Numpy User PDF

NumPy User Guide
Release 1.19.0
Written by the NumPy community
June 29, 2020

CONTENTS
1 Setting up 3
2 Quickstart tutorial 9
3 NumPy: the absolute basics for beginners 33
4 NumPy basics 65
5 Miscellaneous 131
6 NumPy for Matlab users 137
7 Building from source 145
8 Using NumPy C-API 149
9 NumPy Tutorials 195
10 NumPy How Tos 205
Python Module Index 207
Index 209
i
ii
NumPy User Guide, Release 1.19.0
This guide is intended as an introductory overview of NumPy and explains how to install and make use of the most
important features of NumPy. For detailed reference documentation of the functions and classes contained in the package,
see the reference.
CONTENTS 1
2 CONTENTS
CHAPTER
ONE
SETTING UP
1.1 What is NumPy?
NumPy is the fundamental package for scientific computing in Python. It is a Python library that provides a multidi-
mensional array object, various derived objects (such as masked arrays and matrices), and an assortment of routines for
fast operations on arrays, including mathematical, logical, shape manipulation, sorting, selecting, I/O, discrete Fourier
transforms, basic linear algebra, basic statistical operations, random simulation and much more.
At the core of the NumPy package, is the ndarray object. This encapsulates n-dimensional arrays of homogeneous data
types, with many operations being performed in compiled code for performance. There are several important differences
between NumPy arrays and the standard Python sequences:
• NumPy arrays have a fixed size at creation, unlike Python lists (which can grow dynamically). Changing the size
of an ndarray will create a new array and delete the original.
• The elements in a NumPy array are all required to be of the same data type, and thus will be the same size in
memory. The exception: one can have arrays of (Python, including NumPy) objects, thereby allowing for arrays
of different sized elements.
• NumPy arrays facilitate advanced mathematical and other types of operations on large numbers of data. Typically,
such operations are executed more efficiently and with less code than is possible using Python’s built-in sequences.
• A growing plethora of scientific and mathematical Python-based packages are using NumPy arrays; though these
typically support Python-sequence input, they convert such input to NumPy arrays prior to processing, and they
often output NumPy arrays. In other words, in order to efficiently use much (perhaps even most) of today’s scien-
tific/mathematical Python-based software, just knowing how to use Python’s built-in sequence types is insufficient
- one also needs to know how to use NumPy arrays.
The points about sequence size and speed are particularly important in scientific computing. As a simple example, consider
the case of multiplying each element in a 1-D sequence with the corresponding element in another sequence of the same
length. If the data are stored in two Python lists, a and b, we could iterate over each element:
c = []
for i in range(len(a)):
c.append(a[i]*b[i])
This produces the correct answer, but if a and b each contain millions of numbers, we will pay the price for the inef-
ficiencies of looping in Python. We could accomplish the same task much more quickly in C by writing (for clarity we
neglect variable declarations and initializations, memory allocation, etc.)
for (i = 0; i < rows; i++): {

c[i] = a[i]*b[i];
}
3
This saves all the overhead involved in interpreting the Python code and manipulating Python objects, but at the expense
of the benefits gained from coding in Python. Furthermore, the coding work required increases with the dimensionality
of our data. In the case of a 2-D array, for example, the C code (abridged as before) expands to
for (i = 0; i < rows; i++): {

for (j = 0; j < columns; j++): {
c[i][j] = a[i][j]*b[i][j];
}
}
NumPy gives us the best of both worlds: element-by-element operations are the “default mode” when an ndarray is
involved, but the element-by-element operation is speedily executed by pre-compiled C code. In NumPy
c = a * b
does what the earlier examples do, at near-C speeds, but with the code simplicity we expect from something based on
Python. Indeed, the NumPy idiom is even simpler! This last example illustrates two of NumPy’s features which are the
basis of much of its power: vectorization and broadcasting.
1.1.1 Why is NumPy Fast?
Vectorization describes the absence of any explicit looping, indexing, etc., in the code - these things are taking place, of
course, just “behind the scenes” in optimized, pre-compiled C code. Vectorized code has many advantages, among which
are:
• vectorized code is more concise and easier to read
• fewer lines of code generally means fewer bugs
• the code more closely resembles standard mathematical notation (making it easier, typically, to correctly code
mathematical constructs)
• vectorization results in more “Pythonic” code. Without vectorization, our code would be littered with inefficient
and difficult to read for loops.
Broadcasting is the term used to describe the implicit element-by-element behavior of operations; generally speaking,
in NumPy all operations, not just arithmetic operations, but logical, bit-wise, functional, etc., behave in this implicit
element-by-element fashion, i.e., they broadcast. Moreover, in the example above, a and b could be multidimensional
arrays of the same shape, or a scalar and an array, or even two arrays of with different shapes, provided that the smaller
array is “expandable” to the shape of the larger in such a way that the resulting broadcast is unambiguous. For detailed
“rules” of broadcasting see numpy.doc.broadcasting.
1.1.2 Who Else Uses NumPy?
NumPy fully supports an object-oriented approach, starting, once again, with ndarray. For example, ndarray is a class,
possessing numerous methods and attributes. Many of its methods are mirrored by functions in the outer-most NumPy
namespace, allowing the programmer to code in whichever paradigm they prefer. This flexibility has allowed the NumPy
array dialect and NumPy ndarray class to become the de-facto language of multi-dimensional data interchange used in
Python.
4 Chapter 1. Setting up
1.2 Installing NumPy
In most use cases the best way to install NumPy on your system is by using a pre-built package for your operating system.
Please see https://scipy.org/install.html for links to available options.
For instructions on building for source package, see Building from source. This information is useful mainly for advanced
users.
1.3 Troubleshooting ImportError
Note: Since this information may be updated regularly, please ensure you are viewing the most up-to-date version.
1.3.1 ImportError
In certain cases a failed installation or setup issue can cause you to see the following error message:
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THIS FOR ADVICE ON HOW TO SOLVE THIS ISSUE!
Importing the numpy c-extensions failed. This error can happen for
different reasons, often due to issues with your setup.
The error also has additional information to help you troubleshoot:

• Your Python version
• Your NumPy version
Please check both of these carefully to see if they are what you expect. You may need to check your PATH or
PYTHONPATH environment variables (see Check Environment Variables below).
The following sections list commonly reported issues depending on your setup. If you have an issue/solution that you
think should appear please open a NumPy issue so that it will be added.
There are a few commonly reported issues depending on your system/setup. If none of the following tips help you, please
be sure to note the following:
• how you installed Python
• how you installed NumPy
• your operating system
• whether or not you have multiple versions of Python installed
• if you built from source, your compiler versions and ideally a build log
when investigating further and asking for support.
1.2. Installing NumPy 5

Using Python from conda (Anaconda)
Please make sure that you have activated your conda environment. See also the conda user-guide. If you use an external
editor/development environment it will have to be set up correctly. See below for solutions for some common setups.
Using PyCharm with Anaconda/conda Python
There are fairly common issues when using PyCharm together with Anaconda, please see the PyCharm support
Using VSCode with Anaconda/conda Python (or environments)
A commonly reported issue is related to the environment activation within VSCode. Please see the VSCode support for
information on how to correctly set up VSCode with virtual environments or conda.
Using Eclipse/PyDev with Anaconda/conda Python (or environments)
Please see the Anaconda Documentation on how to properly configure Eclipse/PyDev to use Anaconda Python with
specific conda environments.
Raspberry Pi
There are sometimes issues reported on Raspberry Pi setups when installing using pip3 install (or pip install).
These will typically mention:
libf77blas.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
The solution will be to either:
sudo apt-get install libatlas-base-dev
to install the missing libraries expected by the self-compiled NumPy (ATLAS is a possible provider of linear algebra).
Alternatively use the NumPy provided by Raspbian. In which case run:
pip3 uninstall numpy # remove previously installed version

apt install python3-numpy
Debug build on Windows
Rather than building your project in DEBUG mode on windows, try building in RELEASE mode with debug symbols and
no optimization. Full DEBUG mode on windows changes the names of the DLLs python expects to find, so if you wish
to truly work in DEBUG mode you will need to recompile the entire stack of python modules you work with including
NumPy
All Setups
Occasionally there may be simple issues with old or bad installations of NumPy. In this case you may just try to uninstall
and reinstall NumPy. Make sure that NumPy is not found after uninstalling.
Development Setup
If you are using a development setup, make sure to run git clean -xdf to delete all files not under version control
(be careful not to lose any modifications you made, e.g. site.cfg). In many cases files from old builds may lead to
incorrect builds.
Check Environment Variables
In general how to set and check your environment variables depends on your system. If you can open a correct python
shell, you can also run the following in python:
import os
print("PYTHONPATH:", os.environ.get('PYTHONPATH'))
print("PATH:", os.environ.get('PATH'))
This may mainly help you if you are not running the python and/or NumPy version you are expecting to run.
1.3. Troubleshooting ImportError 7

CHAPTER
TWO
QUICKSTART TUTORIAL
2.1 Prerequisites
Before reading this tutorial you should know a bit of Python. If you would like to refresh your memory, take a look at the
Python tutorial.
If you wish to work the examples in this tutorial, you must also have some software installed on your computer. Please
see https://scipy.org/install.html for instructions.
Learner profile
This tutorial is intended as a quick overview of algebra and arrays in NumPy and want to understand how n-dimensional
(n >= 2) arrays are represented and can be manipulated. In particular, if you don’t know how to apply common functions
to n-dimensional arrays (without using for-loops), or if you want to understand axis and shape properties for n-dimensional
arrays, this tutorial might be of help.
Learning Objectives
After this tutorial, you should be able to:
• Understand the difference between one-, two- and n-dimensional arrays in NumPy;
• Understand how to apply some linear algebra operations to n-dimensional arrays without using for-loops;
• Understand axis and shape properties for n-dimensional arrays.
2.2 The Basics
NumPy’s main object is the homogeneous multidimensional array. It is a table of elements (usually numbers), all of the
same type, indexed by a tuple of non-negative integers. In NumPy dimensions are called axes.
For example, the coordinates of a point in 3D space [1, 2, 1] has one axis. That axis has 3 elements in it, so we say
it has a length of 3. In the example pictured below, the array has 2 axes. The first axis has a length of 2, the second axis
has a length of 3.
[[ 1., 0., 0.],

[ 0., 1., 2.]]
NumPy’s array class is called ndarray. It is also known by the alias array. Note that numpy.array is not the
same as the Standard Python Library class array.array, which only handles one-dimensional arrays and offers less
functionality. The more important attributes of an ndarray object are:
ndarray.ndim
the number of axes (dimensions) of the array.
9
ndarray.shape
the dimensions of the array. This is a tuple of integers indicating the size of the array in each dimension. For a
matrix with n rows and m columns, shape will be (n,m). The length of the shape tuple is therefore the number
of axes, ndim.
ndarray.size
the total number of elements of the array. This is equal to the product of the elements of shape.
ndarray.dtype
an object describing the type of the elements in the array. One can create or specify dtype’s using standard Python
types. Additionally NumPy provides types of its own. numpy.int32, numpy.int16, and numpy.float64 are some
examples.
ndarray.itemsize
the size in bytes of each element of the array. For example, an array of elements of type float64 has itemsize
8 (=64/8), while one of type complex32 has itemsize 4 (=32/8). It is equivalent to ndarray.dtype.
itemsize.
ndarray.data
the buffer containing the actual elements of the array. Normally, we won’t need to use this attribute because we
will access the elements in an array using indexing facilities.
2.2.1 An example
>>> import numpy as np

>>> a = np.arange(15).reshape(3, 5)
>>> a
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
[ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9],
[10, 11, 12, 13, 14]])
>>> a.shape
(3, 5)
>>> a.ndim
2
>>> a.dtype.name
'int64'
>>> a.itemsize
8
>>> a.size
15
>>> type(a)
<class 'numpy.ndarray'>
>>> b = np.array([6, 7, 8])
>>> b
array([6, 7, 8])
>>> type(b)
10 Chapter 2. Quickstart tutorial

2.2.2 Array Creation
There are several ways to create arrays.

For example, you can create an array from a regular Python list or tuple using the array function. The type of the
resulting array is deduced from the type of the elements in the sequences.
>>> a = np.array([2,3,4])
>>> a
array([2, 3, 4])
>>> a.dtype
dtype('int64')
>>> b = np.array([1.2, 3.5, 5.1])
>>> b.dtype
dtype('float64')
A frequent error consists in calling array with multiple arguments, rather than providing a single sequence as an argu-
ment.
>>> a = np.array(1,2,3,4) # WRONG
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: array() takes from 1 to 2 positional arguments but 4 were given
>>> a = np.array([1,2,3,4]) # RIGHT
array transforms sequences of sequences into two-dimensional arrays, sequences of sequences of sequences into three-
dimensional arrays, and so on.
>>> b = np.array([(1.5,2,3), (4,5,6)])
>>> b
array([[1.5, 2. , 3. ],
[4. , 5. , 6. ]])
The type of the array can also be explicitly specified at creation time:
>>> c = np.array( [ [1,2], [3,4] ], dtype=complex )
>>> c
array([[1.+0.j, 2.+0.j],
[3.+0.j, 4.+0.j]])
Often, the elements of an array are originally unknown, but its size is known. Hence, NumPy offers several functions to
create arrays with initial placeholder content. These minimize the necessity of growing arrays, an expensive operation.
The function zeros creates an array full of zeros, the function ones creates an array full of ones, and the function
empty creates an array whose initial content is random and depends on the state of the memory. By default, the dtype
of the created array is float64.
>>> np.zeros((3, 4))
array([[0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0.]])
>>> np.ones( (2,3,4), dtype=np.int16 ) # dtype can also be specified
array([[[1, 1, 1, 1],
[1, 1, 1, 1],
[1, 1, 1, 1]],
[[1, 1, 1, 1],
(continues on next page)
2.2. The Basics 11

(continued from previous page)

[1, 1, 1, 1],
[1, 1, 1, 1]]], dtype=int16)
>>> np.empty( (2,3) ) # uninitialized
array([[ 3.73603959e-262, 6.02658058e-154, 6.55490914e-260], # may vary
[ 5.30498948e-313, 3.14673309e-307, 1.00000000e+000]])
To create sequences of numbers, NumPy provides the arange function which is analogous to the Python built-in range,
but returns an array.
>>> np.arange( 10, 30, 5 )

array([10, 15, 20, 25])
>>> np.arange( 0, 2, 0.3 ) # it accepts float arguments
array([0. , 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2, 1.5, 1.8])
When arange is used with floating point arguments, it is generally not possible to predict the number of elements
obtained, due to the finite floating point precision. For this reason, it is usually better to use the function linspace that
receives as an argument the number of elements that we want, instead of the step:
>>> from numpy import pi

>>> np.linspace( 0, 2, 9 ) # 9 numbers from 0 to 2
array([0. , 0.25, 0.5 , 0.75, 1. , 1.25, 1.5 , 1.75, 2. ])
>>> x = np.linspace( 0, 2*pi, 100 ) # useful to evaluate function at lots of␣
,→points
>>> f = np.sin(x)
See also:
array, zeros, zeros_like, ones, ones_like, empty, empty_like, arange, linspace,
numpy.random.Generator.rand, numpy.random.Generator.randn, fromfunction, fromfile
2.2.3 Printing Arrays
When you print an array, NumPy displays it in a similar way to nested lists, but with the following layout:
• the last axis is printed from left to right,
• the second-to-last is printed from top to bottom,
• the rest are also printed from top to bottom, with each slice separated from the next by an empty line.
One-dimensional arrays are then printed as rows, bidimensionals as matrices and tridimensionals as lists of matrices.
>>> a = np.arange(6) # 1d array

>>> print(a)
[0 1 2 3 4 5]
>>>
>>> b = np.arange(12).reshape(4,3) # 2d array
>>> print(b)
[[ 0 1 2]
[ 3 4 5]
[ 6 7 8]
[ 9 10 11]]
>>>
>>> c = np.arange(24).reshape(2,3,4) # 3d array
>>> print(c)
[[[ 0 1 2 3]


[ 4 5 6 7]
[ 8 9 10 11]]
[[12 13 14 15]
[16 17 18 19]
[20 21 22 23]]]
See below to get more details on reshape.

If an array is too large to be printed, NumPy automatically skips the central part of the array and only prints the corners:
>>> print(np.arange(10000))
[ 0 1 2 ... 9997 9998 9999]
>>>
>>> print(np.arange(10000).reshape(100,100))
[[ 0 1 2 ... 97 98 99]
[ 100 101 102 ... 197 198 199]
[ 200 201 202 ... 297 298 299]
...
[9700 9701 9702 ... 9797 9798 9799]
[9800 9801 9802 ... 9897 9898 9899]
[9900 9901 9902 ... 9997 9998 9999]]
To disable this behaviour and force NumPy to print the entire array, you can change the printing options using
set_printoptions.
>>> np.set_printoptions(threshold=sys.maxsize) # sys module should be imported
2.2.4 Basic Operations
Arithmetic operators on arrays apply elementwise. A new array is created and filled with the result.
>>> a = np.array( [20,30,40,50] )
>>> b = np.arange( 4 )
>>> b
array([0, 1, 2, 3])
>>> c = a-b
>>> c
array([20, 29, 38, 47])
>>> b**2
array([0, 1, 4, 9])
>>> 10*np.sin(a)
array([ 9.12945251, -9.88031624, 7.4511316 , -2.62374854])
>>> a<35
array([ True, True, False, False])
Unlike in many matrix languages, the product operator * operates elementwise in NumPy arrays. The matrix product
can be performed using the @ operator (in python >=3.5) or the dot function or method:
>>> A = np.array( [[1,1],
... [0,1]] )
>>> B = np.array( [[2,0],
... [3,4]] )
>>> A * B # elementwise product
array([[2, 0],
2.2. The Basics 13


[0, 4]])
>>> A @ B # matrix product
array([[5, 4],
[3, 4]])
>>> A.dot(B) # another matrix product
array([[5, 4],
[3, 4]])
Some operations, such as += and *=, act in place to modify an existing array rather than create a new one.
>>> rg = np.random.default_rng(1) # create instance of default random number␣

,→generator
>>> a = np.ones((2,3), dtype=int)

>>> b = rg.random((2,3))
>>> a *= 3
>>> a
array([[3, 3, 3],
[3, 3, 3]])
>>> b += a
>>> b
array([[3.51182162, 3.9504637 , 3.14415961],
[3.94864945, 3.31183145, 3.42332645]])
>>> a += b # b is not automatically converted to integer␣
,→type

...
numpy.core._exceptions.UFuncTypeError: Cannot cast ufunc 'add' output from dtype(
,→'float64') to dtype('int64') with casting rule 'same_kind'
When operating with arrays of different types, the type of the resulting array corresponds to the more general or precise
one (a behavior known as upcasting).
>>> a = np.ones(3, dtype=np.int32)

>>> b = np.linspace(0,pi,3)
>>> b.dtype.name
'float64'
>>> c = a+b
>>> c
array([1. , 2.57079633, 4.14159265])
>>> c.dtype.name
'float64'
>>> d = np.exp(c*1j)
>>> d
array([ 0.54030231+0.84147098j, -0.84147098+0.54030231j,
-0.54030231-0.84147098j])
>>> d.dtype.name
'complex128'
Many unary operations, such as computing the sum of all the elements in the array, are implemented as methods of the
ndarray class.
>>> a = rg.random((2,3))
>>> a
array([[0.82770259, 0.40919914, 0.54959369],
[0.02755911, 0.75351311, 0.53814331]])
>>> a.sum()


3.1057109529998157
>>> a.min()
0.027559113243068367
>>> a.max()
0.8277025938204418
By default, these operations apply to the array as though it were a list of numbers, regardless of its shape. However, by
specifying the axis parameter you can apply an operation along the specified axis of an array:
>>> b = np.arange(12).reshape(3,4)
>>> b
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3],
[ 4, 5, 6, 7],
[ 8, 9, 10, 11]])
>>>
>>> b.sum(axis=0) # sum of each column
array([12, 15, 18, 21])
>>>
>>> b.min(axis=1) # min of each row
array([0, 4, 8])
>>>
>>> b.cumsum(axis=1) # cumulative sum along each row
array([[ 0, 1, 3, 6],
[ 4, 9, 15, 22],
[ 8, 17, 27, 38]])
2.2.5 Universal Functions
NumPy provides familiar mathematical functions such as sin, cos, and exp. In NumPy, these are called “universal func-
tions”(ufunc). Within NumPy, these functions operate elementwise on an array, producing an array as output.
>>> B = np.arange(3)
>>> B
array([0, 1, 2])
>>> np.exp(B)
array([1. , 2.71828183, 7.3890561 ])
>>> np.sqrt(B)
array([0. , 1. , 1.41421356])
>>> C = np.array([2., -1., 4.])
>>> np.add(B, C)
array([2., 0., 6.])
See also:
all, any, apply_along_axis, argmax, argmin, argsort, average, bincount, ceil, clip, conj,
corrcoef, cov, cross, cumprod, cumsum, diff, dot, floor, inner, invert, lexsort, max, maximum,
mean, median, min, minimum, nonzero, outer, prod, re, round, sort, std, sum, trace, transpose,
var, vdot, vectorize, where
2.2. The Basics 15

2.2.6 Indexing, Slicing and Iterating
One-dimensional arrays can be indexed, sliced and iterated over, much like lists and other Python sequences.
>>> a = np.arange(10)**3
>>> a
array([ 0, 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729])
>>> a[2]
8
>>> a[2:5]
array([ 8, 27, 64])
# equivalent to a[0:6:2] = 1000;
# from start to position 6, exclusive, set every 2nd element to 1000
>>> a[:6:2] = 1000
>>> a
array([1000, 1, 1000, 27, 1000, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729])
>>> a[ : :-1] # reversed a
array([ 729, 512, 343, 216, 125, 1000, 27, 1000, 1, 1000])
>>> for i in a:
... print(i**(1/3.))
...
9.999999999999998
1.0
9.999999999999998
3.0
9.999999999999998
4.999999999999999
5.999999999999999
6.999999999999999
7.999999999999999
8.999999999999998
Multidimensional arrays can have one index per axis. These indices are given in a tuple separated by commas:
>>> def f(x,y):

... return 10*x+y
...
>>> b = np.fromfunction(f,(5,4),dtype=int)
>>> b
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3],
[10, 11, 12, 13],
[20, 21, 22, 23],
[30, 31, 32, 33],
[40, 41, 42, 43]])
>>> b[2,3]
23
>>> b[0:5, 1] # each row in the second column of b
array([ 1, 11, 21, 31, 41])
>>> b[ : ,1] # equivalent to the previous example
array([ 1, 11, 21, 31, 41])
>>> b[1:3, : ] # each column in the second and third row of b
array([[10, 11, 12, 13],
[20, 21, 22, 23]])
When fewer indices are provided than the number of axes, the missing indices are considered complete slices:
>>> b[-1] # the last row. Equivalent to b[-1,:]

array([40, 41, 42, 43])

The expression within brackets in b[i] is treated as an i followed by as many instances of : as needed to represent the
remaining axes. NumPy also allows you to write this using dots as b[i,...].
The dots (...) represent as many colons as needed to produce a complete indexing tuple. For example, if x is an array
with 5 axes, then
• x[1,2,...] is equivalent to x[1,2,:,:,:],
• x[...,3] to x[:,:,:,:,3] and
• x[4,...,5,:] to x[4,:,:,5,:].
>>> c = np.array( [[[ 0, 1, 2], # a 3D array (two stacked 2D arrays)

... [ 10, 12, 13]],
... [[100,101,102],
... [110,112,113]]])
>>> c.shape
(2, 2, 3)
>>> c[1,...] # same as c[1,:,:] or c[1]
array([[100, 101, 102],
[110, 112, 113]])
>>> c[...,2] # same as c[:,:,2]
array([[ 2, 13],
[102, 113]])
Iterating over multidimensional arrays is done with respect to the first axis:
>>> for row in b:

... print(row)
...
[0 1 2 3]
[10 11 12 13]
[20 21 22 23]
[30 31 32 33]
[40 41 42 43]
However, if one wants to perform an operation on each element in the array, one can use the flat attribute which is an
iterator over all the elements of the array:
>>> for element in b.flat:

... print(element)
...
0
1
2
3
10
11
12
13
20
21
22
23
30
31
32
33
40
2.2. The Basics 17


41
42
43
See also:
Indexing, arrays.indexing (reference), newaxis, ndenumerate, indices
2.3 Shape Manipulation
2.3.1 Changing the shape of an array
An array has a shape given by the number of elements along each axis:
>>> a = np.floor(10*rg.random((3,4)))
>>> a
array([[3., 7., 3., 4.],
[1., 4., 2., 2.],
[7., 2., 4., 9.]])
>>> a.shape
(3, 4)
The shape of an array can be changed with various commands. Note that the following three commands all return a
modified array, but do not change the original array:
>>> a.ravel() # returns the array, flattened

array([3., 7., 3., 4., 1., 4., 2., 2., 7., 2., 4., 9.])
>>> a.reshape(6,2) # returns the array with a modified shape
array([[3., 7.],
[3., 4.],
[1., 4.],
[2., 2.],
[7., 2.],
[4., 9.]])
>>> a.T # returns the array, transposed
array([[3., 1., 7.],
[7., 4., 2.],
[3., 2., 4.],
[4., 2., 9.]])
>>> a.T.shape
(4, 3)
>>> a.shape
(3, 4)
The order of the elements in the array resulting from ravel() is normally “C-style”, that is, the rightmost index “changes
the fastest”, so the element after a[0,0] is a[0,1]. If the array is reshaped to some other shape, again the array is treated
as “C-style”. NumPy normally creates arrays stored in this order, so ravel() will usually not need to copy its argument,
but if the array was made by taking slices of another array or created with unusual options, it may need to be copied.
The functions ravel() and reshape() can also be instructed, using an optional argument, to use FORTRAN-style arrays, in
which the leftmost index changes the fastest.
The reshape function returns its argument with a modified shape, whereas the ndarray.resize method modifies
the array itself:

>>> a
array([[3., 7., 3., 4.],
[1., 4., 2., 2.],
[7., 2., 4., 9.]])
>>> a.resize((2,6))
>>> a
array([[3., 7., 3., 4., 1., 4.],
[2., 2., 7., 2., 4., 9.]])
If a dimension is given as -1 in a reshaping operation, the other dimensions are automatically calculated:
>>> a.reshape(3,-1)
array([[3., 7., 3., 4.],
[1., 4., 2., 2.],
[7., 2., 4., 9.]])
See also:
ndarray.shape, reshape, resize, ravel
2.3.2 Stacking together different arrays
Several arrays can be stacked together along different axes:
>>> a
array([[9., 7.],
[5., 2.]])
>>> b = np.floor(10*rg.random((2,2)))
>>> b
array([[1., 9.],
[5., 1.]])
>>> np.vstack((a,b))
array([[9., 7.],
[5., 2.],
[1., 9.],
[5., 1.]])
>>> np.hstack((a,b))
array([[9., 7., 1., 9.],
[5., 2., 5., 1.]])
The function column_stack stacks 1D arrays as columns into a 2D array. It is equivalent to hstack only for 2D
arrays:
>>> from numpy import newaxis

>>> np.column_stack((a,b)) # with 2D arrays
array([[9., 7., 1., 9.],
[5., 2., 5., 1.]])
>>> a = np.array([4.,2.])
>>> b = np.array([3.,8.])
>>> np.column_stack((a,b)) # returns a 2D array
array([[4., 3.],
[2., 8.]])
>>> np.hstack((a,b)) # the result is different
array([4., 2., 3., 8.])
>>> a[:,newaxis] # view à` as a 2D column vector
2.3. Shape Manipulation 19


array([[4.],
[2.]])
>>> np.column_stack((a[:,newaxis],b[:,newaxis]))
array([[4., 3.],
[2., 8.]])
>>> np.hstack((a[:,newaxis],b[:,newaxis])) # the result is the same
array([[4., 3.],
[2., 8.]])
On the other hand, the function row_stack is equivalent to vstack for any input arrays. In fact, row_stack is an
alias for vstack:
>>> np.column_stack is np.hstack

False
>>> np.row_stack is np.vstack
True
In general, for arrays with more than two dimensions, hstack stacks along their second axes, vstack stacks along
their first axes, and concatenate allows for an optional arguments giving the number of the axis along which the
concatenation should happen.
Note
In complex cases, r_ and c_ are useful for creating arrays by stacking numbers along one axis. They allow the use of
range literals (“:”)
>>> np.r_[1:4,0,4]
array([1, 2, 3, 0, 4])
When used with arrays as arguments, r_ and c_ are similar to vstack and hstack in their default behavior, but allow
for an optional argument giving the number of the axis along which to concatenate.
See also:
hstack, vstack, column_stack, concatenate, c_, r_
2.3.3 Splitting one array into several smaller ones
Using hsplit, you can split an array along its horizontal axis, either by specifying the number of equally shaped arrays
to return, or by specifying the columns after which the division should occur:
>>> a
array([[6., 7., 6., 9., 0., 5., 4., 0., 6., 8., 5., 2.],
[8., 5., 5., 7., 1., 8., 6., 7., 1., 8., 1., 0.]])
# Split a into 3
>>> np.hsplit(a,3)
[array([[6., 7., 6., 9.],
[8., 5., 5., 7.]]), array([[0., 5., 4., 0.],
[1., 8., 6., 7.]]), array([[6., 8., 5., 2.],
[1., 8., 1., 0.]])]
# Split a after the third and the fourth column
>>> np.hsplit(a,(3,4))
[array([[6., 7., 6.],
[8., 5., 5.]]), array([[9.],


