prep_fcd anno table error delay

[Muffin2001]

Disclaimer: This is a very minor issue.

When using prep_fcd(), it feels like maybe the code first reads all the data, and only then checks whether it can read the anno table. The perfect user makes no errors, but I sometimes mess up anno table names/format/....

Pseudocode (assumed):

prep_fcd(file_path, anno_table):
    read_all_files(file_path) #takes a long time
    select_and_annotate_files(anno_table) #error if I made a mistake

Pseudocode (suggested improved version):

prep_fcd(file_path, anno_table):
    check_anno_table(anno_table)
        check_anno_table #whether it exists
        check_anno_table_content #whether files exist
            if not intact:
                raise_error("Here's whats wrong with the anno table:") #anno_table file missing/contents not right/files missing/...
    read_all_files(file_path)
    select_and_annotate_files(anno_table)

Waiting for all my files to be processed for the code to give an error can be a bit annoying. Yes, it is my fault that the anno table is not "anno1.csv" (with separator ";") but "anno_1.txt" (with separator ","). I would appreciate it if I was warned before awaiting the (lengthy) data reading, instead of afterwards. But, once again, it's more of a minor convenience improvement, not really a problem. It costs 5 minutes and a nerve or two, but it's fully user-solvable.

[SamGG]

I agree that user input should checked first.
IMHO, xlsx file should be permitted, which removes problems about field separator, decimal point and date.

[lorenzobonaguro]

Hi @Muffin2001 thanks for the suggestion, I don't think this is exactly what you are looking for but if you set cross_path_with_anno as TRUE it will first match the anno table with the files in the folder so if there is a problem with the table or a missmatch with the names you get an error directly. But we can implement a more precise input check in one of the next release.