Adding a new explode_along_axis function inside NDCube

ndcube/ndcube.py

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 from astropy.utils.misc import InheritDocstrings
 
 from ndcube import utils
+from ndcube.ndcube_sequence import NDCubeSequence
 from ndcube.utils.wcs import wcs_ivoa_mapping
 from ndcube.mixins import NDCubeSlicingMixin, NDCubePlotMixin
 
@@ -523,6 +524,40 @@ def __repr__(self):
 """.format(wcs=self.wcs.__repr__(), lengthNDCube=self.dimensions,
            axis_type=self.world_axis_physical_types))
 
+    def explode_along_axis(self, axis):
+        """
+        Separates slices of NDCubes along a given cube axis into a NDCubeSequence
+        of (N-1)DCubes.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        axis : `int`
+            The axis along which the data is to be changed.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        result : `ndcube_sequence.NDCubeSequence`
+
+        """
+        # If axis is -ve then calculate the axis from the length of the dimensions of one cube
+        if axis < 0:
+            axis = len(self.dimensions) + axis
+        # To store the resultant cube
+        result_cubes = []
+        # All slices are initially initialised as slice(None, None, None)
+        cube_slices = [slice(None, None, None)] * self.data.ndim
+        # Slicing the cube inside result_cube
+        for i in range(self.data.shape[axis]):
+            # Setting the slice value to the index so that the slices are done correctly.
+            cube_slices[axis] = i
+            # Set to None the metadata of sliced cubes.
+            item = tuple(cube_slices)
+            sliced_cube = self[item]
+            sliced_cube.meta = None
+            # Appending the sliced cubes in the result_cube list
+            result_cubes.append(sliced_cube)
+        # Creating a new NDCubeSequence with the result_cubes and common axis as axis
+        return NDCubeSequence(result_cubes, common_axis=axis, meta=self.meta)
 
 class NDCube(NDCubeBase, NDCubePlotMixin, astropy.nddata.NDArithmeticMixin):
     pass

ndcube/tests/test_ndcube.py

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 Tests for NDCube
 '''
 from collections import namedtuple
+from collections import OrderedDict
 import datetime
 
 import pytest
@@ -13,6 +14,7 @@
 from ndcube import NDCube, NDCubeOrdered
 from ndcube.utils.wcs import WCS, _wcs_slicer
 from ndcube.tests import helpers
+from ndcube.ndcube_sequence import NDCubeSequence
 
 # sample data for tests
 # TODO: use a fixture reading from a test file. file TBD.
@@ -910,3 +912,16 @@ def test_axis_world_coords_without_input(test_input, expected):
     for i in range(len(all_coords)):
         np.testing.assert_allclose(all_coords[i].value, expected[i].value)
         assert all_coords[i].unit == expected[i].unit
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("test_input,expected", [
+    (cubem.explode_along_axis(0), ((2*u.pix, 3*u.pix, 4*u.pix), NDCubeSequence, dict)),
+    (cubem.explode_along_axis(1), ((3*u.pix, 2*u.pix, 4*u.pix), NDCubeSequence, dict)),
+    (cubem.explode_along_axis(-2), ((3*u.pix, 2*u.pix, 4*u.pix), NDCubeSequence, dict)),
+    (cubem.explode_along_axis(0)[0], ([3., 4.]*u.pix, NDCube, OrderedDict))
+])
+def test_explode_along_axis_v2(test_input, expected):
+    expected_dimensions, expected_type, expected_meta = expected
+    assert tuple(test_input.dimensions) == tuple(expected_dimensions)
+    assert isinstance(test_input, expected_type)
+    assert isinstance(test_input.meta, expected_meta)