[7.]]), array([[0., 5., 4., 0., 6., 8., 5., 2.],
[1., 8., 6., 7., 1., 8., 1., 0.]])]
vsplit splits along the vertical axis, and array_split allows one to specify along which axis to split.
2.4 Copies and Views
When operating and manipulating arrays, their data is sometimes copied into a new array and sometimes not. This is
often a source of confusion for beginners. There are three cases:
2.4.1 No Copy at All
Simple assignments make no copy of objects or their data.
>>> a = np.array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3],

... [ 4, 5, 6, 7],
... [ 8, 9, 10, 11]])
>>> b = a # no new object is created
>>> b is a # a and b are two names for the same ndarray object
True
Python passes mutable objects as references, so function calls make no copy.
>>> def f(x):

... print(id(x))
...
>>> id(a) # id is a unique identifier of an object
148293216 # may vary
>>> f(a)
148293216 # may vary
2.4.2 View or Shallow Copy
Different array objects can share the same data. The view method creates a new array object that looks at the same data.
>>> c = a.view()
>>> c is a
False
>>> c.base is a # c is a view of the data owned by a
True
>>> c.flags.owndata
False
>>>
>>> c = c.reshape((2, 6)) # a's shape doesn't change
>>> a.shape
(3, 4)
>>> c[0, 4] = 1234 # a's data changes
>>> a
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3],
[1234, 5, 6, 7],
[ 8, 9, 10, 11]])
2.4. Copies and Views 21

Slicing an array returns a view of it:
>>> s = a[ : , 1:3] # spaces added for clarity; could also be written "s = a[:,␣
,→1:3]"
>>> s[:] = 10 # s[:] is a view of s. Note the difference between s = 10 and␣

,→s[:] = 10
>>> a
array([[ 0, 10, 10, 3],
[1234, 10, 10, 7],
[ 8, 10, 10, 11]])
2.4.3 Deep Copy
The copy method makes a complete copy of the array and its data.
>>> d = a.copy() # a new array object with new data is␣

,→created
>>> d is a
False
>>> d.base is a # d doesn't share anything with a
False
>>> d[0,0] = 9999
>>> a
array([[ 0, 10, 10, 3],
[1234, 10, 10, 7],
[ 8, 10, 10, 11]])
Sometimes copy should be called after slicing if the original array is not required anymore. For example, suppose a is
a huge intermediate result and the final result b only contains a small fraction of a, a deep copy should be made when
constructing b with slicing:
>>> a = np.arange(int(1e8))
>>> b = a[:100].copy()
>>> del a # the memory of `à`` can be released.
If b = a[:100] is used instead, a is referenced by b and will persist in memory even if del a is executed.
2.4.4 Functions and Methods Overview
Here is a list of some useful NumPy functions and methods names ordered in categories. See routines for the full list.
Array Creation
arange, array, copy, empty, empty_like, eye, fromfile, fromfunction, identity,
linspace, logspace, mgrid, ogrid, ones, ones_like, r_, zeros, zeros_like
Conversions
ndarray.astype, atleast_1d, atleast_2d, atleast_3d, mat
Manipulations
array_split, column_stack, concatenate, diagonal, dsplit, dstack, hsplit, hstack,
ndarray.item, newaxis, ravel, repeat, reshape, resize, squeeze, swapaxes, take,
transpose, vsplit, vstack

Questions
all, any, nonzero, where
Ordering
argmax, argmin, argsort, max, min, ptp, searchsorted, sort
Operations
choose, compress, cumprod, cumsum, inner, ndarray.fill, imag, prod, put, putmask, real,
sum
Basic Statistics
cov, mean, std, var
Basic Linear Algebra
cross, dot, outer, linalg.svd, vdot
2.5 Less Basic
2.5.1 Broadcasting rules
Broadcasting allows universal functions to deal in a meaningful way with inputs that do not have exactly the same shape.
The first rule of broadcasting is that if all input arrays do not have the same number of dimensions, a “1” will be repeatedly
prepended to the shapes of the smaller arrays until all the arrays have the same number of dimensions.
The second rule of broadcasting ensures that arrays with a size of 1 along a particular dimension act as if they had the
size of the array with the largest shape along that dimension. The value of the array element is assumed to be the same
along that dimension for the “broadcast” array.
After application of the broadcasting rules, the sizes of all arrays must match. More details can be found in Broadcasting.
2.6 Advanced indexing and index tricks
NumPy offers more indexing facilities than regular Python sequences. In addition to indexing by integers and slices, as
we saw before, arrays can be indexed by arrays of integers and arrays of booleans.
2.6.1 Indexing with Arrays of Indices
>>> a = np.arange(12)**2 # the first 12 square numbers

>>> i = np.array([1, 1, 3, 8, 5]) # an array of indices
>>> a[i] # the elements of a at the positions i
array([ 1, 1, 9, 64, 25])
>>>
>>> j = np.array([[3, 4], [9, 7]]) # a bidimensional array of indices
>>> a[j] # the same shape as j
array([[ 9, 16],
[81, 49]])
When the indexed array a is multidimensional, a single array of indices refers to the first dimension of a. The following
example shows this behavior by converting an image of labels into a color image using a palette.
2.5. Less Basic 23

>>> palette = np.array([[0, 0, 0], # black

... [255, 0, 0], # red
... [0, 255, 0], # green
... [0, 0, 255], # blue
... [255, 255, 255]]) # white
>>> image = np.array([[0, 1, 2, 0], # each value corresponds to a color in the␣
,→palette
... [0, 3, 4, 0]])

>>> palette[image] # the (2, 4, 3) color image
array([[[ 0, 0, 0],
[255, 0, 0],
[ 0, 255, 0],
[ 0, 0, 0]],
[[ 0, 0, 0],
[ 0, 0, 255],
[255, 255, 255],
[ 0, 0, 0]]])
We can also give indexes for more than one dimension. The arrays of indices for each dimension must have the same
shape.
>>> a = np.arange(12).reshape(3,4)
>>> a
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3],
[ 4, 5, 6, 7],
[ 8, 9, 10, 11]])
>>> i = np.array([[0, 1], # indices for the first dim of a
... [1, 2]])
>>> j = np.array([[2, 1], # indices for the second dim
... [3, 3]])
>>>
>>> a[i, j] # i and j must have equal shape
array([[ 2, 5],
[ 7, 11]])
>>>
>>> a[i, 2]
array([[ 2, 6],
[ 6, 10]])
>>>
>>> a[:, j] # i.e., a[ : , j]
array([[[ 2, 1],
[ 3, 3]],
[[ 6, 5],
[ 7, 7]],
[[10, 9],
[11, 11]]])
In Python, arr[i, j] is exactly the same as arr[(i, j)]—so we can put i and j in a tuple and then do the
indexing with that.
>>> l = (i, j)
# equivalent to a[i, j]
>>> a[l]
array([[ 2, 5],


[ 7, 11]])
However, we can not do this by putting i and j into an array, because this array will be interpreted as indexing the first
dimension of a.
>>> s = np.array([i, j])
# not what we want

>>> a[s]
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
IndexError: index 3 is out of bounds for axis 0 with size 3
# same as a[i, j]
>>> a[tuple(s)]
array([[ 2, 5],
[ 7, 11]])
Another common use of indexing with arrays is the search of the maximum value of time-dependent series:
>>> time = np.linspace(20, 145, 5) # time scale

>>> data = np.sin(np.arange(20)).reshape(5,4) # 4 time-dependent series
>>> time
array([ 20. , 51.25, 82.5 , 113.75, 145. ])
>>> data
array([[ 0. , 0.84147098, 0.90929743, 0.14112001],
[-0.7568025 , -0.95892427, -0.2794155 , 0.6569866 ],
[ 0.98935825, 0.41211849, -0.54402111, -0.99999021],
[-0.53657292, 0.42016704, 0.99060736, 0.65028784],
[-0.28790332, -0.96139749, -0.75098725, 0.14987721]])
# index of the maxima for each series

>>> ind = data.argmax(axis=0)
>>> ind
array([2, 0, 3, 1])
# times corresponding to the maxima

>>> time_max = time[ind]
>>>
>>> data_max = data[ind, range(data.shape[1])] # => data[ind[0],0], data[ind[1],1]...
>>> time_max
array([ 82.5 , 20. , 113.75, 51.25])
>>> data_max
array([0.98935825, 0.84147098, 0.99060736, 0.6569866 ])
>>> np.all(data_max == data.max(axis=0))

True
You can also use indexing with arrays as a target to assign to:
>>> a = np.arange(5)
>>> a
array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> a[[1,3,4]] = 0
>>> a
array([0, 0, 2, 0, 0])
2.6. Advanced indexing and index tricks 25

However, when the list of indices contains repetitions, the assignment is done several times, leaving behind the last value:
>>> a[[0,0,2]]=[1,2,3]
>>> a
array([2, 1, 3, 3, 4])
This is reasonable enough, but watch out if you want to use Python’s += construct, as it may not do what you expect:
>>> a[[0,0,2]]+=1
>>> a
array([1, 1, 3, 3, 4])
Even though 0 occurs twice in the list of indices, the 0th element is only incremented once. This is because Python
requires “a+=1” to be equivalent to “a = a + 1”.
2.6.2 Indexing with Boolean Arrays
When we index arrays with arrays of (integer) indices we are providing the list of indices to pick. With boolean indices
the approach is different; we explicitly choose which items in the array we want and which ones we don’t.
The most natural way one can think of for boolean indexing is to use boolean arrays that have the same shape as the
original array:
>>> b = a > 4
>>> b # b is a boolean with a's shape
array([[False, False, False, False],
[False, True, True, True],
[ True, True, True, True]])
>>> a[b] # 1d array with the selected elements
array([ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11])
This property can be very useful in assignments:
>>> a[b] = 0 # All elements of 'a' higher than 4␣

,→become 0
>>> a
array([[0, 1, 2, 3],
[4, 0, 0, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 0]])
You can look at the following example to see how to use boolean indexing to generate an image of the Mandelbrot set:

>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> def mandelbrot( h,w, maxit=20 ):
... """Returns an image of the Mandelbrot fractal of size (h,w)."""
... y,x = np.ogrid[ -1.4:1.4:h*1j, -2:0.8:w*1j ]
... c = x+y*1j
... z = c
... divtime = maxit + np.zeros(z.shape, dtype=int)
...
... for i in range(maxit):
... z = z**2 + c


... diverge = z*np.conj(z) > 2**2 # who is diverging
... div_now = diverge & (divtime==maxit) # who is diverging now
... divtime[div_now] = i # note when
... z[diverge] = 2 # avoid diverging too much
...
... return divtime
>>> plt.imshow(mandelbrot(400,400))
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 100 200 300
The second way of indexing with booleans is more similar to integer indexing; for each dimension of the array we give a
1D boolean array selecting the slices we want:
>>> b1 = np.array([False,True,True]) # first dim selection
>>> b2 = np.array([True,False,True,False]) # second dim selection
>>>
>>> a[b1,:] # selecting rows
array([[ 4, 5, 6, 7],
[ 8, 9, 10, 11]])
>>>
>>> a[b1] # same thing
array([[ 4, 5, 6, 7],
[ 8, 9, 10, 11]])
>>>
>>> a[:,b2] # selecting columns
array([[ 0, 2],
[ 4, 6],
[ 8, 10]])
>>>
>>> a[b1,b2] # a weird thing to do
array([ 4, 10])
Note that the length of the 1D boolean array must coincide with the length of the dimension (or axis) you want to slice.
In the previous example, b1 has length 3 (the number of rows in a), and b2 (of length 4) is suitable to index the 2nd axis
(columns) of a.
2.6. Advanced indexing and index tricks 27

2.6.3 The ix_() function
The ix_ function can be used to combine different vectors so as to obtain the result for each n-uplet. For example, if
you want to compute all the a+b*c for all the triplets taken from each of the vectors a, b and c:
>>> a = np.array([2,3,4,5])
>>> b = np.array([8,5,4])
>>> c = np.array([5,4,6,8,3])
>>> ax,bx,cx = np.ix_(a,b,c)
>>> ax
array([[[2]],
[[3]],
[[4]],
[[5]]])
>>> bx
array([[[8],
[5],
[4]]])
>>> cx
array([[[5, 4, 6, 8, 3]]])
>>> ax.shape, bx.shape, cx.shape
((4, 1, 1), (1, 3, 1), (1, 1, 5))
>>> result = ax+bx*cx
>>> result
array([[[42, 34, 50, 66, 26],
[27, 22, 32, 42, 17],
[22, 18, 26, 34, 14]],
[[43, 35, 51, 67, 27],

[28, 23, 33, 43, 18],
[23, 19, 27, 35, 15]],
[[44, 36, 52, 68, 28],

[29, 24, 34, 44, 19],
[24, 20, 28, 36, 16]],
[[45, 37, 53, 69, 29],

[30, 25, 35, 45, 20],
[25, 21, 29, 37, 17]]])
>>> result[3,2,4]
17
>>> a[3]+b[2]*c[4]
17
You could also implement the reduce as follows:
>>> def ufunc_reduce(ufct, *vectors):

... vs = np.ix_(*vectors)
... r = ufct.identity
... for v in vs:
... r = ufct(r,v)
... return r
and then use it as:

>>> ufunc_reduce(np.add,a,b,c)
array([[[15, 14, 16, 18, 13],
[12, 11, 13, 15, 10],
[11, 10, 12, 14, 9]],
[[16, 15, 17, 19, 14],

[13, 12, 14, 16, 11],
[12, 11, 13, 15, 10]],
[[17, 16, 18, 20, 15],

[14, 13, 15, 17, 12],
[13, 12, 14, 16, 11]],
[[18, 17, 19, 21, 16],

[15, 14, 16, 18, 13],
[14, 13, 15, 17, 12]]])
The advantage of this version of reduce compared to the normal ufunc.reduce is that it makes use of the Broadcasting
Rules in order to avoid creating an argument array the size of the output times the number of vectors.
2.6.4 Indexing with strings
See Structured arrays.
2.7 Linear Algebra
Work in progress. Basic linear algebra to be included here.
2.7.1 Simple Array Operations
See linalg.py in numpy folder for more.

>>> a = np.array([[1.0, 2.0], [3.0, 4.0]])
>>> print(a)
[[1. 2.]
[3. 4.]]
>>> a.transpose()
array([[1., 3.],
[2., 4.]])
>>> np.linalg.inv(a)
array([[-2. , 1. ],
[ 1.5, -0.5]])
>>> u = np.eye(2) # unit 2x2 matrix; "eye" represents "I"

>>> u
array([[1., 0.],
[0., 1.]])
>>> j = np.array([[0.0, -1.0], [1.0, 0.0]])
2.7. Linear Algebra 29


>>> j @ j # matrix product
array([[-1., 0.],
[ 0., -1.]])
>>> np.trace(u) # trace

2.0
>>> y = np.array([[5.], [7.]])

>>> np.linalg.solve(a, y)
array([[-3.],
[ 4.]])
>>> np.linalg.eig(j)
(array([0.+1.j, 0.-1.j]), array([[0.70710678+0.j , 0.70710678-0.j ],
[0. -0.70710678j, 0. +0.70710678j]]))
Parameters:
square matrix
Returns
The eigenvalues, each repeated according to its multiplicity.
The normalized (unit "length") eigenvectors, such that the
column ``v[:,i]`` is the eigenvector corresponding to the
eigenvalue ``w[i]`` .
2.8 Tricks and Tips
Here we give a list of short and useful tips.
2.8.1 “Automatic” Reshaping
To change the dimensions of an array, you can omit one of the sizes which will then be deduced automatically:
>>> b = a.reshape((2, -1, 3)) # -1 means "whatever is needed"
>>> b.shape
(2, 5, 3)
>>> b
array([[[ 0, 1, 2],
[ 3, 4, 5],
[ 6, 7, 8],
[ 9, 10, 11],
[12, 13, 14]],
[[15, 16, 17],

[18, 19, 20],
[21, 22, 23],
[24, 25, 26],
[27, 28, 29]]])

2.8.2 Vector Stacking
How do we construct a 2D array from a list of equally-sized row vectors? In MATLAB this is quite easy: if x and y are
two vectors of the same length you only need do m=[x;y]. In NumPy this works via the functions column_stack,
dstack, hstack and vstack, depending on the dimension in which the stacking is to be done. For example:
>>> x = np.arange(0,10,2)
>>> y = np.arange(5)
>>> m = np.vstack([x,y])
>>> m
array([[0, 2, 4, 6, 8],
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]])
>>> xy = np.hstack([x,y])
>>> xy
array([0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
The logic behind those functions in more than two dimensions can be strange.
See also:
NumPy for Matlab users
2.8.3 Histograms
The NumPy histogram function applied to an array returns a pair of vectors: the histogram of the array and a vector
of the bin edges. Beware: matplotlib also has a function to build histograms (called hist, as in Matlab) that differs
from the one in NumPy. The main difference is that pylab.hist plots the histogram automatically, while numpy.
histogram only generates the data.

>>> rg = np.random.default_rng(1)
>>> # Build a vector of 10000 normal deviates with variance 0.5^2 and mean 2
>>> mu, sigma = 2, 0.5
>>> v = rg.normal(mu,sigma,10000)
>>> # Plot a normalized histogram with 50 bins
>>> plt.hist(v, bins=50, density=1) # matplotlib version (plot)
>>> # Compute the histogram with numpy and then plot it
>>> (n, bins) = np.histogram(v, bins=50, density=True) # NumPy version (no plot)
>>> plt.plot(.5*(bins[1:]+bins[:-1]), n)
2.9 Further reading
• The Python tutorial

• reference
• SciPy Tutorial
• SciPy Lecture Notes
• A matlab, R, IDL, NumPy/SciPy dictionary
2.9. Further reading 31

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

CHAPTER
THREE
NUMPY: THE ABSOLUTE BASICS FOR BEGINNERS
Welcome to the absolute beginner’s guide to NumPy! If you have comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach
out!
3.1 Welcome to NumPy!
NumPy (Numerical Python) is an open source Python library that’s used in almost every field of science and engineering.
It’s the universal standard for working with numerical data in Python, and it’s at the core of the scientific Python and
PyData ecosystems. NumPy users include everyone from beginning coders to experienced researchers doing state-of-the-
art scientific and industrial research and development. The NumPy API is used extensively in Pandas, SciPy, Matplotlib,
scikit-learn, scikit-image and most other data science and scientific Python packages.
The NumPy library contains multidimensional array and matrix data structures (you’ll find more information about this
in later sections). It provides ndarray, a homogeneous n-dimensional array object, with methods to efficiently operate on
it. NumPy can be used to perform a wide variety of mathematical operations on arrays. It adds powerful data structures
to Python that guarantee efficient calculations with arrays and matrices and it supplies an enormous library of high-level
mathematical functions that operate on these arrays and matrices.
Learn more about NumPy here!
3.2 Installing NumPy
To install NumPy, we strongly recommend using a scientific Python distribution. If you’re looking for the full instructions
for installing NumPy on your operating system, you can find all of the details here.
If you already have Python, you can install NumPy with:
conda install numpy
or
pip install numpy
If you don’t have Python yet, you might want to consider using Anaconda. It’s the easiest way to get started. The good
thing about getting this distribution is the fact that you don’t need to worry too much about separately installing NumPy
or any of the major packages that you’ll be using for your data analyses, like pandas, Scikit-Learn, etc.
You can find all of the installation details in the Installation section at SciPy.
33
3.3 How to import NumPy
Any time you want to use a package or library in your code, you first need to make it accessible.
In order to start using NumPy and all of the functions available in NumPy, you’ll need to import it. This can be easily
done with this import statement:
import numpy as np
(We shorten numpy to np in order to save time and also to keep code standardized so that anyone working with your
code can easily understand and run it.)
3.4 Reading the example code
If you aren’t already comfortable with reading tutorials that contain a lot of code, you might not know how to interpret a
code block that looks like this:
>>> a2 = a[np.newaxis, :]
>>> a2.shape
(1, 6)
If you aren’t familiar with this style, it’s very easy to understand. If you see >>>, you’re looking at input, or the code
that you would enter. Everything that doesn’t have >>> in front of it is output, or the results of running your code. This
is the style you see when you run python on the command line, but if you’re using IPython, you might see a different
style.
3.5 What’s the difference between a Python list and a NumPy array?
NumPy gives you an enormous range of fast and efficient ways of creating arrays and manipulating numerical data inside
them. While a Python list can contain different data types within a single list, all of the elements in a NumPy array should
be homogenous. The mathematical operations that are meant to be performed on arrays would be extremely inefficient if
the arrays weren’t homogenous.
Why use NumPy?
NumPy arrays are faster and more compact than Python lists. An array consumes less memory and is convenient to use.
NumPy uses much less memory to store data and it provides a mechanism of specifying the data types. This allows the
code to be optimized even further.
3.6 What is an array?
An array is a central data structure of the NumPy library. An array is a grid of values and it contains information about
the raw data, how to locate an element, and how to interpret an element. It has a grid of elements that can be indexed in
various ways. The elements are all of the same type, referred to as the array dtype.
An array can be indexed by a tuple of nonnegative integers, by booleans, by another array, or by integers. The rank of
the array is the number of dimensions. The shape of the array is a tuple of integers giving the size of the array along
each dimension.
One way we can initialize NumPy arrays is from Python lists, using nested lists for two- or higher-dimensional data.
34 Chapter 3. NumPy: the absolute basics for beginners

For example:
>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
or:
>>> a = np.array([[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12]])
We can access the elements in the array using square brackets. When you’re accessing elements, remember that indexing
in NumPy starts at 0. That means that if you want to access the first element in your array, you’ll be accessing element
“0”.
>>> print(a[0])
[1 2 3 4]
3.7 More information about arrays
This section covers 1D array, 2D array, ndarray, vector, matrix
You might occasionally hear an array referred to as a “ndarray,” which is shorthand for “N-dimensional array.” An N-
dimensional array is simply an array with any number of dimensions. You might also hear 1-D, or one-dimensional array,
2-D, or two-dimensional array, and so on. The NumPy ndarray class is used to represent both matrices and vectors. A
vector is an array with a single dimension (there’s no difference between row and column vectors), while a matrix refers
to an array with two dimensions. For 3-D or higher dimensional arrays, the term tensor is also commonly used.
What are the attributes of an array?
An array is usually a fixed-size container of items of the same type and size. The number of dimensions and items in
an array is defined by its shape. The shape of an array is a tuple of non-negative integers that specify the sizes of each
dimension.
In NumPy, dimensions are called axes. This means that if you have a 2D array that looks like this:
[[0., 0., 0.],

[1., 1., 1.]]
Your array has 2 axes. The first axis has a length of 2 and the second axis has a length of 3.
Just like in other Python container objects, the contents of an array can be accessed and modified by indexing or slicing
the array. Unlike the typical container objects, different arrays can share the same data, so changes made on one array
might be visible in another.
Array attributes reflect information intrinsic to the array itself. If you need to get, or even set, properties of an array
without creating a new array, you can often access an array through its attributes.
Read more about array attributes here and learn about array objects here.
3.7. More information about arrays 35

3.8 How to create a basic array
This section covers np.array(), np.zeros(), np.ones(), np.empty(), np.arange(), np.

linspace(), dtype
To create a NumPy array, you can use the function np.array().

All you need to do to create a simple array is pass a list to it. If you choose to, you can also specify the type of data in
your list. You can find more information about data types here.

>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3])
You can visualize your array this way:
Be aware that these visualizations are meant to simplify ideas and give you a basic understanding of NumPy concepts and
mechanics. Arrays and array operations are much more complicated than are captured here!
Besides creating an array from a sequence of elements, you can easily create an array filled with 0’s:
>>> np.zeros(2)
array([0., 0.])
Or an array filled with 1’s:
>>> np.ones(2)
array([1., 1.])
Or even an empty array! The function empty creates an array whose initial content is random and depends on the state
of the memory. The reason to use empty over zeros (or something similar) is speed - just make sure to fill every
element afterwards!
>>> # Create an empty array with 2 elements

>>> np.empty(2)
array([ 3.14, 42. ]) # may vary
You can create an array with a range of elements:
>>> np.arange(4)
array([0, 1, 2, 3])
And even an array that contains a range of evenly spaced intervals. To do this, you will specify the first number, last
number, and the step size.
>>> np.arange(2, 9, 2)
array([2, 4, 6, 8])

You can also use np.linspace() to create an array with values that are spaced linearly in a specified interval:
>>> np.linspace(0, 10, num=5)

array([ 0. , 2.5, 5. , 7.5, 10. ])
Specifying your data type

While the default data type is floating point (np.float64), you can explicitly specify which data type you want using
the dtype keyword.
>>> x = np.ones(2, dtype=np.int64)

>>> x
array([1, 1])
Learn more about creating arrays here
3.9 Adding, removing, and sorting elements
This section covers np.sort(), np.concatenate()
Sorting an element is simple with np.sort(). You can specify the axis, kind, and order when you call the function.
If you start with this array:
>>> arr = np.array([2, 1, 5, 3, 7, 4, 6, 8])
You can quickly sort the numbers in ascending order with:
>>> np.sort(arr)
array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])
In addition to sort, which returns a sorted copy of an array, you can use:
• argsort, which is an indirect sort along a specified axis,
• lexsort, which is an indirect stable sort on multiple keys,
• searchsorted, which will find elements in a sorted array, and
• partition, which is a partial sort.
To read more about sorting an array, see: sort.
If you start with these arrays:
>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4])

>>> b = np.array([5, 6, 7, 8])
You can concatenate them with np.concatenate().
>>> np.concatenate((a, b))

array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])
Or, if you start with these arrays:
>>> x = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4]])

>>> y = np.array([[5, 6]])
3.9. Adding, removing, and sorting elements 37

You can concatenate them with:
>>> np.concatenate((x, y), axis=0)

array([[1, 2],
[3, 4],
[5, 6]])
In order to remove elements from an array, it’s simple to use indexing to select the elements that you want to keep.
To read more about concatenate, see: concatenate.
3.10 How do you know the shape and size of an array?
This section covers ndarray.ndim, ndarray.size, ndarray.shape
ndarray.ndim will tell you the number of axes, or dimensions, of the array.
ndarray.size will tell you the total number of elements of the array. This is the product of the elements of the array’s
shape.
ndarray.shape will display a tuple of integers that indicate the number of elements stored along each dimension of
the array. If, for example, you have a 2-D array with 2 rows and 3 columns, the shape of your array is (2, 3).
For example, if you create this array:
>>> array_example = np.array([[[0, 1, 2, 3],

... [4, 5, 6, 7]],
...
... [[0, 1, 2, 3],
... [4, 5, 6, 7]],
...
... [[0 ,1 ,2, 3],
... [4, 5, 6, 7]]])
To find the number of dimensions of the array, run:
>>> array_example.ndim
3
To find the total number of elements in the array, run:
>>> array_example.size
24
And to find the shape of your array, run:
>>> array_example.shape
(3, 2, 4)

3.11 Can you reshape an array?
This section covers arr.reshape()
Yes!
Using arr.reshape() will give a new shape to an array without changing the data. Just remember that when you use
the reshape method, the array you want to produce needs to have the same number of elements as the original array. If
you start with an array with 12 elements, you’ll need to make sure that your new array also has a total of 12 elements.
>>> print(a)
[0 1 2 3 4 5]
You can use reshape() to reshape your array. For example, you can reshape this array to an array with three rows and
two columns:
>>> b = a.reshape(3, 2)
>>> print(b)
[[0 1]
[2 3]
[4 5]]
With np.reshape, you can specify a few optional parameters:
>>> numpy.reshape(a, newshape=(1, 6), order='C')

array([[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]])
a is the array to be reshaped.

newshape is the new shape you want. You can specify an integer or a tuple of integers. If you specify an integer, the
result will be an array of that length. The shape should be compatible with the original shape.
order: C means to read/write the elements using C-like index order, F means to read/write the elements using Fortran-
like index order, A means to read/write the elements in Fortran-like index order if a is Fortran contiguous in memory,
C-like order otherwise. (This is an optional parameter and doesn’t need to be specified.)
If you want to learn more about C and Fortran order, you can read more about the internal organization of NumPy arrays
here. Essentially, C and Fortran orders have to do with how indices correspond to the order the array is stored in memory.
In Fortran, when moving through the elements of a two-dimensional array as it is stored in memory, the first index is the
most rapidly varying index. As the first index moves to the next row as it changes, the matrix is stored one column at a
time. This is why Fortran is thought of as a Column-major language. In C on the other hand, the last index changes the
most rapidly. The matrix is stored by rows, making it a Row-major language. What you do for C or Fortran depends
on whether it’s more important to preserve the indexing convention or not reorder the data.
Learn more about shape manipulation here.
3.11. Can you reshape an array? 39

3.12 How to convert a 1D array into a 2D array (how to add a new axis
to an array)
This section covers np.newaxis, np.expand_dims
You can use np.newaxis and np.expand_dims to increase the dimensions of your existing array.
Using np.newaxis will increase the dimensions of your array by one dimension when used once. This means that a
1D array will become a 2D array, a 2D array will become a 3D array, and so on.
For example, if you start with this array:
>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])

>>> a.shape
(6,)
You can use np.newaxis to add a new axis:
>>> a2 = a[np.newaxis, :]
>>> a2.shape
(1, 6)
You can explicitly convert a 1D array with either a row vector or a column vector using np.newaxis. For example,
you can convert a 1D array to a row vector by inserting an axis along the first dimension:
>>> row_vector = a[np.newaxis, :]

>>> row_vector.shape
(1, 6)
Or, for a column vector, you can insert an axis along the second dimension:
>>> col_vector = a[:, np.newaxis]

>>> col_vector.shape
(6, 1)
You can also expand an array by inserting a new axis at a specified position with np.expand_dims.
>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])

>>> a.shape
(6,)
You can use np.expand_dims to add an axis at index position 1 with:
>>> b = np.expand_dims(a, axis=1)

>>> b.shape
(6, 1)
You can add an axis at index position 0 with:
>>> c = np.expand_dims(a, axis=0)

>>> c.shape
(1, 6)
Find more information about newaxis here and expand_dims at expand_dims.

