DatasetDict save load Failing test in 1.6 not in 1.5

## Describe the bug

We have a test that saves a DatasetDict to disk and then loads it from disk. In 1.6 there is an incompatibility in the schema.




Downgrading to `>1.6` -- fixes the problem.

## Steps to reproduce the bug
```python

### Load a dataset dict from jsonl 

path = '/test/foo'

ds_dict.save_to_disk(path)

ds_from_disk = DatasetDict.load_from_disk(path).  ## <-- this is where I see the error on 1.6
```

## Expected results

Upgrading to 1.6 shouldn't break that test. We should be able to serialize to and from disk.

## Actual results
```
        # Infer features if None
        inferred_features = Features.from_arrow_schema(arrow_table.schema)
        if self.info.features is None:
            self.info.features = inferred_features
    
        # Infer fingerprint if None
    
        if self._fingerprint is None:
            self._fingerprint = generate_fingerprint(self)
    
        # Sanity checks
    
        assert self.features is not None, "Features can't be None in a Dataset object"
        assert self._fingerprint is not None, "Fingerprint can't be None in a Dataset object"
        if self.info.features.type != inferred_features.type:
>           raise ValueError(
                "External features info don't match the dataset:\nGot\n{}\nwith type\n{}\n\nbut expected something like\n{}\nwith type\n{}".format(
                    self.info.features, self.info.features.type, inferred_features, inferred_features.type
                )
            )
E           ValueError: External features info don't match the dataset:
E           Got
E           {'_input_hash': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), '_task_hash': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), '_view_id': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'answer': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'encoding__ids': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__offsets': Sequence(feature=Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__overflowing': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='null', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__tokens': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='string', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__words': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'ner_ids': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'ner_labels': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='string', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'relations': [{'child': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'child_span': {'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None)}, 'color': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'head': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'head_span': {'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None)}, 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}], 'spans': [{'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'text': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'token_end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'type': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}], 'text': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'tokens': [{'disabled': Value(dtype='bool', id=None), 'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'id': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'text': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'ws': Value(dtype='bool', id=None)}]}
E           with type
E           struct<_input_hash: int64, _task_hash: int64, _view_id: string, answer: string, encoding__ids: list<item: int64>, encoding__offsets: list<item: list<item: int64>>, encoding__overflowing: list<item: null>, encoding__tokens: list<item: string>, encoding__words: list<item: int64>, ner_ids: list<item: int64>, ner_labels: list<item: string>, relations: list<item: struct<child: int64, child_span: struct<end: int64, label: string, start: int64, token_end: int64, token_start: int64>, color: string, head: int64, head_span: struct<end: int64, label: string, start: int64, token_end: int64, token_start: int64>, label: string>>, spans: list<item: struct<end: int64, label: string, start: int64, text: string, token_end: int64, token_start: int64, type: string>>, text: string, tokens: list<item: struct<disabled: bool, end: int64, id: int64, start: int64, text: string, ws: bool>>>
E           
E           but expected something like
E           {'_input_hash': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), '_task_hash': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), '_view_id': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'answer': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'encoding__ids': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__offsets': Sequence(feature=Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__overflowing': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='null', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__tokens': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='string', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'encoding__words': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'ner_ids': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='int64', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'ner_labels': Sequence(feature=Value(dtype='string', id=None), length=-1, id=None), 'relations': [{'head': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'child': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'head_span': {'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}, 'child_span': {'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}, 'color': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}], 'spans': [{'text': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'token_end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'type': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'label': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}], 'text': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'tokens': [{'text': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'start': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'end': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'id': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'ws': Value(dtype='bool', id=None), 'disabled': Value(dtype='bool', id=None)}]}
E           with type
E           struct<_input_hash: int64, _task_hash: int64, _view_id: string, answer: string, encoding__ids: list<item: int64>, encoding__offsets: list<item: list<item: int64>>, encoding__overflowing: list<item: null>, encoding__tokens: list<item: string>, encoding__words: list<item: int64>, ner_ids: list<item: int64>, ner_labels: list<item: string>, relations: list<item: struct<head: int64, child: int64, head_span: struct<start: int64, end: int64, token_start: int64, token_end: int64, label: string>, child_span: struct<start: int64, end: int64, token_start: int64, token_end: int64, label: string>, color: string, label: string>>, spans: list<item: struct<text: string, start: int64, token_start: int64, token_end: int64, end: int64, type: string, label: string>>, text: string, tokens: list<item: struct<text: string, start: int64, end: int64, id: int64, ws: bool, disabled: bool>>>

../../../../../.virtualenvs/tf_ner_rel_lib/lib/python3.8/site-packages/datasets/arrow_dataset.py:274: ValueError
```
## Versions
- Datasets: 1.6.1
- Python: 3.8.5 (default, Jan 26 2021, 10:01:04) 
[Clang 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.2)]
- Platform: macOS-10.15.7-x86_64-i386-64bit

```


Labels: name: bug

Thanks for reporting ! We're looking into it

I'm not able to reproduce this, do you think you can provide a code that creates a DatasetDict that has this issue when saving and reloading ?

Hi, I just ran into a similar error. Here is the minimal code to reproduce:
```python
from datasets import load_dataset, DatasetDict
ds = load_dataset('super_glue', 'multirc')

