def check_data(self, ds, name, dims):
        """
        A validation method for the data shape

        Parameters
        ----------
        name: list of lists of strings
            The variable names (see the
            :meth:`~psyplot.plotter.Plotter.check_data` method of the
            :attr:`plotter_cls` attribute for details)
        dims: list of dictionaries
            The dimensions of the arrays. It will be enhanced by the default
            dimensions of this plot method
        is_unstructured: bool or list of bool
            True if the corresponding array is unstructured.

        Returns
        -------
        %(Plotter.check_data.returns)s
        """
        if isinstance(name, six.string_types):
            name = [name]
            dims = [dims]
        else:
            dims = list(dims)
        variables = [ds[safe_list(n)[0]] for n in name]
        decoders = [CFDecoder.get_decoder(ds, var) for var in variables]
        default_slice = slice(None) if self._default_slice is None else \
            self._default_slice
        for i, (dim_dict, var, decoder) in enumerate(zip(
                dims, variables, decoders)):
            corrected = decoder.correct_dims(var, dict(chain(
                six.iteritems(self._default_dims),
                dim_dict.items())))
            # now use the default slice (we don't do this before because the
            # `correct_dims` method doesn't use 'x', 'y', 'z' and 't' (as used
            # for the _default_dims) if the real dimension name is already in
            # the dictionary)
            for dim in var.dims:
                corrected.setdefault(dim, default_slice)
            dims[i] = [
                dim for dim, val in map(lambda t: (t[0], safe_list(t[1])),
                                        six.iteritems(corrected))
                if val and (len(val) > 1 or _is_slice(val[0]))]
        return self.plotter_cls.check_data(
            name, dims, [decoder.is_unstructured(var) for decoder, var in zip(
                decoders, variables)])