3.13 Indexing and slicing
You can index and slice NumPy arrays in the same ways you can slice Python lists.
>>> data = np.array([1, 2, 3])
>>> data[1]
2
>>> data[0:2]
array([1, 2])
>>> data[1:]
array([2, 3])
>>> data[-2:]
array([2, 3])
You can visualize it this way:
You may want to take a section of your array or specific array elements to use in further analysis or additional operations.
To do that, you’ll need to subset, slice, and/or index your arrays.
If you want to select values from your array that fulfill certain conditions, it’s straightforward with NumPy.
>>> a = np.array([[1 , 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12]])
You can easily print all of the values in the array that are less than 5.
>>> print(a[a < 5])

[1 2 3 4]
You can also select, for example, numbers that are equal to or greater than 5, and use that condition to index an array.
>>> five_up = (a >= 5)

>>> print(a[five_up])
[ 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
You can select elements that are divisible by 2:
>>> divisible_by_2 = a[a%2==0]

>>> print(divisible_by_2)
[ 2 4 6 8 10 12]
Or you can select elements that satisfy two conditions using the & and | operators:
3.13. Indexing and slicing 41

>>> c = a[(a > 2) & (a < 11)]

>>> print(c)
[ 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10]
You can also make use of the logical operators & and | in order to return boolean values that specify whether or not the
values in an array fulfill a certain condition. This can be useful with arrays that contain names or other categorical values.
>>> five_up = (a > 5) | (a == 5)

>>> print(five_up)
[[False False False False]
[ True True True True]
[ True True True True]]
You can also use np.nonzero() to select elements or indices from an array.
Starting with this array:
>>> a = np.array([[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12]])
You can use np.nonzero() to print the indices of elements that are, for example, less than 5:
>>> b = np.nonzero(a < 5)

>>> print(b)
(array([0, 0, 0, 0]), array([0, 1, 2, 3]))
In this example, a tuple of arrays was returned: one for each dimension. The first array represents the row indices where
these values are found, and the second array represents the column indices where the values are found.
If you want to generate a list of coordinates where the elements exist, you can zip the arrays, iterate over the list of
coordinates, and print them. For example:
>>> list_of_coordinates= list(zip(b[0], b[1]))
>>> for coord in list_of_coordinates:

... print(coord)
(0, 0)
(0, 1)
(0, 2)
(0, 3)
You can also use np.nonzero() to print the elements in an array that are less than 5 with:
>>> print(a[b])
[1 2 3 4]
If the element you’re looking for doesn’t exist in the array, then the returned array of indices will be empty. For example:
>>> not_there = np.nonzero(a == 42)

>>> print(not_there)
(array([], dtype=int64), array([], dtype=int64))
Learn more about indexing and slicing here and here.

Read more about using the nonzero function at: nonzero.

3.14 How to create an array from existing data
This section covers slicing and indexing, np.vstack(), np.hstack(), np.hsplit(), .view(),
copy()
You can easily use create a new array from a section of an existing array.
Let’s say you have this array:
>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10])
You can create a new array from a section of your array any time by specifying where you want to slice your array.
>>> arr1 = a[3:8]

>>> arr1
array([4, 5, 6, 7, 8])
Here, you grabbed a section of your array from index position 3 through index position 8.
You can also stack two existing arrays, both vertically and horizontally. Let’s say you have two arrays, a1 and a2:
>>> a1 = np.array([[1, 1],

... [2, 2]])
>>> a2 = np.array([[3, 3],

... [4, 4]])
You can stack them vertically with vstack:
>>> np.vstack((a1, a2))

array([[1, 1],
[2, 2],
[3, 3],
[4, 4]])
Or stack them horizontally with hstack:
>>> np.hstack((a1, a2))

array([[1, 1, 3, 3],
[2, 2, 4, 4]])
You can split an array into several smaller arrays using hsplit. You can specify either the number of equally shaped
arrays to return or the columns after which the division should occur.
Let’s say you have this array:
>>> x = np.arange(1, 25).reshape(2, 12)

>>> x
array([[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12],
[13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24]])
If you wanted to split this array into three equally shaped arrays, you would run:
>>> np.hsplit(x, 3)
[array([[1, 2, 3, 4],
[13, 14, 15, 16]]), array([[ 5, 6, 7, 8],
3.14. How to create an array from existing data 43


[17, 18, 19, 20]]), array([[ 9, 10, 11, 12],
[21, 22, 23, 24]])]
If you wanted to split your array after the third and fourth column, you’d run:
>>> np.hsplit(x, (3, 4))

[array([[1, 2, 3],
[13, 14, 15]]), array([[ 4],
[16]]), array([[ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12],
[17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24]])]
Learn more about stacking and splitting arrays here.

You can use the view method to create a new array object that looks at the same data as the original array (a shallow
copy).
Views are an important NumPy concept! NumPy functions, as well as operations like indexing and slicing, will return
views whenever possible. This saves memory and is faster (no copy of the data has to be made). However it’s important
to be aware of this - modifying data in a view also modifies the original array!
Let’s say you create this array:
>>> a = np.array([[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12]])
Now we create an array b1 by slicing a and modify the first element of b1. This will modify the corresponding element
in a as well!
>>> b1 = a[0, :]
>>> b1
array([1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> b1[0] = 99
>>> b1
array([99, 2, 3, 4])
>>> a
array([[99, 2, 3, 4],
[ 5, 6, 7, 8],
[ 9, 10, 11, 12]])
Using the copy method will make a complete copy of the array and its data (a deep copy). To use this on your array, you
could run:
>>> b2 = a.copy()
Learn more about copies and views here.
3.15 Basic array operations
This section covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and more
Once you’ve created your arrays, you can start to work with them. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve created two arrays,
one called “data” and one called “ones”

You can add the arrays together with the plus sign.
>>> data = np.array([1, 2])

>>> ones = np.ones(2, dtype=int)
>>> data + ones
array([2, 3])
You can, of course, do more than just addition!
>>> data - ones

array([0, 1])
>>> data * data
array([1, 4])
>>> data / data
array([1., 1.])
Basic operations are simple with NumPy. If you want to find the sum of the elements in an array, you’d use sum(). This
works for 1D arrays, 2D arrays, and arrays in higher dimensions.
>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> a.sum()
10
To add the rows or the columns in a 2D array, you would specify the axis.
3.15. Basic array operations 45

>>> b = np.array([[1, 1], [2, 2]])
You can sum the rows with:
>>> b.sum(axis=0)
array([3, 3])
You can sum the columns with:
>>> b.sum(axis=1)
array([2, 4])
Learn more about basic operations here.
3.16 Broadcasting
There are times when you might want to carry out an operation between an array and a single number (also called an
operation between a vector and a scalar) or between arrays of two different sizes. For example, your array (we’ll call it
“data”) might contain information about distance in miles but you want to convert the information to kilometers. You can
perform this operation with:
>>> data = np.array([1.0, 2.0])

>>> data * 1.6
array([1.6, 3.2])
NumPy understands that the multiplication should happen with each cell. That concept is called broadcasting. Broad-
casting is a mechanism that allows NumPy to perform operations on arrays of different shapes. The dimensions of your
array must be compatible, for example, when the dimensions of both arrays are equal or when one of them is 1. If the
dimensions are not compatible, you will get a ValueError.
Learn more about broadcasting here.
3.17 More useful array operations
This section covers maximum, minimum, sum, mean, product, standard deviation, and more
NumPy also performs aggregation functions. In addition to min, max, and sum, you can easily run mean to get the
average, prod to get the result of multiplying the elements together, std to get the standard deviation, and more.

>>> data.max()
2.0
>>> data.min()
1.0
>>> data.sum()
3.0
Let’s start with this array, called “a”
>>> a = np.array([[0.45053314, 0.17296777, 0.34376245, 0.5510652],

... [0.54627315, 0.05093587, 0.40067661, 0.55645993],
... [0.12697628, 0.82485143, 0.26590556, 0.56917101]])
It’s very common to want to aggregate along a row or column. By default, every NumPy aggregation function will return
the aggregate of the entire array. To find the sum or the minimum of the elements in your array, run:
>>> a.sum()
4.8595784
Or:
>>> a.min()
0.05093587
You can specify on which axis you want the aggregation function to be computed. For example, you can find the minimum
value within each column by specifying axis=0.
>>> a.min(axis=0)
array([0.12697628, 0.05093587, 0.26590556, 0.5510652 ])
The four values listed above correspond to the number of columns in your array. With a four-column array, you will get
four values as your result.
Read more about array methods here.
3.18 Creating matrices
You can pass Python lists of lists to create a 2-D array (or “matrix”) to represent them in NumPy.
>>> data = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4]])

>>> data
array([[1, 2],
[3, 4]])
3.18. Creating matrices 47

Indexing and slicing operations are useful when you’re manipulating matrices:
>>> data[0, 1]
2
>>> data[1:3]
array([[3, 4]])
>>> data[0:2, 0]
array([1, 3])
You can aggregate matrices the same way you aggregated vectors:
>>> data.max()
4
>>> data.min()
1
>>> data.sum()
10
You can aggregate all the values in a matrix and you can aggregate them across columns or rows using the axis parameter:
>>> data.max(axis=0)
array([3, 4])
>>> data.max(axis=1)
array([2, 4])

Once you’ve created your matrices, you can add and multiply them using arithmetic operators if you have two matrices
that are the same size.
>>> data = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4]])

>>> ones = np.array([[1, 1], [1, 1]])
>>> data + ones
array([[2, 3],
[4, 5]])
You can do these arithmetic operations on matrices of different sizes, but only if one matrix has only one column or one
row. In this case, NumPy will use its broadcast rules for the operation.
>>> data = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]])

>>> ones_row = np.array([[1, 1]])
>>> data + ones_row
array([[2, 3],
[4, 5],
[6, 7]])
Be aware that when NumPy prints N-dimensional arrays, the last axis is looped over the fastest while the first axis is the
slowest. For instance:
>>> np.ones((4, 3, 2))

array([[[1., 1.],
3.18. Creating matrices 49


[1., 1.],
[1., 1.]],
[[1., 1.],
[1., 1.],
[1., 1.]],
[[1., 1.],
[1., 1.],
[1., 1.]],
[[1., 1.],
[1., 1.],
[1., 1.]]])
There are often instances where we want NumPy to initialize the values of an array. NumPy offers functions like ones()
and zeros(), and the random.Generator class for random number generation for that. All you need to do is pass
in the number of elements you want it to generate:
>>> np.ones(3)
array([1., 1., 1.])
>>> np.zeros(3)
array([0., 0., 0.])
# the simplest way to generate random numbers
>>> rng = np.random.default_rng(0)
>>> rng.random(3)
array([0.63696169, 0.26978671, 0.04097352])
You can also use ones(), zeros(), and random() to create a 2D array if you give them a tuple describing the
dimensions of the matrix:
>>> np.ones((3, 2))

array([[1., 1.],
[1., 1.],
[1., 1.]])
>>> np.zeros((3, 2))
array([[0., 0.],


[0., 0.],
[0., 0.]])
>>> rng.random((3, 2))
array([[0.01652764, 0.81327024],
[0.91275558, 0.60663578],
[0.72949656, 0.54362499]]) # may vary
Read more about creating arrays, filled with 0’s, 1’s, other values or uninitialized, at array creation routines.
3.19 Generating random numbers
The use of random number generation is an important part of the configuration and evaluation of many numerical and
machine learning algorithms. Whether you need to randomly initialize weights in an artificial neural network, split data
into random sets, or randomly shuffle your dataset, being able to generate random numbers (actually, repeatable pseudo-
random numbers) is essential.
With Generator.integers, you can generate random integers from low (remember that this is inclusive with
NumPy) to high (exclusive). You can set endpoint=True to make the high number inclusive.
You can generate a 2 x 4 array of random integers between 0 and 4 with:
>>> rng.integers(5, size=(2, 4))

array([[2, 1, 1, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 4]]) # may vary
Read more about random number generation here.
3.20 How to get unique items and counts
This section covers np.unique()
You can find the unique elements in an array easily with np.unique.
>>> a = np.array([11, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 12, 13, 11, 14, 18, 19, 20])
you can use np.unique to print the unique values in your array:
3.19. Generating random numbers 51

>>> unique_values = np.unique(a)

>>> print(unique_values)
[11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20]
To get the indices of unique values in a NumPy array (an array of first index positions of unique values in the array), just
pass the return_index argument in np.unique() as well as your array.
>>> unique_values, indices_list = np.unique(a, return_index=True)

>>> print(indices_list)
[ 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 13 14]
You can pass the return_counts argument in np.unique() along with your array to get the frequency count of
unique values in a NumPy array.
>>> unique_values, occurrence_count = np.unique(a, return_counts=True)

>>> print(occurrence_count)
[3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1]
This also works with 2D arrays! If you start with this array:
>>> a_2d = np.array([[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12], [1, 2, 3, 4]])
You can find unique values with:
>>> unique_values = np.unique(a_2d)

>>> print(unique_values)
[ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
If the axis argument isn’t passed, your 2D array will be flattened.

If you want to get the unique rows or columns, make sure to pass the axis argument. To find the unique rows, specify
axis=0 and for columns, specify axis=1.
>>> unique_rows = np.unique(a_2d, axis=0)

>>> print(unique_rows)
[[ 1 2 3 4]
[ 5 6 7 8]
[ 9 10 11 12]]
To get the unique rows, index position, and occurrence count, you can use:
>>> unique_rows, indices, occurrence_count = np.unique(

... a_2d, axis=0, return_counts=True, return_index=True)
>>> print(unique_rows)
[[ 1 2 3 4]
[ 5 6 7 8]
[ 9 10 11 12]]
>>> print(indices)
[0 1 2]
>>> print(occurrence_count)
[2 1 1]
To learn more about finding the unique elements in an array, see unique.

3.21 Transposing and reshaping a matrix
This section covers arr.reshape(), arr.transpose(), arr.T()
It’s common to need to transpose your matrices. NumPy arrays have the property T that allows you to transpose a matrix.
You may also need to switch the dimensions of a matrix. This can happen when, for example, you have a model that
expects a certain input shape that is different from your dataset. This is where the reshape method can be useful. You
simply need to pass in the new dimensions that you want for the matrix.
>>> data.reshape(2, 3)
array([[1, 2, 3],
[4, 5, 6]])
>>> data.reshape(3, 2)
array([[1, 2],
[3, 4],
[5, 6]])
You can also use .transpose to reverse or change the axes of an array according to the values you specify.
>>> arr = np.arange(6).reshape((2, 3))

>>> arr
array([[0, 1, 2],
[3, 4, 5]])
You can transpose your array with arr.transpose().
3.21. Transposing and reshaping a matrix 53

>>> arr.transpose()
array([[0, 3],
[1, 4],
[2, 5]])
To learn more about transposing and reshaping arrays, see transpose and reshape.
3.22 How to reverse an array
This section covers np.flip
NumPy’s np.flip() function allows you to flip, or reverse, the contents of an array along an axis. When using np.
flip, specify the array you would like to reverse and the axis. If you don’t specify the axis, NumPy will reverse the
contents along all of the axes of your input array.
Reversing a 1D array
If you begin with a 1D array like this one:
>>> arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])
You can reverse it with:
>>> reversed_arr = np.flip(arr)
If you want to print your reversed array, you can run:
>>> print('Reversed Array: ', reversed_arr)

Reversed Array: [8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1]
Reversing a 2D array
A 2D array works much the same way.
>>> arr_2d = np.array([[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12]])
You can reverse the content in all of the rows and all of the columns with:
>>> reversed_arr = np.flip(arr_2d)

>>> print(reversed_arr)
[[12 11 10 9]
[ 8 7 6 5]
[ 4 3 2 1]]
You can easily reverse only the rows with:
>>> reversed_arr_rows = np.flip(arr_2d, axis=0)

>>> print(reversed_arr_rows)
[[ 9 10 11 12]
[ 5 6 7 8]
[ 1 2 3 4]]
Or reverse only the columns with:

>>> reversed_arr_columns = np.flip(arr_2d, axis=1)

>>> print(reversed_arr_columns)
[[ 4 3 2 1]
[ 8 7 6 5]
[12 11 10 9]]
You can also reverse the contents of only one column or row. For example, you can reverse the contents of the row at
index position 1 (the second row):
>>> arr_2d[1] = np.flip(arr_2d[1])
>>> print(arr_2d)
[[ 1 2 3 4]
[ 8 7 6 5]
[ 9 10 11 12]]
You can also reverse the column at index position 1 (the second column):
>>> arr_2d[:,1] = np.flip(arr_2d[:,1])
>>> print(arr_2d)
[[ 1 10 3 4]
[ 8 7 6 5]
[ 9 2 11 12]]
Read more about reversing arrays at flip.
3.23 Reshaping and flattening multidimensional arrays
This section covers .flatten(), ravel()
There are two popular ways to flatten an array: .flatten() and .ravel(). The primary difference between the
two is that the new array created using ravel() is actually a reference to the parent array (i.e., a “view”). This means
that any changes to the new array will affect the parent array as well. Since ravel does not create a copy, it’s memory
efficient.
>>> x = np.array([[1 , 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8], [9, 10, 11, 12]])
You can use flatten to flatten your array into a 1D array.

>>> x.flatten()
array([ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12])
When you use flatten, changes to your new array won’t change the parent array.
For example:
>>> a1 = x.flatten()
>>> a1[0] = 99
>>> print(x) # Original array
[[ 1 2 3 4]
[ 5 6 7 8]
[ 9 10 11 12]]
>>> print(a1) # New array
[99 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
3.23. Reshaping and flattening multidimensional arrays 55

But when you use ravel, the changes you make to the new array will affect the parent array.
For example:
>>> a2 = x.ravel()
>>> a2[0] = 98
>>> print(x) # Original array
[[98 2 3 4]
[ 5 6 7 8]
[ 9 10 11 12]]
>>> print(a2) # New array
[98 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Read more about flatten at ndarray.flatten and ravel at ravel.
3.24 How to access the docstring for more information
This section covers help(), ?, ??
When it comes to the data science ecosystem, Python and NumPy are built with the user in mind. One of the best
examples of this is the built-in access to documentation. Every object contains the reference to a string, which is known
as the docstring. In most cases, this docstring contains a quick and concise summary of the object and how to use it.
Python has a built-in help() function that can help you access this information. This means that nearly any time you
need more information, you can use help() to quickly find the information that you need.
For example:
>>> help(max)
Help on built-in function max in module builtins:
max(...)
max(iterable, *[, default=obj, key=func]) -> value
max(arg1, arg2, *args, *[, key=func]) -> value
With a single iterable argument, return its biggest item. The

default keyword-only argument specifies an object to return if
the provided iterable is empty.
With two or more arguments, return the largest argument.
Because access to additional information is so useful, IPython uses the ? character as a shorthand for accessing this
documentation along with other relevant information. IPython is a command shell for interactive computing in multiple
languages. You can find more information about IPython here.
For example:
In [0]: max?
max(iterable, *[, default=obj, key=func]) -> value
max(arg1, arg2, *args, *[, key=func]) -> value
With a single iterable argument, return its biggest item. The

default keyword-only argument specifies an object to return if
the provided iterable is empty.
With two or more arguments, return the largest argument.
Type: builtin_function_or_method

You can even use this notation for object methods and objects themselves.
Let’s say you create this array:
>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
Then you can obtain a lot of useful information (first details about a itself, followed by the docstring of ndarray of
which a is an instance):
In [1]: a?
Type: ndarray
String form: [1 2 3 4 5 6]
Length: 6
File: ~/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/numpy/__init__.py
Docstring: <no docstring>
Class docstring:
ndarray(shape, dtype=float, buffer=None, offset=0,
strides=None, order=None)
An array object represents a multidimensional, homogeneous array

of fixed-size items. An associated data-type object describes the
format of each element in the array (its byte-order, how many bytes it
occupies in memory, whether it is an integer, a floating point number,
or something else, etc.)
Arrays should be constructed using àrray`, `zeros` or èmpty` (refer

to the See Also section below). The parameters given here refer to
a low-level method (`ndarray(...)`) for instantiating an array.
For more information, refer to the `numpy` module and examine the
methods and attributes of an array.
Parameters
----------
(for the __new__ method; see Notes below)
shape : tuple of ints

Shape of created array.
...
This also works for functions and other objects that you create. Just remember to include a docstring with your function
using a string literal (""" """ or ''' ''' around your documentation).
For example, if you create this function:
>>> def double(a):

... '''Return a * 2'''
... return a * 2
You can obtain information about the function:
In [2]: double?
Signature: double(a)
Docstring: Return a * 2
File: ~/Desktop/<ipython-input-23-b5adf20be596>
Type: function
You can reach another level of information by reading the source code of the object you’re interested in. Using a double
question mark (??) allows you to access the source code.
3.24. How to access the docstring for more information 57

For example:
In [3]: double??
Signature: double(a)
Source:
def double(a):
'''Return a * 2'''
return a * 2
File: ~/Desktop/<ipython-input-23-b5adf20be596>
Type: function
If the object in question is compiled in a language other than Python, using ?? will return the same information as ?.
You’ll find this with a lot of built-in objects and types, for example:
In [4]: len?
Signature: len(obj, /)
Docstring: Return the number of items in a container.
and :
In [5]: len??
Signature: len(obj, /)
Docstring: Return the number of items in a container.
have the same output because they were compiled in a programming language other than Python.
3.25 Working with mathematical formulas
The ease of implementing mathematical formulas that work on arrays is one of the things that make NumPy so widely
used in the scientific Python community.
For example, this is the mean square error formula (a central formula used in supervised machine learning models that
deal with regression):
Implementing this formula is simple and straightforward in NumPy:

What makes this work so well is that predictions and labels can contain one or a thousand values. They only
need to be the same size.
You can visualize it this way:
In this example, both the predictions and labels vectors contain three values, meaning n has a value of three. After we
carry out subtractions the values in the vector are squared. Then NumPy sums the values, and your result is the error
value for that prediction and a score for the quality of the model.
3.26 How to save and load NumPy objects
This section covers np.save, np.savez, np.savetxt, np.load, np.loadtxt
You will, at some point, want to save your arrays to disk and load them back without having to re-run the code. Fortunately,
there are several ways to save and load objects with NumPy. The ndarray objects can be saved to and loaded from the
disk files with loadtxt and savetxt functions that handle normal text files, load and save functions that handle
NumPy binary files with a .npy file extension, and a savez function that handles NumPy files with a .npz file extension.
The .npy and .npz files store data, shape, dtype, and other information required to reconstruct the ndarray in a way that
allows the array to be correctly retrieved, even when the file is on another machine with different architecture.
If you want to store a single ndarray object, store it as a .npy file using np.save. If you want to store more than one
ndarray object in a single file, save it as a .npz file using np.savez. You can also save several arrays into a single file in
compressed npz format with savez_compressed.
It’s easy to save and load and array with np.save(). Just make sure to specify the array you want to save and a file
name. For example, if you create this array:
3.26. How to save and load NumPy objects 59

>>> a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
You can save it as “filename.npy” with:
>>> np.save('filename', a)
You can use np.load() to reconstruct your array.
>>> b = np.load('filename.npy')
If you want to check your array, you can run::
>>> print(b)
[1 2 3 4 5 6]
You can save a NumPy array as a plain text file like a .csv or .txt file with np.savetxt.
For example, if you create this array:
>>> csv_arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])
You can easily save it as a .csv file with the name “new_file.csv” like this:
>>> np.savetxt('new_file.csv', csv_arr)
You can quickly and easily load your saved text file using loadtxt():
>>> np.loadtxt('new_file.csv')
array([1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8.])
The savetxt() and loadtxt() functions accept additional optional parameters such as header, footer, and delimiter.
While text files can be easier for sharing, .npy and .npz files are smaller and faster to read. If you need more sophisticated
handling of your text file (for example, if you need to work with lines that contain missing values), you will want to use
the genfromtxt function.
With savetxt, you can specify headers, footers, comments, and more.
Learn more about input and output routines here.
3.27 Importing and exporting a CSV
It’s simple to read in a CSV that contains existing information. The best and easiest way to do this is to use Pandas.
>>> import pandas as pd
>>> # If all of your columns are the same type:

>>> x = pd.read_csv('music.csv', header=0).values
>>> print(x)
[['Billie Holiday' 'Jazz' 1300000 27000000]
['Jimmie Hendrix' 'Rock' 2700000 70000000]
['Miles Davis' 'Jazz' 1500000 48000000]
['SIA' 'Pop' 2000000 74000000]]
>>> # You can also simply select the columns you need:
>>> x = pd.read_csv('music.csv', usecols=['Artist', 'Plays']).values


>>> print(x)
[['Billie Holiday' 27000000]
['Jimmie Hendrix' 70000000]
['Miles Davis' 48000000]
['SIA' 74000000]]
It’s simple to use Pandas in order to export your array as well. If you are new to NumPy, you may want to create a Pandas
dataframe from the values in your array and then write the data frame to a CSV file with Pandas.
If you created this array “a”
>>> a = np.array([[-2.58289208, 0.43014843, -1.24082018, 1.59572603],

... [ 0.99027828, 1.17150989, 0.94125714, -0.14692469],
... [ 0.76989341, 0.81299683, -0.95068423, 0.11769564],
... [ 0.20484034, 0.34784527, 1.96979195, 0.51992837]])
You could create a Pandas dataframe
>>> df = pd.DataFrame(a)
>>> print(df)
0 1 2 3
0 -2.582892 0.430148 -1.240820 1.595726
1 0.990278 1.171510 0.941257 -0.146925
2 0.769893 0.812997 -0.950684 0.117696
3 0.204840 0.347845 1.969792 0.519928
You can easily save your dataframe with:
>>> df.to_csv('pd.csv')
And read your CSV with:
>>> data = pd.read_csv('pd.csv')
You can also save your array with the NumPy savetxt method.
3.27. Importing and exporting a CSV 61

>>> np.savetxt('np.csv', a, fmt='%.2f', delimiter=',', header='1, 2, 3, 4')
If you’re using the command line, you can read your saved CSV any time with a command such as:
$ cat np.csv
# 1, 2, 3, 4
-2.58,0.43,-1.24,1.60
0.99,1.17,0.94,-0.15
0.77,0.81,-0.95,0.12
0.20,0.35,1.97,0.52
Or you can open the file any time with a text editor!
If you’re interested in learning more about Pandas, take a look at the official Pandas documentation. Learn how to install
Pandas with the official Pandas installation information.
3.28 Plotting arrays with Matplotlib
If you need to generate a plot for your values, it’s very simple with Matplotlib.
For example, you may have an array like this one:
>>> a = np.array([2, 1, 5, 7, 4, 6, 8, 14, 10, 9, 18, 20, 22])
If you already have Matplotlib installed, you can import it with:
# If you're using Jupyter Notebook, you may also want to run the following
# line of code to display your code in the notebook:
%matplotlib inline
All you need to do to plot your values is run:
>>> plt.plot(a)
# If you are running from a command line, you may need to do this:
# >>> plt.show()
For example, you can plot a 1D array like this:
>>> x = np.linspace(0, 5, 20)

>>> y = np.linspace(0, 10, 20)
>>> plt.plot(x, y, 'purple') # line
>>> plt.plot(x, y, 'o') # dots
With Matplotlib, you have access to an enormous number of visualization options.
>>> from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

>>> fig = plt.figure()
>>> ax = Axes3D(fig)
>>> X = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.15)
>>> Y = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.15)
>>> X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)

20
15
10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
3.28. Plotting arrays with Matplotlib 63


>>> R = np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2)
>>> Z = np.sin(R)
>>> ax.plot_surface(X, Y, Z, rstride=1, cstride=1, cmap='viridis')
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00
0.25
0.50
0.75
4
2
4 0
2 0 2
2 4 4
To read more about Matplotlib and what it can do, take a look at the official documentation. For directions regarding
installing Matplotlib, see the official installation section.
Image credits: Jay Alammar http://jalammar.github.io/

CHAPTER
FOUR
NUMPY BASICS
4.1 Data types
See also:
Data type objects
4.1.1 Array types and conversions between types
NumPy supports a much greater variety of numerical types than Python does. This section shows which are available,
and how to modify an array’s data-type.
The primitive types supported are tied closely to those in C:
Numpy type C type Description

np.bool_ bool Boolean (True or False) stored as a byte
np.byte signed char Platform-defined
np.ubyte unsigned char Platform-defined
np.short short Platform-defined
np.ushort unsigned short Platform-defined
np.intc int Platform-defined
np.uintc unsigned int Platform-defined
np.int_ long Platform-defined
np.uint unsigned long Platform-defined
np.longlong long long Platform-defined
np.ulonglong unsigned long Platform-defined
long
np.half / Half precision float: sign bit, 5 bits exponent, 10 bits mantissa
np.float16
np.single float Platform-defined single precision float: typically sign bit, 8 bits exponent,
23 bits mantissa
np.double double Platform-defined double precision float: typically sign bit, 11 bits expo-
nent, 52 bits mantissa.
np.longdouble long double Platform-defined extended-precision float
np.csingle float complex Complex number, represented by two single-precision floats (real and
imaginary components)
np.cdouble double complex Complex number, represented by two double-precision floats (real and
imaginary components).
np.clongdouble long double Complex number, represented by two extended-precision floats (real and
complex imaginary components).
65
Since many of these have platform-dependent definitions, a set of fixed-size aliases are provided:
Numpy type C type Description

np.int8 int8_t Byte (-128 to 127)
np.int16 int16_t Integer (-32768 to 32767)
np.uint8 uint8_t Unsigned integer (0 to 255)
np.intp intptr_t Integer used for indexing, typically the same as ssize_t
np.uintp uintptr_t Integer large enough to hold a pointer
np.float32 float
np.float64 / np.float_ double Note that this matches the precision of the builtin python float.
np.complex64 float Complex number, represented by two 32-bit floats (real and imaginary
complex components)
np.complex128 / double Note that this matches the precision of the builtin python complex.
np.complex_ complex
NumPy numerical types are instances of dtype (data-type) objects, each having unique characteristics. Once you have
imported NumPy using
the dtypes are available as np.bool_, np.float32, etc.

