Resolve "Update the bilby_result method to enable merging results with inconsistent parameters"

Closes #635 (closed)

bilby/core/result.py

@@ -1710,11 +1710,28 @@ class ResultList(list):
         else:
             raise TypeError("Could not append a non-Result type")
 
-    def combine(self, shuffle=False):
+    def combine(self, shuffle=False, consistency_level="error"):
         """
         Return the combined results in a :class:bilby.core.result.Result`
         object.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        shuffle: bool
+            If true, shuffle the samples when combining, otherwise they are concatenated.
+        consistency_level: str, [warning, error]
+            If warning, print a warning if inconsistencies are discovered between the results before combining.
+            If error, raise an error if inconsistencies are discovered between the results before combining.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        result: bilby.core.result.Result
+            The combined result file
+
         """
+
+        self.consistency_level = consistency_level
+
         if len(self) == 0:
             return Result()
         elif len(self) == 1:
@@ -1844,24 +1861,37 @@ class ResultList(list):
             except ValueError:
                 raise ResultListError("Not all results contain nested samples")
 
+    def _error_or_warning_consistency(self, msg):
+        if self.consistency_level == "error":
+            raise ResultListError(msg)
+        elif self.consistency_level == "warning":
+            logger.warning(msg)
+        else:
+            raise ValueError(f"Input consistency_level {self.consistency_level} not understood")
+
     def check_consistent_priors(self):
         for res in self:
             for p in self[0].priors.keys():
                 if not self[0].priors[p] == res.priors[p] or len(self[0].priors) != len(res.priors):
-                    raise ResultListError("Inconsistent priors between results")
+                    msg = "Inconsistent priors between results"
+                    self._error_or_warning_consistency(msg)
 
     def check_consistent_parameters(self):
         if not np.all([set(self[0].search_parameter_keys) == set(res.search_parameter_keys) for res in self]):
-            raise ResultListError("Inconsistent parameters between results")
+            msg = "Inconsistent parameters between results"
+            self._error_or_warning_consistency(msg)
 
     def check_consistent_data(self):
         if not np.allclose([res.log_noise_evidence for res in self], self[0].log_noise_evidence, atol=1e-8, rtol=0.0)\
                 and not np.all([np.isnan(res.log_noise_evidence) for res in self]):
-            raise ResultListError("Inconsistent data between results")
+
+            msg = "Inconsistent data between results"
+            self._error_or_warning_consistency(msg)
 
     def check_consistent_sampler(self):
         if not np.all([res.sampler == self[0].sampler for res in self]):
-            raise ResultListError("Inconsistent samplers between results")
+            msg = "Inconsistent samplers between results"
+            self._error_or_warning_consistency(msg)
 
 
 @latex_plot_format