[Feature]: Behavior when adding multiple tags to a time interval

[stephprince]

What would you like to see added to PyNWB?

This issue came up in this discussion: #2031 (comment).

Currently multiple tags can be added to an interval as a single string separated by commas. These tags will be parsed into 3 different strings.

from pynwb.epoch import TimeIntervals
from pynwb.testing.mock.file import mock_NWBFile

nwbfile = mock_NWBFile()

test_epochs = TimeIntervals(name='test_epochs')
test_epochs.add_interval(start_time=1.0, stop_time=10.0, tags='tag1')
test_epochs.add_interval(start_time=10.0, stop_time=20.0, tags='tag1, tag2, tag3')
nwbfile.add_time_intervals(test_epochs)

print(nwbfile.intervals['test_epochs']['tags'][:])  # [['tag1'], ['tag1', 'tag2', 'tag3']]

It seems like this approach could be prone to misunderstandings on how the tags are written to the file. Is there a case where providing a single string is preferred over providing a list of strings?

Is your feature request related to a problem?

No response

What solution would you like?

Remove the automatic splitting of tags

Do you have any interest in helping implement the feature?

Yes.

Code of Conduct

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