Advanced types, not listed in the table above, are explored in section Structured arrays.
There are 5 basic numerical types representing booleans (bool), integers (int), unsigned integers (uint) floating point
(float) and complex. Those with numbers in their name indicate the bitsize of the type (i.e. how many bits are needed
to represent a single value in memory). Some types, such as int and intp, have differing bitsizes, dependent on the
platforms (e.g. 32-bit vs. 64-bit machines). This should be taken into account when interfacing with low-level code (such
as C or Fortran) where the raw memory is addressed.
Data-types can be used as functions to convert python numbers to array scalars (see the array scalar section for an ex-
planation), python sequences of numbers to arrays of that type, or as arguments to the dtype keyword that many numpy
functions or methods accept. Some examples:

>>> x = np.float32(1.0)
>>> x
1.0
>>> y = np.int_([1,2,4])
>>> y
array([1, 2, 4])
>>> z = np.arange(3, dtype=np.uint8)
>>> z
array([0, 1, 2], dtype=uint8)
Array types can also be referred to by character codes, mostly to retain backward compatibility with older packages such
as Numeric. Some documentation may still refer to these, for example:
>>> np.array([1, 2, 3], dtype='f')

array([ 1., 2., 3.], dtype=float32)
66 Chapter 4. NumPy basics

We recommend using dtype objects instead.

To convert the type of an array, use the .astype() method (preferred) or the type itself as a function. For example:
>>> z.astype(float)
array([ 0., 1., 2.])
>>> np.int8(z)
array([0, 1, 2], dtype=int8)
Note that, above, we use the Python float object as a dtype. NumPy knows that int refers to np.int_, bool means
np.bool_, that float is np.float_ and complex is np.complex_. The other data-types do not have Python
equivalents.
To determine the type of an array, look at the dtype attribute:
>>> z.dtype
dtype('uint8')
dtype objects also contain information about the type, such as its bit-width and its byte-order. The data type can also be
used indirectly to query properties of the type, such as whether it is an integer:
>>> d = np.dtype(int)
>>> d
dtype('int32')
>>> np.issubdtype(d, np.integer)

True
>>> np.issubdtype(d, np.floating)

False
4.1.2 Array Scalars
NumPy generally returns elements of arrays as array scalars (a scalar with an associated dtype). Array scalars differ from
Python scalars, but for the most part they can be used interchangeably (the primary exception is for versions of Python
older than v2.x, where integer array scalars cannot act as indices for lists and tuples). There are some exceptions, such as
when code requires very specific attributes of a scalar or when it checks specifically whether a value is a Python scalar.
Generally, problems are easily fixed by explicitly converting array scalars to Python scalars, using the corresponding
Python type function (e.g., int, float, complex, str, unicode).
The primary advantage of using array scalars is that they preserve the array type (Python may not have a matching scalar
type available, e.g. int16). Therefore, the use of array scalars ensures identical behaviour between arrays and scalars,
irrespective of whether the value is inside an array or not. NumPy scalars also have many of the same methods arrays do.
4.1.3 Overflow Errors
The fixed size of NumPy numeric types may cause overflow errors when a value requires more memory than available
in the data type. For example, numpy.power evaluates 100 * 10 ** 8 correctly for 64-bit integers, but gives
1874919424 (incorrect) for a 32-bit integer.
>>> np.power(100, 8, dtype=np.int64)

10000000000000000
>>> np.power(100, 8, dtype=np.int32)
1874919424
4.1. Data types 67

The behaviour of NumPy and Python integer types differs significantly for integer overflows and may confuse users
expecting NumPy integers to behave similar to Python’s int. Unlike NumPy, the size of Python’s int is flexible. This
means Python integers may expand to accommodate any integer and will not overflow.
NumPy provides numpy.iinfo and numpy.finfo to verify the minimum or maximum values of NumPy integer
and floating point values respectively
>>> np.iinfo(int) # Bounds of the default integer on this system.

iinfo(min=-9223372036854775808, max=9223372036854775807, dtype=int64)
>>> np.iinfo(np.int32) # Bounds of a 32-bit integer
>>> np.iinfo(np.int64) # Bounds of a 64-bit integer
If 64-bit integers are still too small the result may be cast to a floating point number. Floating point numbers offer a larger,
but inexact, range of possible values.
>>> np.power(100, 100, dtype=np.int64) # Incorrect even with 64-bit int

0
>>> np.power(100, 100, dtype=np.float64)
1e+200
4.1.4 Extended Precision
Python’s floating-point numbers are usually 64-bit floating-point numbers, nearly equivalent to np.float64. In some
unusual situations it may be useful to use floating-point numbers with more precision. Whether this is possible in numpy
depends on the hardware and on the development environment: specifically, x86 machines provide hardware floating-
point with 80-bit precision, and while most C compilers provide this as their long double type, MSVC (standard for
Windows builds) makes long double identical to double (64 bits). NumPy makes the compiler’s long double
available as np.longdouble (and np.clongdouble for the complex numbers). You can find out what your numpy
provides with np.finfo(np.longdouble).
NumPy does not provide a dtype with more precision than C’s long double; in particular, the 128-bit IEEE quad
precision data type (FORTRAN’s REAL*16) is not available.
For efficient memory alignment, np.longdouble is usually stored padded with zero bits, either to 96 or 128 bits.
Which is more efficient depends on hardware and development environment; typically on 32-bit systems they are padded
to 96 bits, while on 64-bit systems they are typically padded to 128 bits. np.longdouble is padded to the system
default; np.float96 and np.float128 are provided for users who want specific padding. In spite of the names,
np.float96 and np.float128 provide only as much precision as np.longdouble, that is, 80 bits on most x86
machines and 64 bits in standard Windows builds.
Be warned that even if np.longdouble offers more precision than python float, it is easy to lose that extra precision,
since python often forces values to pass through float. For example, the % formatting operator requires its arguments to
be converted to standard python types, and it is therefore impossible to preserve extended precision even if many decimal
places are requested. It can be useful to test your code with the value 1 + np.finfo(np.longdouble).eps.

4.2 Array creation
See also:
Array creation routines
4.2.1 Introduction
There are 5 general mechanisms for creating arrays:

1) Conversion from other Python structures (e.g., lists, tuples)
2) Intrinsic numpy array creation objects (e.g., arange, ones, zeros, etc.)
3) Reading arrays from disk, either from standard or custom formats
4) Creating arrays from raw bytes through the use of strings or buffers
5) Use of special library functions (e.g., random)
This section will not cover means of replicating, joining, or otherwise expanding or mutating existing arrays. Nor will it
cover creating object arrays or structured arrays. Both of those are covered in their own sections.
4.2.2 Converting Python array_like Objects to NumPy Arrays
In general, numerical data arranged in an array-like structure in Python can be converted to arrays through the use of the
array() function. The most obvious examples are lists and tuples. See the documentation for array() for details for its use.
Some objects may support the array-protocol and allow conversion to arrays this way. A simple way to find out if the
object can be converted to a numpy array using array() is simply to try it interactively and see if it works! (The Python
Way).
Examples:
>>> x = np.array([2,3,1,0])
>>> x = np.array([2, 3, 1, 0])
>>> x = np.array([[1,2.0],[0,0],(1+1j,3.)]) # note mix of tuple and lists,
and types
>>> x = np.array([[ 1.+0.j, 2.+0.j], [ 0.+0.j, 0.+0.j], [ 1.+1.j, 3.+0.j]])
4.2.3 Intrinsic NumPy Array Creation
NumPy has built-in functions for creating arrays from scratch:

zeros(shape) will create an array filled with 0 values with the specified shape. The default dtype is float64.
>>> np.zeros((2, 3))

array([[ 0., 0., 0.], [ 0., 0., 0.]])
ones(shape) will create an array filled with 1 values. It is identical to zeros in all other respects.
arange() will create arrays with regularly incrementing values. Check the docstring for complete information on the
various ways it can be used. A few examples will be given here:
4.2. Array creation 69

>>> np.arange(10)
array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9])
>>> np.arange(2, 10, dtype=float)
array([ 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8., 9.])
>>> np.arange(2, 3, 0.1)
array([ 2. , 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9])
Note that there are some subtleties regarding the last usage that the user should be aware of that are described in the
arange docstring.
linspace() will create arrays with a specified number of elements, and spaced equally between the specified beginning and
end values. For example:
>>> np.linspace(1., 4., 6)

array([ 1. , 1.6, 2.2, 2.8, 3.4, 4. ])
The advantage of this creation function is that one can guarantee the number of elements and the starting and end point,
which arange() generally will not do for arbitrary start, stop, and step values.
indices() will create a set of arrays (stacked as a one-higher dimensioned array), one per dimension with each representing
variation in that dimension. An example illustrates much better than a verbal description:
>>> np.indices((3,3))
array([[[0, 0, 0], [1, 1, 1], [2, 2, 2]], [[0, 1, 2], [0, 1, 2], [0, 1, 2]]])
This is particularly useful for evaluating functions of multiple dimensions on a regular grid.
4.2.4 Reading Arrays From Disk
This is presumably the most common case of large array creation. The details, of course, depend greatly on the format
of data on disk and so this section can only give general pointers on how to handle various formats.
Standard Binary Formats
Various fields have standard formats for array data. The following lists the ones with known python libraries to read them
and return numpy arrays (there may be others for which it is possible to read and convert to numpy arrays so check the
last section as well)
HDF5: h5py
FITS: Astropy
Examples of formats that cannot be read directly but for which it is not hard to convert are those formats supported by
libraries like PIL (able to read and write many image formats such as jpg, png, etc).

Common ASCII Formats
Comma Separated Value files (CSV) are widely used (and an export and import option for programs like Excel). There
are a number of ways of reading these files in Python. There are CSV functions in Python and functions in pylab (part of
matplotlib).
More generic ascii files can be read using the io package in scipy.
Custom Binary Formats
There are a variety of approaches one can use. If the file has a relatively simple format then one can write a simple
I/O library and use the numpy fromfile() function and .tofile() method to read and write numpy arrays directly (mind
your byteorder though!) If a good C or C++ library exists that read the data, one can wrap that library with a variety of
techniques though that certainly is much more work and requires significantly more advanced knowledge to interface with
C or C++.
Use of Special Libraries
There are libraries that can be used to generate arrays for special purposes and it isn’t possible to enumerate all of them.
The most common uses are use of the many array generation functions in random that can generate arrays of random
values, and some utility functions to generate special matrices (e.g. diagonal).
4.3 I/O with NumPy
4.3.1 Importing data with genfromtxt
NumPy provides several functions to create arrays from tabular data. We focus here on the genfromtxt function.
In a nutshell, genfromtxt runs two main loops. The first loop converts each line of the file in a sequence of strings.
The second loop converts each string to the appropriate data type. This mechanism is slower than a single loop, but gives
more flexibility. In particular, genfromtxt is able to take missing data into account, when other faster and simpler
functions like loadtxt cannot.
Note: When giving examples, we will use the following conventions:

>>> from io import StringIO
Defining the input
The only mandatory argument of genfromtxt is the source of the data. It can be a string, a list of strings, a generator or
an open file-like object with a read method, for example, a file or io.StringIO object. If a single string is provided,
it is assumed to be the name of a local or remote file. If a list of strings or a generator returning strings is provided, each
string is treated as one line in a file. When the URL of a remote file is passed, the file is automatically downloaded to the
current directory and opened.
Recognized file types are text files and archives. Currently, the function recognizes gzip and bz2 (bzip2) archives. The
type of the archive is determined from the extension of the file: if the filename ends with '.gz', a gzip archive is
expected; if it ends with 'bz2', a bzip2 archive is assumed.
4.3. I/O with NumPy 71

Splitting the lines into columns
The delimiter argument

Once the file is defined and open for reading, genfromtxt splits each non-empty line into a sequence of strings. Empty
or commented lines are just skipped. The delimiter keyword is used to define how the splitting should take place.
Quite often, a single character marks the separation between columns. For example, comma-separated files (CSV) use a
comma (,) or a semicolon (;) as delimiter:
>>> data = u"1, 2, 3\n4, 5, 6"

>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=",")
array([[ 1., 2., 3.],
[ 4., 5., 6.]])
Another common separator is "\t", the tabulation character. However, we are not limited to a single character, any
string will do. By default, genfromtxt assumes delimiter=None, meaning that the line is split along white spaces
(including tabs) and that consecutive white spaces are considered as a single white space.
Alternatively, we may be dealing with a fixed-width file, where columns are defined as a given number of characters. In
that case, we need to set delimiter to a single integer (if all the columns have the same size) or to a sequence of
integers (if columns can have different sizes):
>>> data = u" 1 2 3\n 4 5 67\n890123 4"

>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=3)
array([[ 1., 2., 3.],
[ 4., 5., 67.],
[ 890., 123., 4.]])
>>> data = u"123456789\n 4 7 9\n 4567 9"
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=(4, 3, 2))
array([[ 1234., 567., 89.],
[ 4., 7., 9.],
[ 4., 567., 9.]])
The autostrip argument

By default, when a line is decomposed into a series of strings, the individual entries are not stripped of leading nor trailing
white spaces. This behavior can be overwritten by setting the optional argument autostrip to a value of True:
>>> data = u"1, abc , 2\n 3, xxx, 4"

>>> # Without autostrip
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=",", dtype="|U5")
array([['1', ' abc ', ' 2'],
['3', ' xxx', ' 4']], dtype='<U5')
>>> # With autostrip
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=",", dtype="|U5", autostrip=True)
array([['1', 'abc', '2'],
['3', 'xxx', '4']], dtype='<U5')

The comments argument

The optional argument comments is used to define a character string that marks the beginning of a comment. By default,
genfromtxt assumes comments='#'. The comment marker may occur anywhere on the line. Any character present
after the comment marker(s) is simply ignored:
>>> data = u"""#

... # Skip me !
... # Skip me too !
... 1, 2
... 3, 4
... 5, 6 #This is the third line of the data
... 7, 8
... # And here comes the last line
... 9, 0
... """
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), comments="#", delimiter=",")
array([[1., 2.],
[3., 4.],
[5., 6.],
[7., 8.],
[9., 0.]])
New in version 1.7.0: When comments is set to None, no lines are treated as comments.
Note: There is one notable exception to this behavior: if the optional argument names=True, the first commented
line will be examined for names.
Skipping lines and choosing columns
The skip_header and skip_footer arguments

The presence of a header in the file can hinder data processing. In that case, we need to use the skip_header optional
argument. The values of this argument must be an integer which corresponds to the number of lines to skip at the
beginning of the file, before any other action is performed. Similarly, we can skip the last n lines of the file by using the
skip_footer attribute and giving it a value of n:
>>> data = u"\n".join(str(i) for i in range(10))

>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data),)
array([ 0., 1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8., 9.])
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data),
... skip_header=3, skip_footer=5)
array([ 3., 4.])
By default, skip_header=0 and skip_footer=0, meaning that no lines are skipped.

The usecols argument

In some cases, we are not interested in all the columns of the data but only a few of them. We can select which columns to
import with the usecols argument. This argument accepts a single integer or a sequence of integers corresponding to
the indices of the columns to import. Remember that by convention, the first column has an index of 0. Negative integers
behave the same as regular Python negative indexes.
For example, if we want to import only the first and the last columns, we can use usecols=(0, -1):
>>> data = u"1 2 3\n4 5 6"

>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), usecols=(0, -1))
array([[ 1., 3.],
[ 4., 6.]])
If the columns have names, we can also select which columns to import by giving their name to the usecols argument,
either as a sequence of strings or a comma-separated string:
>>> data = u"1 2 3\n4 5 6"

... names="a, b, c", usecols=("a", "c"))
array([(1.0, 3.0), (4.0, 6.0)],
dtype=[('a', '<f8'), ('c', '<f8')])
... names="a, b, c", usecols=("a, c"))
array([(1.0, 3.0), (4.0, 6.0)],
dtype=[('a', '<f8'), ('c', '<f8')])
Choosing the data type
The main way to control how the sequences of strings we have read from the file are converted to other types is to set the
dtype argument. Acceptable values for this argument are:
• a single type, such as dtype=float. The output will be 2D with the given dtype, unless a name has been
associated with each column with the use of the names argument (see below). Note that dtype=float is the
default for genfromtxt.
• a sequence of types, such as dtype=(int, float, float).
• a comma-separated string, such as dtype="i4,f8,|U3".
• a dictionary with two keys 'names' and 'formats'.
• a sequence of tuples (name, type), such as dtype=[('A', int), ('B', float)].
• an existing numpy.dtype object.
• the special value None. In that case, the type of the columns will be determined from the data itself (see below).
In all the cases but the first one, the output will be a 1D array with a structured dtype. This dtype has as many fields as
items in the sequence. The field names are defined with the names keyword.
When dtype=None, the type of each column is determined iteratively from its data. We start by checking whether a
string can be converted to a boolean (that is, if the string matches true or false in lower cases); then whether it can
be converted to an integer, then to a float, then to a complex and eventually to a string. This behavior may be changed by
modifying the default mapper of the StringConverter class.
The option dtype=None is provided for convenience. However, it is significantly slower than setting the dtype explicitly.

Setting the names
The names argument

A natural approach when dealing with tabular data is to allocate a name to each column. A first possibility is to use an
explicit structured dtype, as mentioned previously:
>>> data = StringIO("1 2 3\n 4 5 6")

>>> np.genfromtxt(data, dtype=[(_, int) for _ in "abc"])
array([(1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6)],
dtype=[('a', '<i8'), ('b', '<i8'), ('c', '<i8')])
Another simpler possibility is to use the names keyword with a sequence of strings or a comma-separated string:
>>> data = StringIO("1 2 3\n 4 5 6")

>>> np.genfromtxt(data, names="A, B, C")
array([(1.0, 2.0, 3.0), (4.0, 5.0, 6.0)],
dtype=[('A', '<f8'), ('B', '<f8'), ('C', '<f8')])
In the example above, we used the fact that by default, dtype=float. By giving a sequence of names, we are forcing
the output to a structured dtype.
We may sometimes need to define the column names from the data itself. In that case, we must use the names keyword
with a value of True. The names will then be read from the first line (after the skip_header ones), even if the line
is commented out:
>>> data = StringIO("So it goes\n#a b c\n1 2 3\n 4 5 6")

>>> np.genfromtxt(data, skip_header=1, names=True)
array([(1.0, 2.0, 3.0), (4.0, 5.0, 6.0)],
dtype=[('a', '<f8'), ('b', '<f8'), ('c', '<f8')])
The default value of names is None. If we give any other value to the keyword, the new names will overwrite the field
names we may have defined with the dtype:
>>> data = StringIO("1 2 3\n 4 5 6")

>>> ndtype=[('a',int), ('b', float), ('c', int)]
>>> names = ["A", "B", "C"]
>>> np.genfromtxt(data, names=names, dtype=ndtype)
array([(1, 2.0, 3), (4, 5.0, 6)],
dtype=[('A', '<i8'), ('B', '<f8'), ('C', '<i8')])
The defaultfmt argument

If names=None but a structured dtype is expected, names are defined with the standard NumPy default of "f%i",
yielding names like f0, f1 and so forth:
>>> data = StringIO("1 2 3\n 4 5 6")

>>> np.genfromtxt(data, dtype=(int, float, int))
array([(1, 2.0, 3), (4, 5.0, 6)],
dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f8'), ('f2', '<i8')])
In the same way, if we don’t give enough names to match the length of the dtype, the missing names will be defined with
this default template:
>>> data = StringIO("1 2 3\n 4 5 6")

>>> np.genfromtxt(data, dtype=(int, float, int), names="a")
array([(1, 2.0, 3), (4, 5.0, 6)],
dtype=[('a', '<i8'), ('f0', '<f8'), ('f1', '<i8')])

We can overwrite this default with the defaultfmt argument, that takes any format string:
>>> data = StringIO("1 2 3\n 4 5 6")

>>> np.genfromtxt(data, dtype=(int, float, int), defaultfmt="var_%02i")
array([(1, 2.0, 3), (4, 5.0, 6)],
dtype=[('var_00', '<i8'), ('var_01', '<f8'), ('var_02', '<i8')])
Note: We need to keep in mind that defaultfmt is used only if some names are expected but not defined.
Validating names
NumPy arrays with a structured dtype can also be viewed as recarray, where a field can be accessed as if it were an
attribute. For that reason, we may need to make sure that the field name doesn’t contain any space or invalid character, or
that it does not correspond to the name of a standard attribute (like size or shape), which would confuse the interpreter.
genfromtxt accepts three optional arguments that provide a finer control on the names:
deletechars
Gives a string combining all the characters that must be deleted from the name. By default, invalid
characters are ~!@#$%^&*()-=+~\|]}[{';: /?.>,<.
excludelist
Gives a list of the names to exclude, such as return, file, print… If one of the input name is
part of this list, an underscore character ('_') will be appended to it.
case_sensitive
Whether the names should be case-sensitive (case_sensitive=True), converted to up-
per case (case_sensitive=False or case_sensitive='upper') or to lower case
(case_sensitive='lower').
Tweaking the conversion
The converters argument

Usually, defining a dtype is sufficient to define how the sequence of strings must be converted. However, some additional
control may sometimes be required. For example, we may want to make sure that a date in a format YYYY/MM/DD is
converted to a datetime object, or that a string like xx% is properly converted to a float between 0 and 1. In such cases,
we should define conversion functions with the converters arguments.
The value of this argument is typically a dictionary with column indices or column names as keys and a conversion
functions as values. These conversion functions can either be actual functions or lambda functions. In any case, they
should accept only a string as input and output only a single element of the wanted type.
In the following example, the second column is converted from as string representing a percentage to a float between 0
and 1:
>>> convertfunc = lambda x: float(x.strip(b"%"))/100.

>>> data = u"1, 2.3%, 45.\n6, 78.9%, 0"
>>> names = ("i", "p", "n")
>>> # General case .....
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=",", names=names)
array([(1., nan, 45.), (6., nan, 0.)],
dtype=[('i', '<f8'), ('p', '<f8'), ('n', '<f8')])

We need to keep in mind that by default, dtype=float. A float is therefore expected for the second column. However,
the strings ' 2.3%' and ' 78.9%' cannot be converted to float and we end up having np.nan instead. Let’s now
use a converter:
>>> # Converted case ...

>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=",", names=names,
... converters={1: convertfunc})
array([(1.0, 0.023, 45.0), (6.0, 0.78900000000000003, 0.0)],
dtype=[('i', '<f8'), ('p', '<f8'), ('n', '<f8')])
The same results can be obtained by using the name of the second column ("p") as key instead of its index (1):
>>> # Using a name for the converter ...

>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=",", names=names,
... converters={"p": convertfunc})
array([(1.0, 0.023, 45.0), (6.0, 0.78900000000000003, 0.0)],
dtype=[('i', '<f8'), ('p', '<f8'), ('n', '<f8')])
Converters can also be used to provide a default for missing entries. In the following example, the converter convert
transforms a stripped string into the corresponding float or into -999 if the string is empty. We need to explicitly strip the
string from white spaces as it is not done by default:
>>> data = u"1, , 3\n 4, 5, 6"

>>> convert = lambda x: float(x.strip() or -999)
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), delimiter=",",
... converters={1: convert})
array([[ 1., -999., 3.],
[ 4., 5., 6.]])
Using missing and filling values

Some entries may be missing in the dataset we are trying to import. In a previous example, we used a converter to
transform an empty string into a float. However, user-defined converters may rapidly become cumbersome to manage.
The genfromtxt function provides two other complementary mechanisms: the missing_values argument is used
to recognize missing data and a second argument, filling_values, is used to process these missing data.
missing_values
By default, any empty string is marked as missing. We can also consider more complex strings, such as "N/A" or "???"
to represent missing or invalid data. The missing_values argument accepts three kind of values:
a string or a comma-separated string
This string will be used as the marker for missing data for all the columns
a sequence of strings
In that case, each item is associated to a column, in order.
a dictionary
Values of the dictionary are strings or sequence of strings. The corresponding keys can be column
indices (integers) or column names (strings). In addition, the special key None can be used to define
a default applicable to all columns.

filling_values
We know how to recognize missing data, but we still need to provide a value for these missing entries. By default, this
value is determined from the expected dtype according to this table:
Expected type Default

bool False
int -1
float np.nan
complex np.nan+0j
string '???'
We can get a finer control on the conversion of missing values with the filling_values optional argument. Like
missing_values, this argument accepts different kind of values:
a single value
This will be the default for all columns
a sequence of values
Each entry will be the default for the corresponding column
a dictionary
Each key can be a column index or a column name, and the corresponding value should be a single
object. We can use the special key None to define a default for all columns.
In the following example, we suppose that the missing values are flagged with "N/A" in the first column and by "???"
in the third column. We wish to transform these missing values to 0 if they occur in the first and second column, and to
-999 if they occur in the last column:
>>> data = u"N/A, 2, 3\n4, ,???"

