A validation method for the data shape

        Parameters
        ----------
        name: str or list of str
            The variable names (one variable per array)
        dims: list with length 1 or list of lists with length 1
            The dimension of the arrays. Only 1D-Arrays are allowed
        is_unstructured: bool or list of bool
            True if the corresponding array is unstructured.

        Returns
        -------
        %(Plotter.check_data.returns)s

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

        Parameters
        ----------
        name: str or list of str
            The variable names (one variable per array)
        dims: list with length 1 or list of lists with length 1
            The dimension of the arrays. Only 1D-Arrays are allowed
        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) or not is_iterable(name):
            name = [name]
            dims = [dims]
            is_unstructured = [is_unstructured]
        N = len(name)
        if N != 1:
            return [False] * N, [
                'Number of provided names (%i) must equal 1!' % (N)] * N
        elif len(dims) != 1:
            return [False], [
                'Number of provided dimension lists (%i) must equal 1!' % (
                    len(dims))]
        elif len(is_unstructured) != 1:
            return [False], [
                ('Number of provided unstructured information (%i) must '
                 'equal 1!') % (len(is_unstructured))]
        if name[0] != 0 and not name[0]:
            return [False], ['At least one variable name must be provided!']
        # unstructured arrays have only 1 dimension
        dimlen = cls.allowed_dims
        if is_unstructured[0]:
            dimlen -= 1
        # Check that the array is two-dimensional
        #
        # if more than one array name is provided, the dimensions should be
        # one les than dimlen to have a 2D array
        if (not isstring(name[0]) and not is_iterable(name[0])
                and len(name[0]) != 1 and len(dims[0]) != dimlen - 1):
            return [False], ['Only one name is allowed per array!']
        # otherwise the number of dimensions must equal dimlen
        if len(dims[0]) != dimlen:
            return [False], [
                'An array with dimension %i is required, not %i' % (
                    dimlen, len(dims[0]))]
        return [True], ['']