Add a function to extract single draw of multidimensional variable

[avehtari]

Currently extract_variable doesn't work for matrix/array variables

In the following p1 is a Pathfinder object from CmdStanR and z_1 is defined in Stan as matrix[M_1, N_1] z_1; It took me some time to figure out how to extract an R array with the dimensions M_1, N_1

drop(draws_of(subset_draws(as_draws_rvars(p1$draws()), variable='z_1', draw=1)[[1]]))

It would be nice to have a function for this. The above code works also for scalars, vectors, and 1D arrays.

[mjskay]

Thinking about how this relates to uses of variable names across the API, this seems related to the inconsistent handling of indices in variable names between draws_rvars and the other formats (see here: https://github.com/stan-dev/posterior/issues/208#issuecomment-1005713122)

One thought is to fix the above-referenced issue so that something like variables(x, with_indices = TRUE) (default) returns names like x[1,1], x[1,2], ... and variables(x, with_indices = FALSE) returns names like x. Then have clear indications in the API of which functions take variable names with or without indices.

For this issue specifically, following the pattern of extract_variable_matrix() we could have an extract_variable_array(x, variable) that takes a variable name without indices and returns its array form. Then the solution in the above example would be extract_variable_array(x, "z_1")[1,,].

If we also want a solution specifically for getting one draw regardless of shape, then there is helper code used by for_each_draw that could be extracted and adapted for that purpose.

[avehtari]

I did also notice the index-inconsistency, and like the idea of with_indices

extract_variable_array would work for me (the first use case is https://github.com/stan-dev/cmdstanr/issues/876)

[paul-buerkner]

I agree. Sounds like a good solution.

[mjskay]

Cool, happy to take a stab at it.