>>> kwargs = dict(delimiter=",",
... dtype=int,
... names="a,b,c",
... missing_values={0:"N/A", 'b':" ", 2:"???"},
... filling_values={0:0, 'b':0, 2:-999})
>>> np.genfromtxt(StringIO(data), **kwargs)
array([(0, 2, 3), (4, 0, -999)],
dtype=[('a', '<i8'), ('b', '<i8'), ('c', '<i8')])

usemask
We may also want to keep track of the occurrence of missing data by constructing a boolean mask, with True entries
where data was missing and False otherwise. To do that, we just have to set the optional argument usemask to True
(the default is False). The output array will then be a MaskedArray.
Shortcut functions
In addition to genfromtxt, the numpy.lib.io module provides several convenience functions derived from
genfromtxt. These functions work the same way as the original, but they have different default values.
recfromtxt
Returns a standard numpy.recarray (if usemask=False) or a MaskedRecords array (if
usemaske=True). The default dtype is dtype=None, meaning that the types of each column will be
automatically determined.
recfromcsv
Like recfromtxt, but with a default delimiter=",".
4.4 Indexing
See also:
Indexing
Indexing routines
Array indexing refers to any use of the square brackets ([]) to index array values. There are many options to indexing,
which give numpy indexing great power, but with power comes some complexity and the potential for confusion. This
section is just an overview of the various options and issues related to indexing. Aside from single element indexing, the
details on most of these options are to be found in related sections.
4.4.1 Assignment vs referencing
Most of the following examples show the use of indexing when referencing data in an array. The examples work just as
well when assigning to an array. See the section at the end for specific examples and explanations on how assignments
work.
4.4.2 Single element indexing
Single element indexing for a 1-D array is what one expects. It work exactly like that for other standard Python sequences.
It is 0-based, and accepts negative indices for indexing from the end of the array.
>>> x = np.arange(10)
>>> x[2]
2
>>> x[-2]
8
Unlike lists and tuples, numpy arrays support multidimensional indexing for multidimensional arrays. That means that it
is not necessary to separate each dimension’s index into its own set of square brackets.
4.4. Indexing 79
>>> x.shape = (2,5) # now x is 2-dimensional

>>> x[1,3]
8
>>> x[1,-1]
9
Note that if one indexes a multidimensional array with fewer indices than dimensions, one gets a subdimensional array.
For example:
>>> x[0]
array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
That is, each index specified selects the array corresponding to the rest of the dimensions selected. In the above example,
choosing 0 means that the remaining dimension of length 5 is being left unspecified, and that what is returned is an array
of that dimensionality and size. It must be noted that the returned array is not a copy of the original, but points to the
same values in memory as does the original array. In this case, the 1-D array at the first position (0) is returned. So using
a single index on the returned array, results in a single element being returned. That is:
>>> x[0][2]
2
So note that x[0,2] = x[0][2] though the second case is more inefficient as a new temporary array is created after
the first index that is subsequently indexed by 2.
Note to those used to IDL or Fortran memory order as it relates to indexing. NumPy uses C-order indexing. That means
that the last index usually represents the most rapidly changing memory location, unlike Fortran or IDL, where the first
index represents the most rapidly changing location in memory. This difference represents a great potential for confusion.
4.4.3 Other indexing options
It is possible to slice and stride arrays to extract arrays of the same number of dimensions, but of different sizes than the
original. The slicing and striding works exactly the same way it does for lists and tuples except that they can be applied to
multiple dimensions as well. A few examples illustrates best:
>>> x[2:5]
array([2, 3, 4])
>>> x[:-7]
array([0, 1, 2])
>>> x[1:7:2]
array([1, 3, 5])
>>> y = np.arange(35).reshape(5,7)
>>> y[1:5:2,::3]
array([[ 7, 10, 13],
[21, 24, 27]])
Note that slices of arrays do not copy the internal array data but only produce new views of the original data. This is
different from list or tuple slicing and an explicit copy() is recommended if the original data is not required anymore.
It is possible to index arrays with other arrays for the purposes of selecting lists of values out of arrays into new arrays.
There are two different ways of accomplishing this. One uses one or more arrays of index values. The other involves
giving a boolean array of the proper shape to indicate the values to be selected. Index arrays are a very powerful tool that
allow one to avoid looping over individual elements in arrays and thus greatly improve performance.
It is possible to use special features to effectively increase the number of dimensions in an array through indexing so the
resulting array acquires the shape needed for use in an expression or with a specific function.

4.4.4 Index arrays
NumPy arrays may be indexed with other arrays (or any other sequence- like object that can be converted to an array,
such as lists, with the exception of tuples; see the end of this document for why this is). The use of index arrays ranges
from simple, straightforward cases to complex, hard-to-understand cases. For all cases of index arrays, what is returned
is a copy of the original data, not a view as one gets for slices.
Index arrays must be of integer type. Each value in the array indicates which value in the array to use in place of the
index. To illustrate:
>>> x = np.arange(10,1,-1)
>>> x
array([10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2])
>>> x[np.array([3, 3, 1, 8])]
array([7, 7, 9, 2])
The index array consisting of the values 3, 3, 1 and 8 correspondingly create an array of length 4 (same as the index array)
where each index is replaced by the value the index array has in the array being indexed.
Negative values are permitted and work as they do with single indices or slices:
>>> x[np.array([3,3,-3,8])]
array([7, 7, 4, 2])
It is an error to have index values out of bounds:
>>> x[np.array([3, 3, 20, 8])]

<type 'exceptions.IndexError'>: index 20 out of bounds 0<=index<9
Generally speaking, what is returned when index arrays are used is an array with the same shape as the index array, but
with the type and values of the array being indexed. As an example, we can use a multidimensional index array instead:
>>> x[np.array([[1,1],[2,3]])]
array([[9, 9],
[8, 7]])
4.4.5 Indexing Multi-dimensional arrays
Things become more complex when multidimensional arrays are indexed, particularly with multidimensional index arrays.
These tend to be more unusual uses, but they are permitted, and they are useful for some problems. We’ll start with the
simplest multidimensional case (using the array y from the previous examples):
>>> y[np.array([0,2,4]), np.array([0,1,2])]

array([ 0, 15, 30])
In this case, if the index arrays have a matching shape, and there is an index array for each dimension of the array being
indexed, the resultant array has the same shape as the index arrays, and the values correspond to the index set for each
position in the index arrays. In this example, the first index value is 0 for both index arrays, and thus the first value of the
resultant array is y[0,0]. The next value is y[2,1], and the last is y[4,2].
If the index arrays do not have the same shape, there is an attempt to broadcast them to the same shape. If they cannot
be broadcast to the same shape, an exception is raised:
>>> y[np.array([0,2,4]), np.array([0,1])]

<type 'exceptions.ValueError'>: shape mismatch: objects cannot be
broadcast to a single shape
4.4. Indexing 81
The broadcasting mechanism permits index arrays to be combined with scalars for other indices. The effect is that the
scalar value is used for all the corresponding values of the index arrays:
>>> y[np.array([0,2,4]), 1]
array([ 1, 15, 29])
Jumping to the next level of complexity, it is possible to only partially index an array with index arrays. It takes a bit of
thought to understand what happens in such cases. For example if we just use one index array with y:
>>> y[np.array([0,2,4])]
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6],
[14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20],
[28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34]])
What results is the construction of a new array where each value of the index array selects one row from the array being
indexed and the resultant array has the resulting shape (number of index elements, size of row).
An example of where this may be useful is for a color lookup table where we want to map the values of an image into
RGB triples for display. The lookup table could have a shape (nlookup, 3). Indexing such an array with an image with
shape (ny, nx) with dtype=np.uint8 (or any integer type so long as values are with the bounds of the lookup table) will
result in an array of shape (ny, nx, 3) where a triple of RGB values is associated with each pixel location.
In general, the shape of the resultant array will be the concatenation of the shape of the index array (or the shape that
all the index arrays were broadcast to) with the shape of any unused dimensions (those not indexed) in the array being
indexed.
4.4.6 Boolean or “mask” index arrays
Boolean arrays used as indices are treated in a different manner entirely than index arrays. Boolean arrays must be of the
same shape as the initial dimensions of the array being indexed. In the most straightforward case, the boolean array has
the same shape:
>>> b = y>20
>>> y[b]
array([21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34])
Unlike in the case of integer index arrays, in the boolean case, the result is a 1-D array containing all the elements in the
indexed array corresponding to all the true elements in the boolean array. The elements in the indexed array are always
iterated and returned in row-major (C-style) order. The result is also identical to y[np.nonzero(b)]. As with index
arrays, what is returned is a copy of the data, not a view as one gets with slices.
The result will be multidimensional if y has more dimensions than b. For example:
>>> b[:,5] # use a 1-D boolean whose first dim agrees with the first dim of y
array([False, False, False, True, True])
>>> y[b[:,5]]
array([[21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27],
[28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34]])
Here the 4th and 5th rows are selected from the indexed array and combined to make a 2-D array.
In general, when the boolean array has fewer dimensions than the array being indexed, this is equivalent to y[b, …], which
means y is indexed by b followed by as many : as are needed to fill out the rank of y. Thus the shape of the result is one
dimension containing the number of True elements of the boolean array, followed by the remaining dimensions of the
array being indexed.
For example, using a 2-D boolean array of shape (2,3) with four True elements to select rows from a 3-D array of shape
(2,3,5) results in a 2-D result of shape (4,5):

>>> x = np.arange(30).reshape(2,3,5)
>>> x
array([[[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
[ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9],
[10, 11, 12, 13, 14]],
[[15, 16, 17, 18, 19],
[20, 21, 22, 23, 24],
[25, 26, 27, 28, 29]]])
>>> b = np.array([[True, True, False], [False, True, True]])
>>> x[b]
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
[ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9],
[20, 21, 22, 23, 24],
[25, 26, 27, 28, 29]])
For further details, consult the numpy reference documentation on array indexing.
4.4.7 Combining index arrays with slices
Index arrays may be combined with slices. For example:
>>> y[np.array([0, 2, 4]), 1:3]

array([[ 1, 2],
[15, 16],
[29, 30]])
In effect, the slice and index array operation are independent. The slice operation extracts columns with index 1 and 2,
(i.e. the 2nd and 3rd columns), followed by the index array operation which extracts rows with index 0, 2 and 4 (i.e the
first, third and fifth rows).
This is equivalent to:
>>> y[:, 1:3][np.array([0, 2, 4]), :]

array([[ 1, 2],
[15, 16],
[29, 30]])
Likewise, slicing can be combined with broadcasted boolean indices:
>>> b = y > 20
>>> b
array([[False, False, False, False, False, False, False],
[False, False, False, False, False, False, False],
[False, False, False, False, False, False, False],
[ True, True, True, True, True, True, True],
[ True, True, True, True, True, True, True]])
>>> y[b[:,5],1:3]
array([[22, 23],
[29, 30]])
4.4. Indexing 83
4.4.8 Structural indexing tools
To facilitate easy matching of array shapes with expressions and in assignments, the np.newaxis object can be used within
array indices to add new dimensions with a size of 1. For example:
>>> y.shape
(5, 7)
>>> y[:,np.newaxis,:].shape
(5, 1, 7)
Note that there are no new elements in the array, just that the dimensionality is increased. This can be handy to combine
two arrays in a way that otherwise would require explicitly reshaping operations. For example:
>>> x[:,np.newaxis] + x[np.newaxis,:]
array([[0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6],
[3, 4, 5, 6, 7],
[4, 5, 6, 7, 8]])
The ellipsis syntax maybe used to indicate selecting in full any remaining unspecified dimensions. For example:
>>> z = np.arange(81).reshape(3,3,3,3)
>>> z[1,...,2]
array([[29, 32, 35],
[38, 41, 44],
[47, 50, 53]])
This is equivalent to:
>>> z[1,:,:,2]
array([[29, 32, 35],
[38, 41, 44],
[47, 50, 53]])
4.4.9 Assigning values to indexed arrays
As mentioned, one can select a subset of an array to assign to using a single index, slices, and index and mask arrays.
The value being assigned to the indexed array must be shape consistent (the same shape or broadcastable to the shape the
index produces). For example, it is permitted to assign a constant to a slice:
>>> x[2:7] = 1
or an array of the right size:
>>> x[2:7] = np.arange(5)
Note that assignments may result in changes if assigning higher types to lower types (like floats to ints) or even exceptions
(assigning complex to floats or ints):
>>> x[1] = 1.2

>>> x[1]
1


>>> x[1] = 1.2j
TypeError: can't convert complex to int
Unlike some of the references (such as array and mask indices) assignments are always made to the original data in the
array (indeed, nothing else would make sense!). Note though, that some actions may not work as one may naively expect.
This particular example is often surprising to people:
>>> x = np.arange(0, 50, 10)

>>> x
array([ 0, 10, 20, 30, 40])
>>> x[np.array([1, 1, 3, 1])] += 1
>>> x
array([ 0, 11, 20, 31, 40])
Where people expect that the 1st location will be incremented by 3. In fact, it will only be incremented by 1. The reason
is because a new array is extracted from the original (as a temporary) containing the values at 1, 1, 3, 1, then the value 1
is added to the temporary, and then the temporary is assigned back to the original array. Thus the value of the array at
x[1]+1 is assigned to x[1] three times, rather than being incremented 3 times.
4.4.10 Dealing with variable numbers of indices within programs
The index syntax is very powerful but limiting when dealing with a variable number of indices. For example, if you want
to write a function that can handle arguments with various numbers of dimensions without having to write special case
code for each number of possible dimensions, how can that be done? If one supplies to the index a tuple, the tuple will
be interpreted as a list of indices. For example (using the previous definition for the array z):
>>> indices = (1,1,1,1)

>>> z[indices]
40
So one can use code to construct tuples of any number of indices and then use these within an index.
Slices can be specified within programs by using the slice() function in Python. For example:
>>> indices = (1,1,1,slice(0,2)) # same as [1,1,1,0:2]

>>> z[indices]
array([39, 40])
Likewise, ellipsis can be specified by code by using the Ellipsis object:
>>> indices = (1, Ellipsis, 1) # same as [1,...,1]

>>> z[indices]
array([[28, 31, 34],
[37, 40, 43],
[46, 49, 52]])
For this reason it is possible to use the output from the np.nonzero() function directly as an index since it always returns
a tuple of index arrays.
Because the special treatment of tuples, they are not automatically converted to an array as a list would be. As an example:
>>> z[[1,1,1,1]] # produces a large array

array([[[[27, 28, 29],
[30, 31, 32], ...
4.4. Indexing 85

>>> z[(1,1,1,1)] # returns a single value
40
4.5 Broadcasting
See also:
numpy.broadcast
array-broadcasting-in-numpy
An introduction to the concepts discussed here
Note: See this article for illustrations of broadcasting concepts.
The term broadcasting describes how numpy treats arrays with different shapes during arithmetic operations. Subject to
certain constraints, the smaller array is “broadcast” across the larger array so that they have compatible shapes. Broadcast-
ing provides a means of vectorizing array operations so that looping occurs in C instead of Python. It does this without
making needless copies of data and usually leads to efficient algorithm implementations. There are, however, cases where
broadcasting is a bad idea because it leads to inefficient use of memory that slows computation.
NumPy operations are usually done on pairs of arrays on an element-by-element basis. In the simplest case, the two arrays
must have exactly the same shape, as in the following example:
>>> a = np.array([1.0, 2.0, 3.0])

>>> b = np.array([2.0, 2.0, 2.0])
>>> a * b
array([ 2., 4., 6.])
NumPy’s broadcasting rule relaxes this constraint when the arrays’ shapes meet certain constraints. The simplest broad-
casting example occurs when an array and a scalar value are combined in an operation:
>>> a = np.array([1.0, 2.0, 3.0])

>>> b = 2.0
>>> a * b
array([ 2., 4., 6.])
The result is equivalent to the previous example where b was an array. We can think of the scalar b being stretched during
the arithmetic operation into an array with the same shape as a. The new elements in b are simply copies of the original
scalar. The stretching analogy is only conceptual. NumPy is smart enough to use the original scalar value without actually
making copies so that broadcasting operations are as memory and computationally efficient as possible.
The code in the second example is more efficient than that in the first because broadcasting moves less memory around
during the multiplication (b is a scalar rather than an array).

4.5.1 General Broadcasting Rules
When operating on two arrays, NumPy compares their shapes element-wise. It starts with the trailing dimensions and
works its way forward. Two dimensions are compatible when
1) they are equal, or
2) one of them is 1
If these conditions are not met, a ValueError: operands could not be broadcast together excep-
tion is thrown, indicating that the arrays have incompatible shapes. The size of the resulting array is the size that is not 1
along each axis of the inputs.
Arrays do not need to have the same number of dimensions. For example, if you have a 256x256x3 array of RGB values,
and you want to scale each color in the image by a different value, you can multiply the image by a one-dimensional array
with 3 values. Lining up the sizes of the trailing axes of these arrays according to the broadcast rules, shows that they are
compatible:
Image (3d array): 256 x 256 x 3
Scale (1d array): 3
Result (3d array): 256 x 256 x 3
When either of the dimensions compared is one, the other is used. In other words, dimensions with size 1 are stretched
or “copied” to match the other.
In the following example, both the A and B arrays have axes with length one that are expanded to a larger size during the
broadcast operation:
A (4d array): 8 x 1 x 6 x 1
B (3d array): 7 x 1 x 5
Result (4d array): 8 x 7 x 6 x 5
Here are some more examples:

A (2d array): 5 x 4
B (1d array): 1
Result (2d array): 5 x 4
A (2d array): 5 x 4
B (1d array): 4
Result (2d array): 5 x 4
A (3d array): 15 x 3 x 5
B (3d array): 15 x 1 x 5
A (3d array): 15 x 3 x 5
B (2d array): 3 x 5
A (3d array): 15 x 3 x 5
B (2d array): 3 x 1
Here are examples of shapes that do not broadcast:

A (1d array): 3
B (1d array): 4 # trailing dimensions do not match
4.5. Broadcasting 87

A (2d array): 2 x 1
B (3d array): 8 x 4 x 3 # second from last dimensions mismatched
An example of broadcasting in practice:
>>> xx = x.reshape(4,1)
>>> y = np.ones(5)
>>> z = np.ones((3,4))
>>> x.shape
(4,)
>>> y.shape
(5,)
>>> x + y
ValueError: operands could not be broadcast together with shapes (4,) (5,)
>>> xx.shape
(4, 1)
>>> y.shape
(5,)
>>> (xx + y).shape

(4, 5)
>>> xx + y
array([[ 1., 1., 1., 1., 1.],
[ 2., 2., 2., 2., 2.],
[ 3., 3., 3., 3., 3.],
[ 4., 4., 4., 4., 4.]])
>>> x.shape
(4,)
>>> z.shape
(3, 4)
>>> (x + z).shape
(3, 4)
>>> x + z
array([[ 1., 2., 3., 4.],
[ 1., 2., 3., 4.],
[ 1., 2., 3., 4.]])
Broadcasting provides a convenient way of taking the outer product (or any other outer operation) of two arrays. The
following example shows an outer addition operation of two 1-d arrays:
>>> a = np.array([0.0, 10.0, 20.0, 30.0])

>>> b = np.array([1.0, 2.0, 3.0])
>>> a[:, np.newaxis] + b
array([[ 1., 2., 3.],
[ 11., 12., 13.],


[ 21., 22., 23.],
[ 31., 32., 33.]])
Here the newaxis index operator inserts a new axis into a, making it a two-dimensional 4x1 array. Combining the
4x1 array with b, which has shape (3,), yields a 4x3 array.
4.6 Byte-swapping
4.6.1 Introduction to byte ordering and ndarrays
The ndarray is an object that provide a python array interface to data in memory.
It often happens that the memory that you want to view with an array is not of the same byte ordering as the computer
on which you are running Python.
For example, I might be working on a computer with a little-endian CPU - such as an Intel Pentium, but I have loaded
some data from a file written by a computer that is big-endian. Let’s say I have loaded 4 bytes from a file written by a
Sun (big-endian) computer. I know that these 4 bytes represent two 16-bit integers. On a big-endian machine, a two-byte
integer is stored with the Most Significant Byte (MSB) first, and then the Least Significant Byte (LSB). Thus the bytes
are, in memory order:
1. MSB integer 1
2. LSB integer 1
3. MSB integer 2
4. LSB integer 2
Let’s say the two integers were in fact 1 and 770. Because 770 = 256 * 3 + 2, the 4 bytes in memory would contain
respectively: 0, 1, 3, 2. The bytes I have loaded from the file would have these contents:
>>> big_end_buffer = bytearray([0,1,3,2])

>>> big_end_buffer
bytearray(b'\x00\x01\x03\x02')
We might want to use an ndarray to access these integers. In that case, we can create an array around this memory,
and tell numpy that there are two integers, and that they are 16 bit and big-endian:

>>> big_end_arr = np.ndarray(shape=(2,),dtype='>i2', buffer=big_end_buffer)
>>> big_end_arr[0]
1
>>> big_end_arr[1]
770
Note the array dtype above of >i2. The > means ‘big-endian’ (< is little-endian) and i2 means ‘signed 2-byte integer’.
For example, if our data represented a single unsigned 4-byte little-endian integer, the dtype string would be <u4.
In fact, why don’t we try that?
>>> little_end_u4 = np.ndarray(shape=(1,),dtype='<u4', buffer=big_end_buffer)

>>> little_end_u4[0] == 1 * 256**1 + 3 * 256**2 + 2 * 256**3
True
4.6. Byte-swapping 89
Returning to our big_end_arr - in this case our underlying data is big-endian (data endianness) and we’ve set the
dtype to match (the dtype is also big-endian). However, sometimes you need to flip these around.
Warning: Scalars currently do not include byte order information, so extracting a scalar from an array will return
an integer in native byte order. Hence:
>>> big_end_arr[0].dtype.byteorder == little_end_u4[0].dtype.byteorder
True
4.6.2 Changing byte ordering
As you can imagine from the introduction, there are two ways you can affect the relationship between the byte ordering
of the array and the underlying memory it is looking at:
• Change the byte-ordering information in the array dtype so that it interprets the underlying data as being in a
different byte order. This is the role of arr.newbyteorder()
• Change the byte-ordering of the underlying data, leaving the dtype interpretation as it was. This is what arr.
byteswap() does.
The common situations in which you need to change byte ordering are:
1. Your data and dtype endianness don’t match, and you want to change the dtype so that it matches the data.
2. Your data and dtype endianness don’t match, and you want to swap the data so that they match the dtype
3. Your data and dtype endianness match, but you want the data swapped and the dtype to reflect this
Data and dtype endianness don’t match, change dtype to match data
We make something where they don’t match:
>>> wrong_end_dtype_arr = np.ndarray(shape=(2,),dtype='<i2', buffer=big_end_buffer)

>>> wrong_end_dtype_arr[0]
256
The obvious fix for this situation is to change the dtype so it gives the correct endianness:
>>> fixed_end_dtype_arr = wrong_end_dtype_arr.newbyteorder()

>>> fixed_end_dtype_arr[0]
1
Note the array has not changed in memory:
>>> fixed_end_dtype_arr.tobytes() == big_end_buffer

True

Data and type endianness don’t match, change data to match dtype
You might want to do this if you need the data in memory to be a certain ordering. For example you might be writing the
memory out to a file that needs a certain byte ordering.
>>> fixed_end_mem_arr = wrong_end_dtype_arr.byteswap()

>>> fixed_end_mem_arr[0]
1
Now the array has changed in memory:
>>> fixed_end_mem_arr.tobytes() == big_end_buffer

False
Data and dtype endianness match, swap data and dtype
You may have a correctly specified array dtype, but you need the array to have the opposite byte order in memory, and
you want the dtype to match so the array values make sense. In this case you just do both of the previous operations:
>>> swapped_end_arr = big_end_arr.byteswap().newbyteorder()

>>> swapped_end_arr[0]
1
>>> swapped_end_arr.tobytes() == big_end_buffer
False
An easier way of casting the data to a specific dtype and byte ordering can be achieved with the ndarray astype method:
>>> swapped_end_arr = big_end_arr.astype('<i2')

>>> swapped_end_arr[0]
1
>>> swapped_end_arr.tobytes() == big_end_buffer
False
4.7 Structured arrays
4.7.1 Introduction
Structured arrays are ndarrays whose datatype is a composition of simpler datatypes organized as a sequence of named
fields. For example,
>>> x = np.array([('Rex', 9, 81.0), ('Fido', 3, 27.0)],

... dtype=[('name', 'U10'), ('age', 'i4'), ('weight', 'f4')])
>>> x
array([('Rex', 9, 81.), ('Fido', 3, 27.)],
dtype=[('name', 'U10'), ('age', '<i4'), ('weight', '<f4')])
Here x is a one-dimensional array of length two whose datatype is a structure with three fields: 1. A string of length 10
or less named ‘name’, 2. a 32-bit integer named ‘age’, and 3. a 32-bit float named ‘weight’.
If you index x at position 1 you get a structure:
>>> x[1]
('Fido', 3, 27.0)
4.7. Structured arrays 91

You can access and modify individual fields of a structured array by indexing with the field name:
>>> x['age']
array([9, 3], dtype=int32)
>>> x['age'] = 5
>>> x
array([('Rex', 5, 81.), ('Fido', 5, 27.)],
dtype=[('name', 'U10'), ('age', '<i4'), ('weight', '<f4')])
Structured datatypes are designed to be able to mimic ‘structs’ in the C language, and share a similar memory layout. They
are meant for interfacing with C code and for low-level manipulation of structured buffers, for example for interpreting
binary blobs. For these purposes they support specialized features such as subarrays, nested datatypes, and unions, and
allow control over the memory layout of the structure.
Users looking to manipulate tabular data, such as stored in csv files, may find other pydata projects more suitable, such as
xarray, pandas, or DataArray. These provide a high-level interface for tabular data analysis and are better optimized for
that use. For instance, the C-struct-like memory layout of structured arrays in numpy can lead to poor cache behavior in
comparison.
4.7.2 Structured Datatypes
A structured datatype can be thought of as a sequence of bytes of a certain length (the structure’s itemsize) which is
interpreted as a collection of fields. Each field has a name, a datatype, and a byte offset within the structure. The datatype
of a field may be any numpy datatype including other structured datatypes, and it may also be a subarray data type which
behaves like an ndarray of a specified shape. The offsets of the fields are arbitrary, and fields may even overlap. These
offsets are usually determined automatically by numpy, but can also be specified.
Structured Datatype Creation
Structured datatypes may be created using the function numpy.dtype. There are 4 alternative forms of specification
which vary in flexibility and conciseness. These are further documented in the Data Type Objects reference page, and in
summary they are:
1. A list of tuples, one tuple per field
Each tuple has the form (fieldname, datatype, shape) where shape is optional. fieldname is a
string (or tuple if titles are used, see Field Titles below), datatype may be any object convertible to a datatype,
and shape is a tuple of integers specifying subarray shape.
>>> np.dtype([('x', 'f4'), ('y', np.float32), ('z', 'f4', (2, 2))])

dtype([('x', '<f4'), ('y', '<f4'), ('z', '<f4', (2, 2))])
If fieldname is the empty string '', the field will be given a default name of the form f#, where # is the integer
index of the field, counting from 0 from the left:
>>> np.dtype([('x', 'f4'), ('', 'i4'), ('z', 'i8')])

dtype([('x', '<f4'), ('f1', '<i4'), ('z', '<i8')])
The byte offsets of the fields within the structure and the total structure itemsize are determined automatically.
2. A string of comma-separated dtype specifications
In this shorthand notation any of the string dtype specifications may be used in a string and separated by commas.
The itemsize and byte offsets of the fields are determined automatically, and the field names are given the default
names f0, f1, etc.

>>> np.dtype('i8, f4, S3')

dtype([('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f4'), ('f2', 'S3')])
>>> np.dtype('3int8, float32, (2, 3)float64')
dtype([('f0', 'i1', (3,)), ('f1', '<f4'), ('f2', '<f8', (2, 3))])
3. A dictionary of field parameter arrays

This is the most flexible form of specification since it allows control over the byte-offsets of the fields and the
itemsize of the structure.
The dictionary has two required keys, ‘names’ and ‘formats’, and four optional keys, ‘offsets’, ‘itemsize’, ‘aligned’
and ‘titles’. The values for ‘names’ and ‘formats’ should respectively be a list of field names and a list of dtype
specifications, of the same length. The optional ‘offsets’ value should be a list of integer byte-offsets, one for each
field within the structure. If ‘offsets’ is not given the offsets are determined automatically. The optional ‘itemsize’
value should be an integer describing the total size in bytes of the dtype, which must be large enough to contain all
the fields.
>>> np.dtype({'names': ['col1', 'col2'], 'formats': ['i4', 'f4']})

dtype([('col1', '<i4'), ('col2', '<f4')])
>>> np.dtype({'names': ['col1', 'col2'],
... 'formats': ['i4', 'f4'],
... 'offsets': [0, 4],
... 'itemsize': 12})
dtype({'names':['col1','col2'], 'formats':['<i4','<f4'], 'offsets':[0,4],
,→'itemsize':12})
Offsets may be chosen such that the fields overlap, though this will mean that assigning to one field may clobber any
overlapping field’s data. As an exception, fields of numpy.object type cannot overlap with other fields, because
of the risk of clobbering the internal object pointer and then dereferencing it.
The optional ‘aligned’ value can be set to True to make the automatic offset computation use aligned offsets (see
Automatic Byte Offsets and Alignment), as if the ‘align’ keyword argument of numpy.dtype had been set to True.
The optional ‘titles’ value should be a list of titles of the same length as ‘names’, see Field Titles below.
4. A dictionary of field names
The use of this form of specification is discouraged, but documented here because older numpy code may use it.
The keys of the dictionary are the field names and the values are tuples specifying type and offset:
>>> np.dtype({'col1': ('i1', 0), 'col2': ('f4', 1)})

dtype([('col1', 'i1'), ('col2', '<f4')])
This form is discouraged because Python dictionaries do not preserve order in Python versions before Python 3.6,
and the order of the fields in a structured dtype has meaning. Field Titles may be specified by using a 3-tuple, see
below.
Manipulating and Displaying Structured Datatypes
The list of field names of a structured datatype can be found in the names attribute of the dtype object:
>>> d = np.dtype([('x', 'i8'), ('y', 'f4')])

>>> d.names
('x', 'y')
The field names may be modified by assigning to the names attribute using a sequence of strings of the same length.