ds.save_to_disk('tempds')

ds = DatasetDict.load_from_disk('tempds')

```

```bash
Reusing dataset super_glue (/home/idahl/.cache/huggingface/datasets/super_glue/multirc/1.0.2/2fb163bca9085c1deb906aff20f00c242227ff704a4e8c9cfdfe820be3abfc83)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/idahl/eval-util-expl/multirc/tmp.py", line 7, in <module>
    ds = DatasetDict.load_from_disk('tempds')
  File "/home/idahl/miniconda3/envs/eval-util-expl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/dataset_dict.py", line 710, in load_from_disk
    dataset_dict[k] = Dataset.load_from_disk(dataset_dict_split_path, fs, keep_in_memory=keep_in_memory)
  File "/home/idahl/miniconda3/envs/eval-util-expl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/arrow_dataset.py", line 687, in load_from_disk
    return Dataset(
  File "/home/idahl/miniconda3/envs/eval-util-expl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/arrow_dataset.py", line 274, in __init__
    raise ValueError(
ValueError: External features info don't match the dataset:
Got
{'answer': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'idx': {'answer': Value(dtype='int32', id=None), 'paragraph': Value(dtype='int32', id=None), 'question': Value(dtype='int32', id=None)}, 'label': ClassLabel(num_classes=2, names=['False', 'True'], names_file=None, id=None), 'paragraph': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'question': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}
with type
struct<answer: string, idx: struct<answer: int32, paragraph: int32, question: int32>, label: int64, paragraph: string, question: string>

but expected something like
{'answer': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'idx': {'paragraph': Value(dtype='int32', id=None), 'question': Value(dtype='int32', id=None), 'answer': Value(dtype='int32', id=None)}, 'label': Value(dtype='int64', id=None), 'paragraph': Value(dtype='string', id=None), 'question': Value(dtype='string', id=None)}
with type
struct<answer: string, idx: struct<paragraph: int32, question: int32, answer: int32>, label: int64, paragraph: string, question: string>

```

The non-matching part seems to be
`'label': ClassLabel(num_classes=2, names=['False', 'True'], names_file=None, id=None),`
vs 
`'label': Value(dtype='int64', id=None),`

And the order in the `<struct...` being different, which might cause the [features.type != inferred_features.type](https://github.com/huggingface/datasets/blob/master/src/datasets/arrow_dataset.py#L274) condition to become true and raise this ValueError.


I am using datasets version 1.6.2.

Edit: can confirm, this works without error in version 1.5.0

My current workaround is to remove the idx feature:

```

from datasets import load_dataset, DatasetDict, Value
ds = load_dataset('super_glue', 'multirc')
ds = ds.remove_columns('idx')

ds.save_to_disk('tempds')

ds = DatasetDict.load_from_disk('tempds')

```

works.

It looks like this issue comes from the order of the fields in the 'idx' struct that is different for some reason.
I'm looking into it. Note that as a workaround you can also flatten the nested features with `ds = ds.flatten()`

I just pushed a fix on `master`. We'll do a new release soon !

Thanks for reporting

Hi! Triaging older issues this week — I couldn't reproduce this on the current `main` (datasets 4.8.6.dev0).

This report is about a schema-incompatibility regression between `datasets` 1.5 and 1.6 (April 2021). The save/load path has been significantly reworked since:

- `src/datasets/arrow_dataset.py` — `Dataset.save_to_disk` / `Dataset.load_from_disk` now go through a `state.json`-driven format with explicit feature serialization (`src/datasets/info.py` `DatasetInfo` dataclass at line ~139 owns the schema), so the 1.5↔1.6 transition this issue tracks is several years and dozens of releases behind.
- The current code path tests are in `tests/test_arrow_dataset.py` (search for `save_to_disk`, `load_from_disk`) and they exercise round-tripping including nested features.

If a similar `DatasetDict` save/load schema mismatch still happens on a recent release, would you mind sharing a minimal repro (`datasets` version, the `DatasetDict.save_to_disk` call, and the `load_from_disk` assertion failure)? Otherwise I'd suggest closing — happy to be wrong if I missed something.

(Disclosure: I drafted this comment with help from Claude Code while triaging stale issues; the references above were verified manually against the current `main` branch at commit 19302564.)