`` object. E.g. ``da.interp(time='1991-02-01')``
   (:issue:`2284`)

xarray/__init__.py

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 
 from .conventions import decode_cf, SerializationWarning
 
+from .coding.cftime_offsets import cftime_range
 from .coding.cftimeindex import CFTimeIndex
 
 from .util.print_versions import show_versions