The dtype object also has a dictionary-like attribute, fields, whose keys are the field names (and Field Titles, see below)
and whose values are tuples containing the dtype and byte offset of each field.
>>> d.fields
mappingproxy({'x': (dtype('int64'), 0), 'y': (dtype('float32'), 8)})
Both the names and fields attributes will equal None for unstructured arrays. The recommended way to test if a
dtype is structured is with if dt.names is not None rather than if dt.names, to account for dtypes with 0 fields.
The string representation of a structured datatype is shown in the “list of tuples” form if possible, otherwise numpy falls
back to using the more general dictionary form.
Automatic Byte Offsets and Alignment
Numpy uses one of two methods to automatically determine the field byte offsets and the overall itemsize of a structured
datatype, depending on whether align=True was specified as a keyword argument to numpy.dtype.
By default (align=False), numpy will pack the fields together such that each field starts at the byte offset the previous
field ended, and the fields are contiguous in memory.
>>> def print_offsets(d):

... print("offsets:", [d.fields[name][1] for name in d.names])
... print("itemsize:", d.itemsize)
>>> print_offsets(np.dtype('u1, u1, i4, u1, i8, u2'))
offsets: [0, 1, 2, 6, 7, 15]
itemsize: 17
If align=True is set, numpy will pad the structure in the same way many C compilers would pad a C-struct. Aligned
structures can give a performance improvement in some cases, at the cost of increased datatype size. Padding bytes are
inserted between fields such that each field’s byte offset will be a multiple of that field’s alignment, which is usually equal to
the field’s size in bytes for simple datatypes, see PyArray_Descr.alignment. The structure will also have trailing
padding added so that its itemsize is a multiple of the largest field’s alignment.
>>> print_offsets(np.dtype('u1, u1, i4, u1, i8, u2', align=True))

offsets: [0, 1, 4, 8, 16, 24]
itemsize: 32
Note that although almost all modern C compilers pad in this way by default, padding in C structs is C-implementation-
dependent so this memory layout is not guaranteed to exactly match that of a corresponding struct in a C program. Some
work may be needed, either on the numpy side or the C side, to obtain exact correspondence.
If offsets were specified using the optional offsets key in the dictionary-based dtype specification, setting
align=True will check that each field’s offset is a multiple of its size and that the itemsize is a multiple of the largest
field size, and raise an exception if not.
If the offsets of the fields and itemsize of a structured array satisfy the alignment conditions, the array will have the
ALIGNED flag set.
A convenience function numpy.lib.recfunctions.repack_fields converts an aligned dtype or array to a
packed one and vice versa. It takes either a dtype or structured ndarray as an argument, and returns a copy with fields
re-packed, with or without padding bytes.

Field Titles
In addition to field names, fields may also have an associated title, an alternate name, which is sometimes used as an
additional description or alias for the field. The title may be used to index an array, just like a field name.
To add titles when using the list-of-tuples form of dtype specification, the field name may be specified as a tuple of two
strings instead of a single string, which will be the field’s title and field name respectively. For example:
>>> np.dtype([(('my title', 'name'), 'f4')])

dtype([(('my title', 'name'), '<f4')])
When using the first form of dictionary-based specification, the titles may be supplied as an extra 'titles' key as de-
scribed above. When using the second (discouraged) dictionary-based specification, the title can be supplied by providing
a 3-element tuple (datatype, offset, title) instead of the usual 2-element tuple:
>>> np.dtype({'name': ('i4', 0, 'my title')})

dtype([(('my title', 'name'), '<i4')])
The dtype.fields dictionary will contain titles as keys, if any titles are used. This means effectively that a field with
a title will be represented twice in the fields dictionary. The tuple values for these fields will also have a third element, the
field title. Because of this, and because the names attribute preserves the field order while the fields attribute may
not, it is recommended to iterate through the fields of a dtype using the names attribute of the dtype, which will not list
titles, as in:
>>> for name in d.names:

... print(d.fields[name][:2])
(dtype('int64'), 0)
(dtype('float32'), 8)
Union types
Structured datatypes are implemented in numpy to have base type numpy.void by default, but it is possible to interpret
other numpy types as structured types using the (base_dtype, dtype) form of dtype specification described in
Data Type Objects. Here, base_dtype is the desired underlying dtype, and fields and flags will be copied from dtype.
This dtype is similar to a ‘union’ in C.
4.7.3 Indexing and Assignment to Structured arrays
Assigning data to a Structured Array
There are a number of ways to assign values to a structured array: Using python tuples, using scalar values, or using other
structured arrays.
Assignment from Python Native Types (Tuples)

The simplest way to assign values to a structured array is using python tuples. Each assigned value should be a tuple of
length equal to the number of fields in the array, and not a list or array as these will trigger numpy’s broadcasting rules.
The tuple’s elements are assigned to the successive fields of the array, from left to right:
>>> x = np.array([(1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6)], dtype='i8, f4, f8')

>>> x[1] = (7, 8, 9)
>>> x
array([(1, 2., 3.), (7, 8., 9.)],
dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f4'), ('f2', '<f8')])

Assignment from Scalars

A scalar assigned to a structured element will be assigned to all fields. This happens when a scalar is assigned to a
structured array, or when an unstructured array is assigned to a structured array:
>>> x = np.zeros(2, dtype='i8, f4, ?, S1')

>>> x[:] = 3
>>> x
array([(3, 3., True, b'3'), (3, 3., True, b'3')],
dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f4'), ('f2', '?'), ('f3', 'S1')])
>>> x[:] = np.arange(2)
>>> x
array([(0, 0., False, b'0'), (1, 1., True, b'1')],
dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f4'), ('f2', '?'), ('f3', 'S1')])
Structured arrays can also be assigned to unstructured arrays, but only if the structured datatype has just a single field:
>>> twofield = np.zeros(2, dtype=[('A', 'i4'), ('B', 'i4')])

>>> onefield = np.zeros(2, dtype=[('A', 'i4')])
>>> nostruct = np.zeros(2, dtype='i4')
>>> nostruct[:] = twofield
...
TypeError: Cannot cast array data from dtype([('A', '<i4'), ('B', '<i4')]) to dtype(
,→'int32') according to the rule 'unsafe'
Assignment from other Structured Arrays

Assignment between two structured arrays occurs as if the source elements had been converted to tuples and then assigned
to the destination elements. That is, the first field of the source array is assigned to the first field of the destination array, and
the second field likewise, and so on, regardless of field names. Structured arrays with a different number of fields cannot
be assigned to each other. Bytes of the destination structure which are not included in any of the fields are unaffected.
>>> a = np.zeros(3, dtype=[('a', 'i8'), ('b', 'f4'), ('c', 'S3')])

>>> b = np.ones(3, dtype=[('x', 'f4'), ('y', 'S3'), ('z', 'O')])
>>> b[:] = a
>>> b
array([(0., b'0.0', b''), (0., b'0.0', b''), (0., b'0.0', b'')],
dtype=[('x', '<f4'), ('y', 'S3'), ('z', 'O')])
Assignment involving subarrays

When assigning to fields which are subarrays, the assigned value will first be broadcast to the shape of the subarray.
Indexing Structured Arrays
Accessing Individual Fields

Individual fields of a structured array may be accessed and modified by indexing the array with the field name.
>>> x = np.array([(1, 2), (3, 4)], dtype=[('foo', 'i8'), ('bar', 'f4')])

>>> x['foo']
array([1, 3])
>>> x['foo'] = 10
>>> x
array([(10, 2.), (10, 4.)],
dtype=[('foo', '<i8'), ('bar', '<f4')])

The resulting array is a view into the original array. It shares the same memory locations and writing to the view will
modify the original array.
>>> y = x['bar']
>>> y[:] = 11
>>> x
array([(10, 11.), (10, 11.)],
dtype=[('foo', '<i8'), ('bar', '<f4')])
This view has the same dtype and itemsize as the indexed field, so it is typically a non-structured array, except in the case
of nested structures.
>>> y.dtype, y.shape, y.strides
(dtype('float32'), (2,), (12,))
If the accessed field is a subarray, the dimensions of the subarray are appended to the shape of the result:
>>> x = np.zeros((2, 2), dtype=[('a', np.int32), ('b', np.float64, (3, 3))])
>>> x['a'].shape
(2, 2)
>>> x['b'].shape
(2, 2, 3, 3)
Accessing Multiple Fields

One can index and assign to a structured array with a multi-field index, where the index is a list of field names.
Warning: The behavior of multi-field indexes changed from Numpy 1.15 to Numpy 1.16.
The result of indexing with a multi-field index is a view into the original array, as follows:
>>> a = np.zeros(3, dtype=[('a', 'i4'), ('b', 'i4'), ('c', 'f4')])
>>> a[['a', 'c']]
array([(0, 0.), (0, 0.), (0, 0.)],
dtype={'names':['a','c'], 'formats':['<i4','<f4'], 'offsets':[0,8], 'itemsize
,→':12})
Assignment to the view modifies the original array. The view’s fields will be in the order they were indexed. Note that
unlike for single-field indexing, the dtype of the view has the same itemsize as the original array, and has fields at the
same offsets as in the original array, and unindexed fields are merely missing.
Warning: In Numpy 1.15, indexing an array with a multi-field index returned a copy of the result above, but with
fields packed together in memory as if passed through numpy.lib.recfunctions.repack_fields.
The new behavior as of Numpy 1.16 leads to extra “padding” bytes at the location of unindexed fields compared to
1.15. You will need to update any code which depends on the data having a “packed” layout. For instance code such
as:
>>> a[['a', 'c']].view('i8') # Fails in Numpy 1.16
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: When changing to a smaller dtype, its size must be a divisor of the␣
,→size of original dtype
will need to be changed. This code has raised a FutureWarning since Numpy 1.12, and similar code has raised
FutureWarning since 1.7.

In 1.16 a number of functions have been introduced in the numpy.lib.recfunctions module

to help users account for this change. These are numpy.lib.recfunctions.repack_fields.
numpy.lib.recfunctions.structured_to_unstructured, numpy.lib.recfunctions.
unstructured_to_structured, numpy.lib.recfunctions.apply_along_fields,
numpy.lib.recfunctions.assign_fields_by_name, and numpy.lib.recfunctions.
require_fields.
The function numpy.lib.recfunctions.repack_fields can always be used to reproduce the old behav-
ior, as it will return a packed copy of the structured array. The code above, for example, can be replaced with:
>>> from numpy.lib.recfunctions import repack_fields
>>> repack_fields(a[['a', 'c']]).view('i8') # supported in 1.16
array([0, 0, 0])
Furthermore, numpy now provides a new function numpy.lib.recfunctions.

structured_to_unstructured which is a safer and more efficient alternative for users who wish to
convert structured arrays to unstructured arrays, as the view above is often indeded to do. This function allows safe
conversion to an unstructured type taking into account padding, often avoids a copy, and also casts the datatypes as
needed, unlike the view. Code such as:
>>> b = np.zeros(3, dtype=[('x', 'f4'), ('y', 'f4'), ('z', 'f4')])
>>> b[['x', 'z']].view('f4')
array([0., 0., 0., 0., 0., 0., 0., 0., 0.], dtype=float32)
can be made safer by replacing with:

>>> from numpy.lib.recfunctions import structured_to_unstructured
>>> structured_to_unstructured(b[['x', 'z']])
array([0, 0, 0])
Assignment to an array with a multi-field index modifies the original array:
>>> a[['a', 'c']] = (2, 3)

>>> a
array([(2, 0, 3.), (2, 0, 3.), (2, 0, 3.)],
dtype=[('a', '<i4'), ('b', '<i4'), ('c', '<f4')])
This obeys the structured array assignment rules described above. For example, this means that one can swap the values
of two fields using appropriate multi-field indexes:
>>> a[['a', 'c']] = a[['c', 'a']]
Indexing with an Integer to get a Structured Scalar

Indexing a single element of a structured array (with an integer index) returns a structured scalar:
>>> x = np.array([(1, 2., 3.)], dtype='i, f, f')

>>> scalar = x[0]
>>> scalar
(1, 2., 3.)
>>> type(scalar)
<class 'numpy.void'>
Unlike other numpy scalars, structured scalars are mutable and act like views into the original array, such that modifying
the scalar will modify the original array. Structured scalars also support access and assignment by field name:

>>> x = np.array([(1, 2), (3, 4)], dtype=[('foo', 'i8'), ('bar', 'f4')])

>>> s = x[0]
>>> s['bar'] = 100
>>> x
array([(1, 100.), (3, 4.)],
dtype=[('foo', '<i8'), ('bar', '<f4')])
Similarly to tuples, structured scalars can also be indexed with an integer:
>>> scalar = np.array([(1, 2., 3.)], dtype='i, f, f')[0]

>>> scalar[0]
1
>>> scalar[1] = 4
Thus, tuples might be thought of as the native Python equivalent to numpy’s structured types, much like native python
integers are the equivalent to numpy’s integer types. Structured scalars may be converted to a tuple by calling ndarray.
item:
>>> scalar.item(), type(scalar.item())

((1, 4.0, 3.0), <class 'tuple'>)
Viewing Structured Arrays Containing Objects
In order to prevent clobbering object pointers in fields of numpy.object type, numpy currently does not allow views
of structured arrays containing objects.
Structure Comparison
If the dtypes of two void structured arrays are equal, testing the equality of the arrays will result in a boolean array with
the dimensions of the original arrays, with elements set to True where all fields of the corresponding structures are equal.
Structured dtypes are equal if the field names, dtypes and titles are the same, ignoring endianness, and the fields are in
the same order:
>>> a = np.zeros(2, dtype=[('a', 'i4'), ('b', 'i4')])

>>> b = np.ones(2, dtype=[('a', 'i4'), ('b', 'i4')])
>>> a == b
array([False, False])
Currently, if the dtypes of two void structured arrays are not equivalent the comparison fails, returning the scalar value
False. This behavior is deprecated as of numpy 1.10 and will raise an error or perform elementwise comparison in the
future.
The < and > operators always return False when comparing void structured arrays, and arithmetic and bitwise operations
are not supported.

4.7.4 Record Arrays
As an optional convenience numpy provides an ndarray subclass, numpy.recarray, and associated helper functions
in the numpy.rec submodule, that allows access to fields of structured arrays by attribute instead of only by index.
Record arrays also use a special datatype, numpy.record, that allows field access by attribute on the structured scalars
obtained from the array.
The simplest way to create a record array is with numpy.rec.array:
>>> recordarr = np.rec.array([(1, 2., 'Hello'), (2, 3., "World")],
... dtype=[('foo', 'i4'),('bar', 'f4'), ('baz', 'S10')])
>>> recordarr.bar
array([ 2., 3.], dtype=float32)
>>> recordarr[1:2]
rec.array([(2, 3., b'World')],
dtype=[('foo', '<i4'), ('bar', '<f4'), ('baz', 'S10')])
>>> recordarr[1:2].foo
array([2], dtype=int32)
>>> recordarr.foo[1:2]
array([2], dtype=int32)
>>> recordarr[1].baz
b'World'
numpy.rec.array can convert a wide variety of arguments into record arrays, including structured arrays:
>>> arr = np.array([(1, 2., 'Hello'), (2, 3., "World")],
... dtype=[('foo', 'i4'), ('bar', 'f4'), ('baz', 'S10')])
>>> recordarr = np.rec.array(arr)
The numpy.rec module provides a number of other convenience functions for creating record arrays, see record array
creation routines.
A record array representation of a structured array can be obtained using the appropriate view:
>>> arr = np.array([(1, 2., 'Hello'), (2, 3., "World")],
... dtype=[('foo', 'i4'),('bar', 'f4'), ('baz', 'a10')])
>>> recordarr = arr.view(dtype=np.dtype((np.record, arr.dtype)),
... type=np.recarray)
For convenience, viewing an ndarray as type np.recarray will automatically convert to np.record datatype, so
the dtype can be left out of the view:
>>> recordarr = arr.view(np.recarray)
>>> recordarr.dtype
dtype((numpy.record, [('foo', '<i4'), ('bar', '<f4'), ('baz', 'S10')]))
To get back to a plain ndarray both the dtype and type must be reset. The following view does so, taking into account the
unusual case that the recordarr was not a structured type:
>>> arr2 = recordarr.view(recordarr.dtype.fields or recordarr.dtype, np.ndarray)
Record array fields accessed by index or by attribute are returned as a record array if the field has a structured type but
as a plain ndarray otherwise.
>>> recordarr = np.rec.array([('Hello', (1, 2)), ("World", (3, 4))],
... dtype=[('foo', 'S6'),('bar', [('A', int), ('B', int)])])
>>> type(recordarr.foo)


>>> type(recordarr.bar)
<class 'numpy.recarray'>
Note that if a field has the same name as an ndarray attribute, the ndarray attribute takes precedence. Such fields will be
inaccessible by attribute but will still be accessible by index.
4.7.5 Recarray Helper Functions
Collection of utilities to manipulate structured arrays.

Most of these functions were initially implemented by John Hunter for matplotlib. They have been rewritten and extended
for convenience.
numpy.lib.recfunctions.append_fields(base, names, data, dtypes=None, fill_value=-1, use-
mask=True, asrecarray=False)
Add new fields to an existing array.
The names of the fields are given with the names arguments, the corresponding values with the data arguments. If
a single field is appended, names, data and dtypes do not have to be lists but just values.
Parameters
base
[array] Input array to extend.
names
[string, sequence] String or sequence of strings corresponding to the names of the new fields.
data
[array or sequence of arrays] Array or sequence of arrays storing the fields to add to the base.
dtypes
[sequence of datatypes, optional] Datatype or sequence of datatypes. If None, the datatypes
are estimated from the data.
fill_value
[{float}, optional] Filling value used to pad missing data on the shorter arrays.
usemask
[{False, True}, optional] Whether to return a masked array or not.
asrecarray
[{False, True}, optional] Whether to return a recarray (MaskedRecords) or not.
numpy.lib.recfunctions.apply_along_fields(func, arr)
Apply function ‘func’ as a reduction across fields of a structured array.
This is similar to apply_along_axis, but treats the fields of a structured array as an extra axis. The fields are all first
cast to a common type following the type-promotion rules from numpy.result_type applied to the field’s
dtypes.
Parameters

func
[function] Function to apply on the “field” dimension. This function must support an axis
argument, like np.mean, np.sum, etc.
arr
[ndarray] Structured array for which to apply func.
Returns
out
[ndarray] Result of the recution operation
Examples
>>> from numpy.lib import recfunctions as rfn

>>> b = np.array([(1, 2, 5), (4, 5, 7), (7, 8 ,11), (10, 11, 12)],
... dtype=[('x', 'i4'), ('y', 'f4'), ('z', 'f8')])
>>> rfn.apply_along_fields(np.mean, b)
array([ 2.66666667, 5.33333333, 8.66666667, 11. ])
>>> rfn.apply_along_fields(np.mean, b[['x', 'z']])
array([ 3. , 5.5, 9. , 11. ])
numpy.lib.recfunctions.assign_fields_by_name(dst, src, zero_unassigned=True)

Assigns values from one structured array to another by field name.
Normally in numpy >= 1.14, assignment of one structured array to another copies fields “by position”, meaning
that the first field from the src is copied to the first field of the dst, and so on, regardless of field name.
This function instead copies “by field name”, such that fields in the dst are assigned from the identically named field
in the src. This applies recursively for nested structures. This is how structure assignment worked in numpy >= 1.6
to <= 1.13.
Parameters
dst
[ndarray]
src
[ndarray] The source and destination arrays during assignment.
zero_unassigned
[bool, optional] If True, fields in the dst for which there was no matching field in the src are
filled with the value 0 (zero). This was the behavior of numpy <= 1.13. If False, those fields
are not modified.
numpy.lib.recfunctions.drop_fields(base, drop_names, usemask=True, asrecarray=False)

Return a new array with fields in drop_names dropped.
Nested fields are supported.
..versionchanged: 1.18.0
drop_fields returns an array with 0 fields if all fields are dropped, rather than returning None as it did
previously.

Parameters
base
[array] Input array
drop_names
[string or sequence] String or sequence of strings corresponding to the names of the fields to
drop.
usemask
asrecarray
[string or sequence, optional] Whether to return a recarray or a mrecarray (asrecarray=True)
or a plain ndarray or masked array with flexible dtype. The default is False.
Examples

>>> a = np.array([(1, (2, 3.0)), (4, (5, 6.0))],
... dtype=[('a', np.int64), ('b', [('ba', np.double), ('bb', np.int64)])])
>>> rfn.drop_fields(a, 'a')
array([((2., 3),), ((5., 6),)],
dtype=[('b', [('ba', '<f8'), ('bb', '<i8')])])
>>> rfn.drop_fields(a, 'ba')
array([(1, (3,)), (4, (6,))], dtype=[('a', '<i8'), ('b', [('bb', '<i8')])])
>>> rfn.drop_fields(a, ['ba', 'bb'])
array([(1,), (4,)], dtype=[('a', '<i8')])
numpy.lib.recfunctions.find_duplicates(a, key=None, ignoremask=True, return_index=False)

Find the duplicates in a structured array along a given key
Parameters
a
[array-like] Input array
key
[{string, None}, optional] Name of the fields along which to check the duplicates. If None,
the search is performed by records
ignoremask
[{True, False}, optional] Whether masked data should be discarded or considered as dupli-
cates.
return_index
[{False, True}, optional] Whether to return the indices of the duplicated values.

Examples

>>> ndtype = [('a', int)]
>>> a = np.ma.array([1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3],
... mask=[0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1]).view(ndtype)
>>> rfn.find_duplicates(a, ignoremask=True, return_index=True)
(masked_array(data=[(1,), (1,), (2,), (2,)],
mask=[(False,), (False,), (False,), (False,)],
fill_value=(999999,),
dtype=[('a', '<i8')]), array([0, 1, 3, 4]))
numpy.lib.recfunctions.flatten_descr(ndtype)
Flatten a structured data-type description.
Examples

>>> ndtype = np.dtype([('a', '<i4'), ('b', [('ba', '<f8'), ('bb', '<i4')])])
>>> rfn.flatten_descr(ndtype)
(('a', dtype('int32')), ('ba', dtype('float64')), ('bb', dtype('int32')))
numpy.lib.recfunctions.get_fieldstructure(adtype, lastname=None, parents=None)

Returns a dictionary with fields indexing lists of their parent fields.
This function is used to simplify access to fields nested in other fields.
Parameters
adtype
[np.dtype] Input datatype
lastname
[optional] Last processed field name (used internally during recursion).
parents
[dictionary] Dictionary of parent fields (used interbally during recursion).
Examples

>>> ndtype = np.dtype([('A', int),
... ('B', [('BA', int),
... ('BB', [('BBA', int), ('BBB', int)])])])
>>> rfn.get_fieldstructure(ndtype)
... # XXX: possible regression, order of BBA and BBB is swapped
{'A': [], 'B': [], 'BA': ['B'], 'BB': ['B'], 'BBA': ['B', 'BB'], 'BBB': ['B', 'BB
,→']}
numpy.lib.recfunctions.get_names(adtype)
Returns the field names of the input datatype as a tuple.
Parameters

adtype
[dtype] Input datatype
Examples

>>> rfn.get_names(np.empty((1,), dtype=int))
...
AttributeError: 'numpy.ndarray' object has no attribute 'names'
>>> rfn.get_names(np.empty((1,), dtype=[('A',int), ('B', float)]))

...
>>> adtype = np.dtype([('a', int), ('b', [('ba', int), ('bb', int)])])
>>> rfn.get_names(adtype)
('a', ('b', ('ba', 'bb')))
numpy.lib.recfunctions.get_names_flat(adtype)
Returns the field names of the input datatype as a tuple. Nested structure are flattened beforehand.
Parameters
adtype
[dtype] Input datatype
Examples

>>> rfn.get_names_flat(np.empty((1,), dtype=int)) is None
...
>>> rfn.get_names_flat(np.empty((1,), dtype=[('A',int), ('B', float)]))
...
>>> adtype = np.dtype([('a', int), ('b', [('ba', int), ('bb', int)])])
>>> rfn.get_names_flat(adtype)
('a', 'b', 'ba', 'bb')
numpy.lib.recfunctions.join_by(key, r1, r2, jointype=’inner’, r1postfix=’1’, r2postfix=’2’, de-

faults=None, usemask=True, asrecarray=False)
Join arrays r1 and r2 on key key.
The key should be either a string or a sequence of string corresponding to the fields used to join the array. An
exception is raised if the key field cannot be found in the two input arrays. Neither r1 nor r2 should have any
duplicates along key: the presence of duplicates will make the output quite unreliable. Note that duplicates are not
looked for by the algorithm.
Parameters
key

[{string, sequence}] A string or a sequence of strings corresponding to the fields used for
comparison.
r1, r2
[arrays] Structured arrays.
jointype
[{‘inner’, ‘outer’, ‘leftouter’}, optional] If ‘inner’, returns the elements common to both r1 and
r2. If ‘outer’, returns the common elements as well as the elements of r1 not in r2 and the
elements of not in r2. If ‘leftouter’, returns the common elements and the elements of r1 not
in r2.
r1postfix
[string, optional] String appended to the names of the fields of r1 that are present in r2 but
absent of the key.
r2postfix
[string, optional] String appended to the names of the fields of r2 that are present in r1 but
absent of the key.
defaults
[{dictionary}, optional] Dictionary mapping field names to the corresponding default values.
usemask
[{True, False}, optional] Whether to return a MaskedArray (or MaskedRecords is asrecar-
ray==True) or a ndarray.
asrecarray
[{False, True}, optional] Whether to return a recarray (or MaskedRecords if usemask==True)
or just a flexible-type ndarray.
Notes
• The output is sorted along the key.

• A temporary array is formed by dropping the fields not in the key for the two arrays and concatenating the
result. This array is then sorted, and the common entries selected. The output is constructed by filling the
fields with the selected entries. Matching is not preserved if there are some duplicates…
numpy.lib.recfunctions.merge_arrays(seqarrays, fill_value=-1, flatten=False, usemask=False, as-

recarray=False)
Merge arrays field by field.
Parameters
seqarrays
[sequence of ndarrays] Sequence of arrays
fill_value
[{float}, optional] Filling value used to pad missing data on the shorter arrays.
flatten
[{False, True}, optional] Whether to collapse nested fields.

usemask
asrecarray
[{False, True}, optional] Whether to return a recarray (MaskedRecords) or not.
Notes
• Without a mask, the missing value will be filled with something, depending on what its corresponding type:
– -1 for integers
– -1.0 for floating point numbers
– '-' for characters
– '-1' for strings
– True for boolean values
• XXX: I just obtained these values empirically
Examples

>>> rfn.merge_arrays((np.array([1, 2]), np.array([10., 20., 30.])))
array([( 1, 10.), ( 2, 20.), (-1, 30.)],
dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f8')])
>>> rfn.merge_arrays((np.array([1, 2], dtype=np.int64),

... np.array([10., 20., 30.])), usemask=False)
array([(1, 10.0), (2, 20.0), (-1, 30.0)],
dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f8')])
>>> rfn.merge_arrays((np.array([1, 2]).view([('a', np.int64)]),
... np.array([10., 20., 30.])),
... usemask=False, asrecarray=True)
rec.array([( 1, 10.), ( 2, 20.), (-1, 30.)],
dtype=[('a', '<i8'), ('f1', '<f8')])
numpy.lib.recfunctions.rec_append_fields(base, names, data, dtypes=None)

Add new fields to an existing array.
The names of the fields are given with the names arguments, the corresponding values with the data arguments. If
a single field is appended, names, data and dtypes do not have to be lists but just values.
Parameters
base
[array] Input array to extend.
names
[string, sequence] String or sequence of strings corresponding to the names of the new fields.
data
[array or sequence of arrays] Array or sequence of arrays storing the fields to add to the base.

dtypes
[sequence of datatypes, optional] Datatype or sequence of datatypes. If None, the datatypes
are estimated from the data.
Returns
appended_array
[np.recarray]
See also:
append_fields
numpy.lib.recfunctions.rec_drop_fields(base, drop_names)
Returns a new numpy.recarray with fields in drop_names dropped.
numpy.lib.recfunctions.rec_join(key, r1, r2, jointype=’inner’, r1postfix=’1’, r2postfix=’2’, de-
faults=None)
Join arrays r1 and r2 on keys. Alternative to join_by, that always returns a np.recarray.
See also:
join_by
equivalent function
numpy.lib.recfunctions.recursive_fill_fields(input, output)
Fills fields from output with fields from input, with support for nested structures.
Parameters
input
[ndarray] Input array.
output
[ndarray] Output array.
Notes
• output should be at least the same size as input
Examples

>>> a = np.array([(1, 10.), (2, 20.)], dtype=[('A', np.int64), ('B', np.float64)])
>>> b = np.zeros((3,), dtype=a.dtype)
>>> rfn.recursive_fill_fields(a, b)
array([(1, 10.), (2, 20.), (0, 0.)], dtype=[('A', '<i8'), ('B', '<f8')])
numpy.lib.recfunctions.rename_fields(base, namemapper)
Rename the fields from a flexible-datatype ndarray or recarray.
Nested fields are supported.
Parameters

base
[ndarray] Input array whose fields must be modified.
namemapper
[dictionary] Dictionary mapping old field names to their new version.
Examples

>>> a = np.array([(1, (2, [3.0, 30.])), (4, (5, [6.0, 60.]))],
... dtype=[('a', int),('b', [('ba', float), ('bb', (float, 2))])])
>>> rfn.rename_fields(a, {'a':'A', 'bb':'BB'})
array([(1, (2., [ 3., 30.])), (4, (5., [ 6., 60.]))],
dtype=[('A', '<i8'), ('b', [('ba', '<f8'), ('BB', '<f8', (2,))])])
numpy.lib.recfunctions.repack_fields(a, align=False, recurse=False)

Re-pack the fields of a structured array or dtype in memory.
The memory layout of structured datatypes allows fields at arbitrary byte offsets. This means the fields can be
separated by padding bytes, their offsets can be non-monotonically increasing, and they can overlap.
This method removes any overlaps and reorders the fields in memory so they have increasing byte offsets, and adds
or removes padding bytes depending on the align option, which behaves like the align option to np.dtype.
If align=False, this method produces a “packed” memory layout in which each field starts at the byte the previous
field ended, and any padding bytes are removed.
If align=True, this methods produces an “aligned” memory layout in which each field’s offset is a multiple of its
alignment, and the total itemsize is a multiple of the largest alignment, by adding padding bytes as needed.
Parameters
a
[ndarray or dtype] array or dtype for which to repack the fields.
align
[boolean] If true, use an “aligned” memory layout, otherwise use a “packed” layout.
recurse
[boolean] If True, also repack nested structures.
Returns
repacked
[ndarray or dtype] Copy of a with fields repacked, or a itself if no repacking was needed.

