[Bug]: Should 'is_ascending_series' skip NaNs?

[CodyCBakerPhD]

What happened?

This was discovered during a particular check run, but the question is more general

I have a time vector (in this case a table column) that has a small number of NaN's in it but most of the time has well-behaved strictly ascending floats

Should our util function for determining if a time vector is ascending filter out NaN values?

Steps to Reproduce

No response

Traceback

No response

Operating System

Windows

Python Executable

Conda

Python Version

3.7

Usage

Command Line Interface

Were you streaming with ROS3?

No

Package Versions

No response

Code of Conduct

• [X] I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct
• [X] Have you ensured this bug was not already reported?
• [X] To the best of your ability, have you ensured this is a bug within the code that checks the NWBFile, rather than a bug in the NWBFile reader (e.g., PyNWB or MatNWB)?

[bendichter]

Seems reasonable

[bendichter]

This makes more sense for time columns than it does for time stamps in a TimeSeries

[CodyCBakerPhD]

This makes more sense for time columns than it does for time stamps in a TimeSeries

True, maybe it can be a flag in the util function, and each check can decide whether it is appropriate based on the type

[bendichter]

That sounds like a good approach