Examples

>>> def print_offsets(d):
... print("offsets:", [d.fields[name][1] for name in d.names])
... print("itemsize:", d.itemsize)
...
>>> dt = np.dtype('u1, <i8, <f8', align=True)
>>> dt
dtype({'names':['f0','f1','f2'], 'formats':['u1','<i8','<f8'], 'offsets':[0,8,16],
,→ 'itemsize':24}, align=True)
>>> print_offsets(dt)
offsets: [0, 8, 16]
itemsize: 24
>>> packed_dt = rfn.repack_fields(dt)
>>> packed_dt
dtype([('f0', 'u1'), ('f1', '<i8'), ('f2', '<f8')])
>>> print_offsets(packed_dt)
offsets: [0, 1, 9]
itemsize: 17
numpy.lib.recfunctions.require_fields(array, required_dtype)
Casts a structured array to a new dtype using assignment by field-name.
This function assigns from the old to the new array by name, so the value of a field in the output array is the value
of the field with the same name in the source array. This has the effect of creating a new ndarray containing only
the fields “required” by the required_dtype.
If a field name in the required_dtype does not exist in the input array, that field is created and set to 0 in the output
array.
Parameters
a
[ndarray] array to cast
required_dtype
[dtype] datatype for output array
Returns
out
[ndarray] array with the new dtype, with field values copied from the fields in the input array
with the same name
Examples

>>> a = np.ones(4, dtype=[('a', 'i4'), ('b', 'f8'), ('c', 'u1')])
>>> rfn.require_fields(a, [('b', 'f4'), ('c', 'u1')])
array([(1., 1), (1., 1), (1., 1), (1., 1)],
dtype=[('b', '<f4'), ('c', 'u1')])
>>> rfn.require_fields(a, [('b', 'f4'), ('newf', 'u1')])
array([(1., 0), (1., 0), (1., 0), (1., 0)],
dtype=[('b', '<f4'), ('newf', 'u1')])

numpy.lib.recfunctions.stack_arrays(arrays, defaults=None, usemask=True, asrecarray=False,

autoconvert=False)
Superposes arrays fields by fields
Parameters
arrays
[array or sequence] Sequence of input arrays.
defaults
[dictionary, optional] Dictionary mapping field names to the corresponding default values.
usemask
[{True, False}, optional] Whether to return a MaskedArray (or MaskedRecords is asrecar-
ray==True) or a ndarray.
asrecarray
[{False, True}, optional] Whether to return a recarray (or MaskedRecords if usemask==True)
or just a flexible-type ndarray.
autoconvert
[{False, True}, optional] Whether automatically cast the type of the field to the maximum.
Examples

>>> x = np.array([1, 2,])
>>> rfn.stack_arrays(x) is x
True
>>> z = np.array([('A', 1), ('B', 2)], dtype=[('A', '|S3'), ('B', float)])
>>> zz = np.array([('a', 10., 100.), ('b', 20., 200.), ('c', 30., 300.)],
... dtype=[('A', '|S3'), ('B', np.double), ('C', np.double)])
>>> test = rfn.stack_arrays((z,zz))
>>> test
masked_array(data=[(b'A', 1.0, --), (b'B', 2.0, --), (b'a', 10.0, 100.0),
(b'b', 20.0, 200.0), (b'c', 30.0, 300.0)],
mask=[(False, False, True), (False, False, True),
(False, False, False), (False, False, False),
(False, False, False)],
fill_value=(b'N/A', 1.e+20, 1.e+20),
dtype=[('A', 'S3'), ('B', '<f8'), ('C', '<f8')])
numpy.lib.recfunctions.structured_to_unstructured(arr, dtype=None, copy=False, cast-

ing=’unsafe’)
Converts and n-D structured array into an (n+1)-D unstructured array.
The new array will have a new last dimension equal in size to the number of field-elements of the input array. If not
supplied, the output datatype is determined from the numpy type promotion rules applied to all the field datatypes.
Nested fields, as well as each element of any subarray fields, all count as a single field-elements.
Parameters
arr
[ndarray] Structured array or dtype to convert. Cannot contain object datatype.

dtype
[dtype, optional] The dtype of the output unstructured array.
copy
[bool, optional] See copy argument to ndarray.astype. If true, always return a copy. If
false, and dtype requirements are satisfied, a view is returned.
casting
[{‘no’, ‘equiv’, ‘safe’, ‘same_kind’, ‘unsafe’}, optional] See casting argument of ndarray.
astype. Controls what kind of data casting may occur.
Returns
unstructured
[ndarray] Unstructured array with one more dimension.
Examples

>>> a = np.zeros(4, dtype=[('a', 'i4'), ('b', 'f4,u2'), ('c', 'f4', 2)])
>>> a
array([(0, (0., 0), [0., 0.]), (0, (0., 0), [0., 0.]),
(0, (0., 0), [0., 0.]), (0, (0., 0), [0., 0.])],
dtype=[('a', '<i4'), ('b', [('f0', '<f4'), ('f1', '<u2')]), ('c', '<f4', (2,
,→))])
>>> rfn.structured_to_unstructured(a)
array([[0., 0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0., 0.]])
>>> b = np.array([(1, 2, 5), (4, 5, 7), (7, 8 ,11), (10, 11, 12)],
... dtype=[('x', 'i4'), ('y', 'f4'), ('z', 'f8')])
>>> np.mean(rfn.structured_to_unstructured(b[['x', 'z']]), axis=-1)
array([ 3. , 5.5, 9. , 11. ])
numpy.lib.recfunctions.unstructured_to_structured(arr, dtype=None, names=None,

align=False, copy=False, cast-
ing=’unsafe’)
Converts and n-D unstructured array into an (n-1)-D structured array.
The last dimension of the input array is converted into a structure, with number of field-elements equal to the size
of the last dimension of the input array. By default all output fields have the input array’s dtype, but an output
structured dtype with an equal number of fields-elements can be supplied instead.
Nested fields, as well as each element of any subarray fields, all count towards the number of field-elements.
Parameters
arr
[ndarray] Unstructured array or dtype to convert.
dtype
[dtype, optional] The structured dtype of the output array

names
[list of strings, optional] If dtype is not supplied, this specifies the field names for the output
dtype, in order. The field dtypes will be the same as the input array.
align
[boolean, optional] Whether to create an aligned memory layout.
copy
[bool, optional] See copy argument to ndarray.astype. If true, always return a copy. If
false, and dtype requirements are satisfied, a view is returned.
casting
[{‘no’, ‘equiv’, ‘safe’, ‘same_kind’, ‘unsafe’}, optional] See casting argument of ndarray.
astype. Controls what kind of data casting may occur.
Returns
structured
[ndarray] Structured array with fewer dimensions.
Examples

>>> dt = np.dtype([('a', 'i4'), ('b', 'f4,u2'), ('c', 'f4', 2)])
>>> a = np.arange(20).reshape((4,5))
>>> a
array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
[ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9],
[10, 11, 12, 13, 14],
[15, 16, 17, 18, 19]])
>>> rfn.unstructured_to_structured(a, dt)
array([( 0, ( 1., 2), [ 3., 4.]), ( 5, ( 6., 7), [ 8., 9.]),
(10, (11., 12), [13., 14.]), (15, (16., 17), [18., 19.])],
dtype=[('a', '<i4'), ('b', [('f0', '<f4'), ('f1', '<u2')]), ('c', '<f4', (2,
,→))])
4.8 Writing custom array containers
Numpy’s dispatch mechanism, introduced in numpy version v1.16 is the recommended approach for writing custom
N-dimensional array containers that are compatible with the numpy API and provide custom implementations of numpy
functionality. Applications include dask arrays, an N-dimensional array distributed across multiple nodes, and cupy arrays,
an N-dimensional array on a GPU.
To get a feel for writing custom array containers, we’ll begin with a simple example that has rather narrow utility but
illustrates the concepts involved.

>>> class DiagonalArray:
... def __init__(self, N, value):
... self._N = N
... self._i = value
4.8. Writing custom array containers 113


... def __repr__(self):
... return f"{self.__class__.__name__}(N={self._N}, value={self._i})"
... def __array__(self):
... return self._i * np.eye(self._N)
...
Our custom array can be instantiated like:

>>> arr = DiagonalArray(5, 1)
>>> arr
DiagonalArray(N=5, value=1)
We can convert to a numpy array using numpy.array or numpy.asarray, which will call its __array__ method
to obtain a standard numpy.ndarray.
>>> np.asarray(arr)
array([[1., 0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 1., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 1., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 1., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0., 1.]])
If we operate on arr with a numpy function, numpy will again use the __array__ interface to convert it to an array
and then apply the function in the usual way.
>>> np.multiply(arr, 2)
array([[2., 0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 2., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 2., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 2., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0., 2.]])
Notice that the return type is a standard numpy.ndarray.

>>> type(arr)
numpy.ndarray
How can we pass our custom array type through this function? Numpy allows a class to indicate that it would like to handle
computations in a custom-defined way through the interfaces __array_ufunc__ and __array_function__.
Let’s take one at a time, starting with _array_ufunc__. This method covers ufuncs, a class of functions that includes,
for example, numpy.multiply and numpy.sin.
The __array_ufunc__ receives:
• ufunc, a function like numpy.multiply
• method, a string, differentiating between numpy.multiply(...) and variants like numpy.multiply.
outer, numpy.multiply.accumulate, and so on. For the common case, numpy.multiply(...),
method == '__call__'.
• inputs, which could be a mixture of different types
• kwargs, keyword arguments passed to the function
For this example we will only handle the method __call__.
>>> from numbers import Number
>>> class DiagonalArray:


... self._N = N
... self._i = value
... def __array_ufunc__(self, ufunc, method, *inputs, **kwargs):
... if method == '__call__':
... N = None
... scalars = []
... for input in inputs:
... if isinstance(input, Number):
... scalars.append(input)
... elif isinstance(input, self.__class__):
... scalars.append(input._i)
... if N is not None:
... if N != self._N:
... raise TypeError("inconsistent sizes")
... else:
... N = self._N
... else:
... return NotImplemented
... return self.__class__(N, ufunc(*scalars, **kwargs))
... else:
...
Now our custom array type passes through numpy functions.

>>> np.multiply(arr, 3)
>>> np.add(arr, 3)
>>> np.sin(arr)
DiagonalArray(N=5, value=0.8414709848078965)
At this point arr + 3 does not work.
>>> arr + 3
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for *: 'DiagonalArray' and 'int'
To support it, we need to define the Python interfaces __add__, __lt__, and so on to dispatch to the corresponding
ufunc. We can achieve this conveniently by inheriting from the mixin NDArrayOperatorsMixin.
>>> import numpy.lib.mixins

>>> class DiagonalArray(numpy.lib.mixins.NDArrayOperatorsMixin):
... self._N = N
... self._i = value


... N = None
... scalars = []
... else:
... N = self._N
... else:
... else:
...

>>> arr + 3
>>> arr > 0
DiagonalArray(N=5, value=True)
Now let’s tackle __array_function__. We’ll create dict that maps numpy functions to our custom variants.
>>> HANDLED_FUNCTIONS = {}
>>> class DiagonalArray(numpy.lib.mixins.NDArrayOperatorsMixin):
... self._N = N
... self._i = value
... N = None
... scalars = []
... # In this case we accept only scalar numbers or DiagonalArrays.
... else:
... N = self._N
... else:
... else:


... def __array_function__(self, func, types, args, kwargs):
... if func not in HANDLED_FUNCTIONS:
... # Note: this allows subclasses that don't override
... # __array_function__ to handle DiagonalArray objects.
... if not all(issubclass(t, self.__class__) for t in types):
... return HANDLED_FUNCTIONS[func](*args, **kwargs)
...
A convenient pattern is to define a decorator implements that can be used to add functions to
HANDLED_FUNCTIONS.
>>> def implements(np_function):
... "Register an __array_function__ implementation for DiagonalArray objects."
... def decorator(func):
... HANDLED_FUNCTIONS[np_function] = func
... return func
... return decorator
...
Now we write implementations of numpy functions for DiagonalArray. For completeness, to support the usage
arr.sum() add a method sum that calls numpy.sum(self), and the same for mean.
>>> @implements(np.sum)
... def sum(arr):
... "Implementation of np.sum for DiagonalArray objects"
... return arr._i * arr._N
...
>>> @implements(np.mean)
... def mean(arr):
... "Implementation of np.mean for DiagonalArray objects"
... return arr._i / arr._N
...
>>> np.sum(arr)
5
>>> np.mean(arr)
0.2
If the user tries to use any numpy functions not included in HANDLED_FUNCTIONS, a TypeError will be raised by
numpy, indicating that this operation is not supported. For example, concatenating two DiagonalArrays does not
produce another diagonal array, so it is not supported.
>>> np.concatenate([arr, arr])
TypeError: no implementation found for 'numpy.concatenate' on types that implement __
,→array_function__: [<class '__main__.DiagonalArray'>]
Additionally, our implementations of sum and mean do not accept the optional arguments that numpy’s implementation
does.
>>> np.sum(arr, axis=0)
TypeError: sum() got an unexpected keyword argument 'axis'
The user always has the option of converting to a normal numpy.ndarray with numpy.asarray and using standard
numpy from there.

>>> np.concatenate([np.asarray(arr), np.asarray(arr)])

array([[1., 0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 1., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 1., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 1., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0., 1.],
[1., 0., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 1., 0., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 1., 0., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 1., 0.],
[0., 0., 0., 0., 1.]])
Refer to the dask source code and cupy source code for more fully-worked examples of custom array containers.
See also NEP 18.
4.9 Subclassing ndarray
4.9.1 Introduction
Subclassing ndarray is relatively simple, but it has some complications compared to other Python objects. On this page
we explain the machinery that allows you to subclass ndarray, and the implications for implementing a subclass.
ndarrays and object creation
Subclassing ndarray is complicated by the fact that new instances of ndarray classes can come about in three different
ways. These are:
1. Explicit constructor call - as in MySubClass(params). This is the usual route to Python instance creation.
2. View casting - casting an existing ndarray as a given subclass
3. New from template - creating a new instance from a template instance. Examples include returning slices from a
subclassed array, creating return types from ufuncs, and copying arrays. See Creating new from template for more
details
The last two are characteristics of ndarrays - in order to support things like array slicing. The complications of subclassing
ndarray are due to the mechanisms numpy has to support these latter two routes of instance creation.
4.9.2 View casting
View casting is the standard ndarray mechanism by which you take an ndarray of any subclass, and return a view of the
array as another (specified) subclass:

>>> # create a completely useless ndarray subclass
>>> class C(np.ndarray): pass
>>> # create a standard ndarray
>>> arr = np.zeros((3,))
>>> # take a view of it, as our useless subclass
>>> c_arr = arr.view(C)
>>> type(c_arr)
<class 'C'>

4.9.3 Creating new from template
New instances of an ndarray subclass can also come about by a very similar mechanism to View casting, when numpy
finds it needs to create a new instance from a template instance. The most obvious place this has to happen is when you
are taking slices of subclassed arrays. For example:
>>> v = c_arr[1:]
>>> type(v) # the view is of type 'C'
<class 'C'>
>>> v is c_arr # but it's a new instance
False
The slice is a view onto the original c_arr data. So, when we take a view from the ndarray, we return a new ndarray, of
the same class, that points to the data in the original.
There are other points in the use of ndarrays where we need such views, such as copying arrays (c_arr.copy()), cre-
ating ufunc output arrays (see also __array_wrap__ for ufuncs and other functions), and reducing methods (like c_arr.
mean()).
4.9.4 Relationship of view casting and new-from-template
These paths both use the same machinery. We make the distinction here, because they result in different input to your
methods. Specifically, View casting means you have created a new instance of your array type from any potential subclass
of ndarray. Creating new from template means you have created a new instance of your class from a pre-existing instance,
allowing you - for example - to copy across attributes that are particular to your subclass.
4.9.5 Implications for subclassing
If we subclass ndarray, we need to deal not only with explicit construction of our array type, but also View casting or
Creating new from template. NumPy has the machinery to do this, and this machinery that makes subclassing slightly
non-standard.
There are two aspects to the machinery that ndarray uses to support views and new-from-template in subclasses.
The first is the use of the ndarray.__new__ method for the main work of object initialization, rather then the more
usual __init__ method. The second is the use of the __array_finalize__ method to allow subclasses to clean
up after the creation of views and new instances from templates.
A brief Python primer on __new__ and __init__
__new__ is a standard Python method, and, if present, is called before __init__ when we create a class instance.
See the python __new__ documentation for more detail.
For example, consider the following Python code:
class C:
def __new__(cls, *args):
print('Cls in __new__:', cls)
print('Args in __new__:', args)
# The òbject` type __new__ method takes a single argument.
return object.__new__(cls)
def __init__(self, *args):

print('type(self) in __init__:', type(self))
print('Args in __init__:', args)
4.9. Subclassing ndarray 119

meaning that we get:
>>> c = C('hello')
Cls in __new__: <class 'C'>
Args in __new__: ('hello',)
type(self) in __init__: <class 'C'>
Args in __init__: ('hello',)
When we call C('hello'), the __new__ method gets its own class as first argument, and the passed argument, which
is the string 'hello'. After python calls __new__, it usually (see below) calls our __init__ method, with the
output of __new__ as the first argument (now a class instance), and the passed arguments following.
As you can see, the object can be initialized in the __new__ method or the __init__ method, or both, and in fact
ndarray does not have an __init__ method, because all the initialization is done in the __new__ method.
Why use __new__ rather than just the usual __init__? Because in some cases, as for ndarray, we want to be able to
return an object of some other class. Consider the following:
class D(C):
def __new__(cls, *args):
print('D cls is:', cls)
print('D args in __new__:', args)
return C.__new__(C, *args)
def __init__(self, *args):

# we never get here
print('In D __init__')
meaning that:
>>> obj = D('hello')

D cls is: <class 'D'>
D args in __new__: ('hello',)
Cls in __new__: <class 'C'>
Args in __new__: ('hello',)
>>> type(obj)
<class 'C'>
The definition of C is the same as before, but for D, the __new__ method returns an instance of class C rather than D.
Note that the __init__ method of D does not get called. In general, when the __new__ method returns an object of
class other than the class in which it is defined, the __init__ method of that class is not called.
This is how subclasses of the ndarray class are able to return views that preserve the class type. When taking a view, the
standard ndarray machinery creates the new ndarray object with something like:
obj = ndarray.__new__(subtype, shape, ...
where subdtype is the subclass. Thus the returned view is of the same class as the subclass, rather than being of class
ndarray.
That solves the problem of returning views of the same type, but now we have a new problem. The machinery of ndarray
can set the class this way, in its standard methods for taking views, but the ndarray __new__ method knows nothing
of what we have done in our own __new__ method in order to set attributes, and so on. (Aside - why not call obj =
subdtype.__new__(... then? Because we may not have a __new__ method with the same call signature).

The role of __array_finalize__
__array_finalize__ is the mechanism that numpy provides to allow subclasses to handle the various ways that
new instances get created.
Remember that subclass instances can come about in these three ways:
1. explicit constructor call (obj = MySubClass(params)). This will call the usual sequence of
MySubClass.__new__ then (if it exists) MySubClass.__init__.
2. View casting
3. Creating new from template
Our MySubClass.__new__ method only gets called in the case of the explicit constructor call, so we can’t rely on
MySubClass.__new__ or MySubClass.__init__ to deal with the view casting and new-from-template. It turns
out that MySubClass.__array_finalize__ does get called for all three methods of object creation, so this is
where our object creation housekeeping usually goes.
• For the explicit constructor call, our subclass will need to create a new ndarray instance of its own class. In practice
this means that we, the authors of the code, will need to make a call to ndarray.__new__(MySubClass,.
..), a class-hierarchy prepared call to super(MySubClass, cls).__new__(cls, ...), or do view
casting of an existing array (see below)
• For view casting and new-from-template, the equivalent of ndarray.__new__(MySubClass,... is called,
at the C level.
The arguments that __array_finalize__ receives differ for the three methods of instance creation above.
The following code allows us to look at the call sequences and arguments:
import numpy as np
class C(np.ndarray):
def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
print('In __new__ with class %s' % cls)
return super(C, cls).__new__(cls, *args, **kwargs)
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):

# in practice you probably will not need or want an __init__
# method for your subclass
print('In __init__ with class %s' % self.__class__)
def __array_finalize__(self, obj):

print('In array_finalize:')
print(' self type is %s' % type(self))
print(' obj type is %s' % type(obj))
Now:
>>> # Explicit constructor

>>> c = C((10,))
In __new__ with class <class 'C'>
In array_finalize:
self type is <class 'C'>
obj type is <type 'NoneType'>
In __init__ with class <class 'C'>
>>> # View casting
>>> cast_a = a.view(C)


In array_finalize:
obj type is <type 'numpy.ndarray'>
>>> # Slicing (example of new-from-template)
>>> cv = c[:1]
In array_finalize:
obj type is <class 'C'>
The signature of __array_finalize__ is:
One sees that the super call, which goes to ndarray.__new__, passes __array_finalize__ the new object,
of our own class (self) as well as the object from which the view has been taken (obj). As you can see from the output
above, the self is always a newly created instance of our subclass, and the type of obj differs for the three instance
creation methods:
• When called from the explicit constructor, obj is None
• When called from view casting, obj can be an instance of any subclass of ndarray, including our own.
• When called in new-from-template, obj is another instance of our own subclass, that we might use to update the
new self instance.
Because __array_finalize__ is the only method that always sees new instances being created, it is the sensible
place to fill in instance defaults for new object attributes, among other tasks.
This may be clearer with an example.
4.9.6 Simple example - adding an extra attribute to ndarray
import numpy as np
class InfoArray(np.ndarray):
def __new__(subtype, shape, dtype=float, buffer=None, offset=0,

strides=None, order=None, info=None):
# Create the ndarray instance of our type, given the usual
# ndarray input arguments. This will call the standard
# ndarray constructor, but return an object of our type.
# It also triggers a call to InfoArray.__array_finalize__
obj = super(InfoArray, subtype).__new__(subtype, shape, dtype,
buffer, offset, strides,
order)
# set the new 'info' attribute to the value passed
obj.info = info
# Finally, we must return the newly created object:
return obj

# ``self`` is a new object resulting from
# ndarray.__new__(InfoArray, ...), therefore it only has
# attributes that the ndarray.__new__ constructor gave it -
# i.e. those of a standard ndarray.
#


# We could have got to the ndarray.__new__ call in 3 ways:
# From an explicit constructor - e.g. InfoArray():
# obj is None
# (we're in the middle of the InfoArray.__new__
# constructor, and self.info will be set when we return to
# InfoArray.__new__)
if obj is None: return
# From view casting - e.g arr.view(InfoArray):
# obj is arr
# (type(obj) can be InfoArray)
# From new-from-template - e.g infoarr[:3]
# type(obj) is InfoArray
#
# Note that it is here, rather than in the __new__ method,
# that we set the default value for 'info', because this
# method sees all creation of default objects - with the
# InfoArray.__new__ constructor, but also with
# arr.view(InfoArray).
self.info = getattr(obj, 'info', None)
# We do not need to return anything
Using the object looks like this:
>>> obj = InfoArray(shape=(3,)) # explicit constructor

>>> type(obj)
<class 'InfoArray'>
>>> obj.info is None
True
>>> obj = InfoArray(shape=(3,), info='information')
>>> obj.info
'information'
>>> v = obj[1:] # new-from-template - here - slicing
>>> type(v)
<class 'InfoArray'>
>>> v.info
'information'
>>> arr = np.arange(10)
>>> cast_arr = arr.view(InfoArray) # view casting
>>> type(cast_arr)
<class 'InfoArray'>
>>> cast_arr.info is None
True
This class isn’t very useful, because it has the same constructor as the bare ndarray object, including passing in buffers
and shapes and so on. We would probably prefer the constructor to be able to take an already formed ndarray from the
usual numpy calls to np.array and return an object.

4.9.7 Slightly more realistic example - attribute added to existing array
Here is a class that takes a standard ndarray that already exists, casts as our type, and adds an extra attribute.
import numpy as np
class RealisticInfoArray(np.ndarray):
def __new__(cls, input_array, info=None):

# Input array is an already formed ndarray instance
# We first cast to be our class type
obj = np.asarray(input_array).view(cls)
# add the new attribute to the created instance
obj.info = info
# Finally, we must return the newly created object:
return obj

# see InfoArray.__array_finalize__ for comments
So:
>>> arr = np.arange(5)

>>> obj = RealisticInfoArray(arr, info='information')
>>> type(obj)
<class 'RealisticInfoArray'>
>>> obj.info
'information'
>>> v = obj[1:]
>>> type(v)
<class 'RealisticInfoArray'>
>>> v.info
'information'
4.9.8 __array_ufunc__ for ufuncs
New in version 1.13.

A subclass can override what happens when executing numpy ufuncs on it by overriding the default ndarray.
__array_ufunc__ method. This method is executed instead of the ufunc and should return either the result of
the operation, or NotImplemented if the operation requested is not implemented.
The signature of __array_ufunc__ is:
def __array_ufunc__(ufunc, method, *inputs, **kwargs):
- *ufunc* is the ufunc object that was called.

- *method* is a string indicating how the Ufunc was called, either
``"__call__"`` to indicate it was called directly, or one of its
:ref:`methods<ufuncs.methods>`: ``"reduce"``, ``"accumulate"``,
``"reduceat"``, ``"outer"``, or ``"at"``.
- *inputs* is a tuple of the input arguments to the `ùfunc``
- *kwargs* contains any optional or keyword arguments passed to the
function. This includes any `òut`` arguments, which are always
contained in a tuple.

A typical implementation would convert any inputs or outputs that are instances of one’s own class, pass everything on to
a superclass using super(), and finally return the results after possible back-conversion. An example, taken from the
test case test_ufunc_override_with_super in core/tests/test_umath.py, is the following.
input numpy as np
class A(np.ndarray):
def __array_ufunc__(self, ufunc, method, *inputs, out=None, **kwargs):
args = []
in_no = []
for i, input_ in enumerate(inputs):
if isinstance(input_, A):
in_no.append(i)
args.append(input_.view(np.ndarray))
else:
args.append(input_)
outputs = out
out_no = []
if outputs:
out_args = []
for j, output in enumerate(outputs):
if isinstance(output, A):
out_no.append(j)
out_args.append(output.view(np.ndarray))
else:
out_args.append(output)
kwargs['out'] = tuple(out_args)
else:
outputs = (None,) * ufunc.nout
info = {}
if in_no:
info['inputs'] = in_no
if out_no:
info['outputs'] = out_no
results = super(A, self).__array_ufunc__(ufunc, method,

*args, **kwargs)
if results is NotImplemented:
return NotImplemented
if method == 'at':
if isinstance(inputs[0], A):
inputs[0].info = info
return
if ufunc.nout == 1:
results = (results,)
results = tuple((np.asarray(result).view(A)
if output is None else output)
for result, output in zip(results, outputs))
if results and isinstance(results[0], A):
results[0].info = info
return results[0] if len(results) == 1 else results
So, this class does not actually do anything interesting: it just converts any instances of its own to regular ndarray (other-

wise, we’d get infinite recursion!), and adds an info dictionary that tells which inputs and outputs it converted. Hence,
e.g.,
>>> a = np.arange(5.).view(A)
>>> b = np.sin(a)
>>> b.info
{'inputs': [0]}
>>> b = np.sin(np.arange(5.), out=(a,))
>>> b.info
{'outputs': [0]}
>>> a = np.arange(5.).view(A)
>>> b = np.ones(1).view(A)
>>> c = a + b
>>> c.info
{'inputs': [0, 1]}
>>> a += b
>>> a.info
{'inputs': [0, 1], 'outputs': [0]}
Note that another approach would be to to use getattr(ufunc, methods)(*inputs, **kwargs) instead
of the super call. For this example, the result would be identical, but there is a difference if another operand also defines
__array_ufunc__. E.g., lets assume that we evalulate np.add(a, b), where b is an instance of another class B
that has an override. If you use super as in the example, ndarray.__array_ufunc__ will notice that b has an
override, which means it cannot evaluate the result itself. Thus, it will return NotImplemented and so will our class A.
Then, control will be passed over to b, which either knows how to deal with us and produces a result, or does not and
returns NotImplemented, raising a TypeError.
If instead, we replace our super call with getattr(ufunc, method), we effectively do np.add(a.view(np.
ndarray), b). Again, B.__array_ufunc__ will be called, but now it sees an ndarray as the other argu-
ment. Likely, it will know how to handle this, and return a new instance of the B class to us. Our example class is not
set up to handle this, but it might well be the best approach if, e.g., one were to re-implement MaskedArray using
__array_ufunc__.
As a final note: if the super route is suited to a given class, an advantage of using it is that it helps in constructing class
hierarchies. E.g., suppose that our other class B also used the super in its __array_ufunc__ implementation, and we
created a class C that depended on both, i.e., class C(A, B) (with, for simplicity, not another __array_ufunc__
override). Then any ufunc on an instance of C would pass on to A.__array_ufunc__, the super call in A would
go to B.__array_ufunc__, and the super call in B would go to ndarray.__array_ufunc__, thus allowing
A and B to collaborate.
4.9.9 __array_wrap__ for ufuncs and other functions
Prior to numpy 1.13, the behaviour of ufuncs could only be tuned using __array_wrap__ and
__array_prepare__. These two allowed one to change the output type of a ufunc, but, in contrast to
__array_ufunc__, did not allow one to make any changes to the inputs. It is hoped to eventually deprecate
these, but __array_wrap__ is also used by other numpy functions and methods, such as squeeze, so at the present
time is still needed for full functionality.
Conceptually, __array_wrap__ “wraps up the action” in the sense of allowing a subclass to set the type of the return
value and update attributes and metadata. Let’s show how this works with an example. First we return to the simpler
example subclass, but with a different name and some print statements:
import numpy as np
class MySubClass(np.ndarray):


def __new__(cls, input_array, info=None):
obj = np.asarray(input_array).view(cls)
obj.info = info
return obj

print('In __array_finalize__:')
print(' self is %s' % repr(self))
print(' obj is %s' % repr(obj))
def __array_wrap__(self, out_arr, context=None):

print('In __array_wrap__:')
print(' self is %s' % repr(self))
print(' arr is %s' % repr(out_arr))
# then just call the parent
return super(MySubClass, self).__array_wrap__(self, out_arr, context)
We run a ufunc on an instance of our new array:
>>> obj = MySubClass(np.arange(5), info='spam')

In __array_finalize__:
self is MySubClass([0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
obj is array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> arr2 = np.arange(5)+1
>>> ret = np.add(arr2, obj)
In __array_wrap__:
arr is array([1, 3, 5, 7, 9])
In __array_finalize__:
obj is MySubClass([0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> ret
MySubClass([1, 3, 5, 7, 9])
>>> ret.info
'spam'
Note that the ufunc (np.add) has called the __array_wrap__ method with arguments self as obj, and out_arr
as the (ndarray) result of the addition. In turn, the default __array_wrap__ (ndarray.__array_wrap__) has
cast the result to class MySubClass, and called __array_finalize__ - hence the copying of the info attribute.
This has all happened at the C level.
But, we could do anything we wanted:
class SillySubClass(np.ndarray):
def __array_wrap__(self, arr, context=None):

return 'I lost your data'
>>> arr1 = np.arange(5)

>>> obj = arr1.view(SillySubClass)
>>> arr2 = np.arange(5)
>>> ret = np.multiply(obj, arr2)
>>> ret
'I lost your data'

So, by defining a specific __array_wrap__ method for our subclass, we can tweak the output from ufuncs. The
__array_wrap__ method requires self, then an argument - which is the result of the ufunc - and an optional pa-
rameter context. This parameter is returned by ufuncs as a 3-element tuple: (name of the ufunc, arguments of the ufunc,
domain of the ufunc), but is not set by other numpy functions. Though, as seen above, it is possible to do otherwise,
__array_wrap__ should return an instance of its containing class. See the masked array subclass for an implemen-
tation.
In addition to __array_wrap__, which is called on the way out of the ufunc, there is also an __array_prepare__
method which is called on the way into the ufunc, after the output arrays are created but before any computation has been
performed. The default implementation does nothing but pass through the array. __array_prepare__ should not
attempt to access the array data or resize the array, it is intended for setting the output array type, updating attributes
and metadata, and performing any checks based on the input that may be desired before computation begins. Like
__array_wrap__, __array_prepare__ must return an ndarray or subclass thereof or raise an error.
4.9.10 Extra gotchas - custom __del__ methods and ndarray.base
One of the problems that ndarray solves is keeping track of memory ownership of ndarrays and their views. Consider the
case where we have created an ndarray, arr and have taken a slice with v = arr[1:]. The two objects are looking
at the same memory. NumPy keeps track of where the data came from for a particular array or view, with the base
attribute:
>>> # A normal ndarray, that owns its own data

>>> arr = np.zeros((4,))
>>> # In this case, base is None
>>> arr.base is None
True
>>> # We take a view
>>> v1 = arr[1:]
>>> # base now points to the array that it derived from
>>> v1.base is arr
True
>>> # Take a view of a view
>>> v2 = v1[1:]
>>> # base points to the view it derived from
>>> v2.base is v1
True
In general, if the array owns its own memory, as for arr in this case, then arr.base will be None - there are some
exceptions to this - see the numpy book for more details.
The base attribute is useful in being able to tell whether we have a view or the original array. This in turn can be useful
if we need to know whether or not to do some specific cleanup when the subclassed array is deleted. For example, we
may only want to do the cleanup if the original array is deleted, but not the views. For an example of how this can work,
have a look at the memmap class in numpy.core.

4.9.11 Subclassing and Downstream Compatibility
When sub-classing ndarray or creating duck-types that mimic the ndarray interface, it is your responsibility to decide
how aligned your APIs will be with those of numpy. For convenience, many numpy functions that have a corresponding
ndarray method (e.g., sum, mean, take, reshape) work by checking if the first argument to a function has a
method of the same name. If it exists, the method is called instead of coercing the arguments to a numpy array.
For example, if you want your sub-class or duck-type to be compatible with numpy’s sum function, the method signature
for this object’s sum method should be the following:
def sum(self, axis=None, dtype=None, out=None, keepdims=False):

...
This is the exact same method signature for np.sum, so now if a user calls np.sum on this object, numpy will call the
object’s own sum method and pass in these arguments enumerated above in the signature, and no errors will be raised
because the signatures are completely compatible with each other.
If, however, you decide to deviate from this signature and do something like this:
def sum(self, axis=None, dtype=None):

...
This object is no longer compatible with np.sum because if you call np.sum, it will pass in unexpected arguments out
and keepdims, causing a TypeError to be raised.
If you wish to maintain compatibility with numpy and its subsequent versions (which might add new keyword arguments)
but do not want to surface all of numpy’s arguments, your function’s signature should accept **kwargs. For example:
def sum(self, axis=None, dtype=None, **unused_kwargs):

...
This object is now compatible with np.sum again because any extraneous arguments (i.e. keywords that are not axis
or dtype) will be hidden away in the **unused_kwargs parameter.


CHAPTER
FIVE
MISCELLANEOUS
5.1 IEEE 754 Floating Point Special Values
Special values defined in numpy: nan, inf,

NaNs can be used as a poor-man’s mask (if you don’t care what the original value was)
Note: cannot use equality to test NaNs. E.g.:
>>> myarr = np.array([1., 0., np.nan, 3.])

>>> np.nonzero(myarr == np.nan)
(array([], dtype=int64),)
>>> np.nan == np.nan # is always False! Use special numpy functions instead.
False
>>> myarr[myarr == np.nan] = 0. # doesn't work
>>> myarr
array([ 1., 0., NaN, 3.])
>>> myarr[np.isnan(myarr)] = 0. # use this instead find
>>> myarr
array([ 1., 0., 0., 3.])
Other related special value functions:
isinf(): True if value is inf

isfinite(): True if not nan or inf
nan_to_num(): Map nan to 0, inf to max float, -inf to min float
The following corresponds to the usual functions except that nans are excluded from the results:
nansum()
nanmax()
nanmin()
nanargmax()
nanargmin()
>>> x = np.arange(10.)
>>> x[3] = np.nan
>>> x.sum()
nan
>>> np.nansum(x)
42.0
131
5.2 How numpy handles numerical exceptions
The default is to 'warn' for invalid, divide, and overflow and 'ignore' for underflow. But this can be
changed, and it can be set individually for different kinds of exceptions. The different behaviors are:
• ‘ignore’ : Take no action when the exception occurs.
• ‘warn’ : Print a RuntimeWarning (via the Python warnings module).
• ‘raise’ : Raise a FloatingPointError.
• ‘call’ : Call a function specified using the seterrcall function.
• ‘print’ : Print a warning directly to stdout.
• ‘log’ : Record error in a Log object specified by seterrcall.
These behaviors can be set for all kinds of errors or specific ones:
• all : apply to all numeric exceptions
• invalid : when NaNs are generated
• divide : divide by zero (for integers as well!)
• overflow : floating point overflows
• underflow : floating point underflows
Note that integer divide-by-zero is handled by the same machinery. These behaviors are set on a per-thread basis.
5.3 Examples
>>> oldsettings = np.seterr(all='warn')

>>> np.zeros(5,dtype=np.float32)/0.
invalid value encountered in divide
>>> j = np.seterr(under='ignore')
>>> np.array([1.e-100])**10
>>> j = np.seterr(invalid='raise')
>>> np.sqrt(np.array([-1.]))
FloatingPointError: invalid value encountered in sqrt
>>> def errorhandler(errstr, errflag):
... print("saw stupid error!")
>>> np.seterrcall(errorhandler)
<function err_handler at 0x...>
>>> j = np.seterr(all='call')
>>> np.zeros(5, dtype=np.int32)/0
FloatingPointError: invalid value encountered in divide
saw stupid error!
>>> j = np.seterr(**oldsettings) # restore previous
... # error-handling settings
132 Chapter 5. Miscellaneous

5.4 Interfacing to C
Only a survey of the choices. Little detail on how each works.

1) Bare metal, wrap your own C-code manually.
• Plusses:
– Efficient
– No dependencies on other tools
• Minuses:
– Lots of learning overhead:
∗ need to learn basics of Python C API
∗ need to learn basics of numpy C API
∗ need to learn how to handle reference counting and love it.
– Reference counting often difficult to get right.
∗ getting it wrong leads to memory leaks, and worse, segfaults
– API will change for Python 3.0!
2) Cython
• Plusses:
– avoid learning C API’s
– no dealing with reference counting
– can code in pseudo python and generate C code
– can also interface to existing C code
– should shield you from changes to Python C api
– has become the de-facto standard within the scientific Python community
– fast indexing support for arrays
• Minuses:
– Can write code in non-standard form which may become obsolete
– Not as flexible as manual wrapping
3) ctypes
• Plusses:
– part of Python standard library
– good for interfacing to existing sharable libraries, particularly Windows DLLs
– avoids API/reference counting issues
– good numpy support: arrays have all these in their ctypes attribute:
a.ctypes.data a.ctypes.get_strides
a.ctypes.data_as a.ctypes.shape
a.ctypes.get_as_parameter a.ctypes.shape_as
5.4. Interfacing to C 133


a.ctypes.get_data a.ctypes.strides
a.ctypes.get_shape a.ctypes.strides_as
• Minuses:
– can’t use for writing code to be turned into C extensions, only a wrapper tool.
4) SWIG (automatic wrapper generator)
• Plusses:
– around a long time
– multiple scripting language support
– C++ support
– Good for wrapping large (many functions) existing C libraries
• Minuses:
– generates lots of code between Python and the C code
– can cause performance problems that are nearly impossible to optimize out
– interface files can be hard to write
– doesn’t necessarily avoid reference counting issues or needing to know API’s
5) scipy.weave
• Plusses:
– can turn many numpy expressions into C code
– dynamic compiling and loading of generated C code
– can embed pure C code in Python module and have weave extract, generate interfaces and compile, etc.
• Minuses:
– Future very uncertain: it’s the only part of Scipy not ported to Python 3 and is effectively deprecated in favor
of Cython.
6) Psyco
• Plusses:
– Turns pure python into efficient machine code through jit-like optimizations
– very fast when it optimizes well
• Minuses:
– Only on intel (windows?)
– Doesn’t do much for numpy?

5.5 Interfacing to Fortran:
The clear choice to wrap Fortran code is f2py.

Pyfort is an older alternative, but not supported any longer. Fwrap is a newer project that looked promising but isn’t being
developed any longer.
5.6 Interfacing to C++:
1) Cython
2) CXX
3) Boost.python
4) SWIG
5) SIP (used mainly in PyQT)
5.5. Interfacing to Fortran: 135


CHAPTER
SIX
NUMPY FOR MATLAB USERS
6.1 Introduction
MATLAB® and NumPy/SciPy have a lot in common. But there are many differences. NumPy and SciPy were created
to do numerical and scientific computing in the most natural way with Python, not to be MATLAB® clones. This page is
intended to be a place to collect wisdom about the differences, mostly for the purpose of helping proficient MATLAB®
users become proficient NumPy and SciPy users.
6.2 Some Key Differences
In MATLAB®, the basic data type is a multidi- In NumPy the basic type is a multidimensional array. Oper-
mensional array of double precision floating point ations on these arrays in all dimensionalities including 2D are
numbers. Most expressions take such arrays and re- element-wise operations. One needs to use specific functions
turn such arrays. Operations on the 2-D instances for linear algebra (though for matrix multiplication, one can use
of these arrays are designed to act more or less like the @ operator in python 3.5 and above).
matrix operations in linear algebra.
MATLAB® uses 1 (one) based indexing. The ini- Python uses 0 (zero) based indexing. The initial element of a
tial element of a sequence is found using a(1). See sequence is found using a[0].
note INDEXING
MATLAB®’s scripting language was created for NumPy is based on Python, which was designed from the out-
doing linear algebra. The syntax for basic matrix set to be an excellent general-purpose programming language.
operations is nice and clean, but the API for adding While Matlab’s syntax for some array manipulations is more
GUIs and making full-fledged applications is more compact than NumPy’s, NumPy (by virtue of being an add-on
or less an afterthought. to Python) can do many things that Matlab just cannot, for in-
stance dealing properly with stacks of matrices.
In MATLAB®, arrays have pass-by-value seman- In NumPy arrays have pass-by-reference semantics. Slice oper-
tics, with a lazy copy-on-write scheme to pre- ations are views into an array.
vent actually creating copies until they are actually
needed. Slice operations copy parts of the array.
137
6.3 ‘array’ or ‘matrix’? Which should I use?
Historically, NumPy has provided a special matrix type, np.matrix, which is a subclass of ndarray which makes binary
operations linear algebra operations. You may see it used in some existing code instead of np.array. So, which one to
use?
6.3.1 Short answer
Use arrays.
• They are the standard vector/matrix/tensor type of numpy. Many numpy functions return arrays, not matrices.
• There is a clear distinction between element-wise operations and linear algebra operations.
• You can have standard vectors or row/column vectors if you like.
Until Python 3.5 the only disadvantage of using the array type was that you had to use dot instead of * to multiply (reduce)
two tensors (scalar product, matrix vector multiplication etc.). Since Python 3.5 you can use the matrix multiplication @
operator.
Given the above, we intend to deprecate matrix eventually.
6.3.2 Long answer
NumPy contains both an array class and a matrix class. The array class is intended to be a general-purpose
n-dimensional array for many kinds of numerical computing, while matrix is intended to facilitate linear algebra com-
putations specifically. In practice there are only a handful of key differences between the two.
• Operators * and @, functions dot(), and multiply():
– For array, “*“ means element-wise multiplication, while “@“ means matrix multiplication; they have
associated functions multiply() and dot(). (Before python 3.5, @ did not exist and one had to use
dot() for matrix multiplication).
– For matrix, “*“ means matrix multiplication, and for element-wise multiplication one has to use the
multiply() function.
• Handling of vectors (one-dimensional arrays)
– For array, the vector shapes 1xN, Nx1, and N are all different things. Operations like A[:,1] return a
one-dimensional array of shape N, not a two-dimensional array of shape Nx1. Transpose on a one-dimensional
array does nothing.
– For matrix, one-dimensional arrays are always upconverted to 1xN or Nx1 matrices (row or column
vectors). A[:,1] returns a two-dimensional matrix of shape Nx1.
• Handling of higher-dimensional arrays (ndim > 2)
– array objects can have number of dimensions > 2;
– matrix objects always have exactly two dimensions.
• Convenience attributes
– array has a .T attribute, which returns the transpose of the data.
– matrix also has .H, .I, and .A attributes, which return the conjugate transpose, inverse, and asarray()
of the matrix, respectively.
• Convenience constructor
138 Chapter 6. NumPy for Matlab users

– The array constructor takes (nested) Python sequences as initializers. As in, array([[1,2,3],
[4,5,6]]).
– The matrix constructor additionally takes a convenient string initializer. As in matrix("[1 2 3;
4 5 6]").
There are pros and cons to using both:
• array
– :) Element-wise multiplication is easy: A*B.
– :( You have to remember that matrix multiplication has its own operator, @.
– :) You can treat one-dimensional arrays as either row or column vectors. A @ v treats v as a column vector,
while v @ A treats v as a row vector. This can save you having to type a lot of transposes.
– :) array is the “default” NumPy type, so it gets the most testing, and is the type most likely to be returned
by 3rd party code that uses NumPy.
– :) Is quite at home handling data of any number of dimensions.
– :) Closer in semantics to tensor algebra, if you are familiar with that.
– :) All operations (*, /, +, - etc.) are element-wise.
– :( Sparse matrices from scipy.sparse do not interact as well with arrays.
• matrix
– :\\ Behavior is more like that of MATLAB® matrices.
– <:( Maximum of two-dimensional. To hold three-dimensional data you need array or perhaps a Python
list of matrix.
– <:( Minimum of two-dimensional. You cannot have vectors. They must be cast as single-column or single-
row matrices.
– <:( Since array is the default in NumPy, some functions may return an array even if you give them a
matrix as an argument. This shouldn’t happen with NumPy functions (if it does it’s a bug), but 3rd party
code based on NumPy may not honor type preservation like NumPy does.
– :) A*B is matrix multiplication, so it looks just like you write it in linear algebra (For Python >= 3.5 plain
arrays have the same convenience with the @ operator).
– <:( Element-wise multiplication requires calling a function, multiply(A,B).
– <:( The use of operator overloading is a bit illogical: * does not work element-wise but / does.
– Interaction with scipy.sparse is a bit cleaner.
The array is thus much more advisable to use. Indeed, we intend to deprecate matrix eventually.
6.4 Table of Rough MATLAB-NumPy Equivalents
The table below gives rough equivalents for some common MATLAB® expressions. These are not exact equivalents,
but rather should be taken as hints to get you going in the right direction. For more detail read the built-in documentation
on the NumPy functions.
In the table below, it is assumed that you have executed the following commands in Python:
from numpy import *

import scipy.linalg
6.4. Table of Rough MATLAB-NumPy Equivalents 139

Also assume below that if the Notes talk about “matrix” that the arguments are two-dimensional entities.
6.4.1 General Purpose Equivalents
MATLAB numpy Notes

help info(func) or help(func) or get help on the function func
func func? (in Ipython)
which see note HELP find out where func is defined
func
type source(func) or func?? (in print source for func (if not a native function)
func Ipython)
a && b a and b short-circuiting logical AND operator (Python native op-
erator); scalar arguments only
a || b a or b short-circuiting logical OR operator (Python native op-
erator); scalar arguments only
1*i, 1*j, 1j complex numbers
1i, 1j
eps np.spacing(1) Distance between 1 and the nearest floating point num-
ber.
ode45 scipy.integrate. integrate an ODE with Runge-Kutta 4,5
solve_ivp(f)
ode15s scipy.integrate. integrate an ODE with BDF method
solve_ivp(f, method='BDF')
6.4.2 Linear Algebra Equivalents
MATLAB NumPy
ndims(a) ndim(a) or a.ndim
numel(a) size(a) or a.size
size(a) shape(a) or a.shape
size(a,n) a.shape[n-1]
[ 1 2 3; 4 5 6 ] array([[1.,2.,3.], [4.,5.,6.]])
[ a b; c d ] block([[a,b], [c,d]])
a(end) a[-1]
a(2,5) a[1,4]
a(2,:) a[1] or a[1,:]
a(1:5,:) a[0:5] or a[:5] or a[0:5,:]
a(end-4:end,:) a[-5:]
a(1:3,5:9) a[0:3][:,4:9]
a([2,4,5],[1,3]) a[ix_([1,3,4],[0,2])]
a(3:2:21,:) a[ 2:21:2,:]
a(1:2:end,:) a[ ::2,:]
a(end:-1:1,:) or flipud(a) a[ ::-1,:]
a([1:end 1],:) a[r_[:len(a),0]]
a.' a.transpose() or a.T
a' a.conj().transpose() or a.conj().T
a * b a @ b
a .* b a * b

MATLAB NumPy
a./b a/b
a.^3 a**3
(a>0.5) (a>0.5)
find(a>0.5) nonzero(a>0.5)
a(:,find(v>0.5)) a[:,nonzero(v>0.5)[0]]
a(:,find(v>0.5)) a[:,v.T>0.5]
a(a<0.5)=0 a[a<0.5]=0
a .* (a>0.5) a * (a>0.5)
a(:) = 3 a[:] = 3
y=x y = x.copy()
y=x(2,:) y = x[1,:].copy()
y=x(:) y = x.flatten()
1:10 arange(1.,11.) or r_[1.:11.] or r_[1:10:10j]
0:9 arange(10.) or r_[:10.] or r_[:9:10j]
[1:10]' arange(1.,11.)[:, newaxis]
zeros(3,4) zeros((3,4))
zeros(3,4,5) zeros((3,4,5))
ones(3,4) ones((3,4))
eye(3) eye(3)
diag(a) diag(a)
diag(a,0) diag(a,0)
rand(3,4) random.rand(3,4) or random.random_sample((3, 4))
linspace(1,3,4) linspace(1,3,4)
[x,y]=meshgrid(0:8,0:5) mgrid[0:9.,0:6.] or meshgrid(r_[0:9.],r_[0:6.]
ogrid[0:9.,0:6.] or ix_(r_[0:9.],r_[0:6.]
[x,y]=meshgrid([1,2,4],[2,4,5]) meshgrid([1,2,4],[2,4,5])
ix_([1,2,4],[2,4,5])
repmat(a, m, n) tile(a, (m, n))
[a b] concatenate((a,b),1) or hstack((a,b)) or column_stack((a,b))
[a; b] concatenate((a,b)) or vstack((a,b)) or r_[a,b]
max(max(a)) a.max()
max(a) a.max(0)
max(a,[],2) a.max(1)
max(a,b) maximum(a, b)
norm(v) sqrt(v @ v) or np.linalg.norm(v)
a & b logical_and(a,b)
a | b logical_or(a,b)
bitand(a,b) a & b
bitor(a,b) a | b
inv(a) linalg.inv(a)
pinv(a) linalg.pinv(a)
rank(a) linalg.matrix_rank(a)
a\b linalg.solve(a,b) if a is square; linalg.lstsq(a,b) otherwise
b/a Solve a.T x.T = b.T instead
[U,S,V]=svd(a) U, S, Vh = linalg.svd(a), V = Vh.T
chol(a) linalg.cholesky(a).T
[V,D]=eig(a) D,V = linalg.eig(a)
[V,D]=eig(a,b) D,V = scipy.linalg.eig(a,b)
[V,D]=eigs(a,k)
6.4. Table of Rough MATLAB-NumPy Equivalents 141

MATLAB NumPy
[Q,R,P]=qr(a,0) Q,R = scipy.linalg.qr(a)
[L,U,P]=lu(a) L,U = scipy.linalg.lu(a) or LU,P=scipy.linalg.lu_factor(a)
conjgrad scipy.sparse.linalg.cg
fft(a) fft(a)
ifft(a) ifft(a)
sort(a) sort(a) or a.sort()
[b,I] = sortrows(a,i) I = argsort(a[:,i]), b=a[I,:]
regress(y,X) linalg.lstsq(X,y)
decimate(x, q) scipy.signal.resample(x, len(x)/q)
unique(a) unique(a)
squeeze(a) a.squeeze()
6.5 Notes
Submatrix: Assignment to a submatrix can be done with lists of indexes using the ix_ command. E.g., for 2d array a,
one might do: ind=[1,3]; a[np.ix_(ind,ind)]+=100.
HELP: There is no direct equivalent of MATLAB’s which command, but the commands help and source will
usually list the filename where the function is located. Python also has an inspect module (do import inspect)
which provides a getfile that often works.
INDEXING: MATLAB® uses one based indexing, so the initial element of a sequence has index 1. Python uses zero
based indexing, so the initial element of a sequence has index 0. Confusion and flamewars arise because each has advan-
tages and disadvantages. One based indexing is consistent with common human language usage, where the “first” element
of a sequence has index 1. Zero based indexing simplifies indexing. See also a text by prof.dr. Edsger W. Dijkstra.
RANGES: In MATLAB®, 0:5 can be used as both a range literal and a ‘slice’ index (inside parentheses); however, in
Python, constructs like 0:5 can only be used as a slice index (inside square brackets). Thus the somewhat quirky r_
object was created to allow numpy to have a similarly terse range construction mechanism. Note that r_ is not called like
a function or a constructor, but rather indexed using square brackets, which allows the use of Python’s slice syntax in the
arguments.
LOGICOPS: & or | in NumPy is bitwise AND/OR, while in Matlab & and | are logical AND/OR. The difference should
be clear to anyone with significant programming experience. The two can appear to work the same, but there are important
differences. If you would have used Matlab’s & or | operators, you should use the NumPy ufuncs logical_and/logical_or.
The notable differences between Matlab’s and NumPy’s & and | operators are:
• Non-logical {0,1} inputs: NumPy’s output is the bitwise AND of the inputs. Matlab treats any non-zero value as
1 and returns the logical AND. For example (3 & 4) in NumPy is 0, while in Matlab both 3 and 4 are considered
logical true and (3 & 4) returns 1.
• Precedence: NumPy’s & operator is higher precedence than logical operators like < and >; Matlab’s is the reverse.
If you know you have boolean arguments, you can get away with using NumPy’s bitwise operators, but be careful with
parentheses, like this: z = (x > 1) & (x < 2). The absence of NumPy operator forms of logical_and and logical_or is an
unfortunate consequence of Python’s design.
RESHAPE and LINEAR INDEXING: Matlab always allows multi-dimensional arrays to be accessed using scalar or
linear indices, NumPy does not. Linear indices are common in Matlab programs, e.g. find() on a matrix returns them,
whereas NumPy’s find behaves differently. When converting Matlab code it might be necessary to first reshape a matrix
to a linear sequence, perform some indexing operations and then reshape back. As reshape (usually) produces views onto
the same storage, it should be possible to do this fairly efficiently. Note that the scan order used by reshape in NumPy
defaults to the ‘C’ order, whereas Matlab uses the Fortran order. If you are simply converting to a linear sequence and

back this doesn’t matter. But if you are converting reshapes from Matlab code which relies on the scan order, then this
Matlab code: z = reshape(x,3,4); should become z = x.reshape(3,4,order=’F’).copy() in NumPy.
6.6 Customizing Your Environment
In MATLAB® the main tool available to you for customizing the environment is to modify the search path with the
locations of your favorite functions. You can put such customizations into a startup script that MATLAB will run on
startup.
NumPy, or rather Python, has similar facilities.
• To modify your Python search path to include the locations of your own modules, define the PYTHONPATH envi-
ronment variable.
• To have a particular script file executed when the interactive Python interpreter is started, define the
PYTHONSTARTUP environment variable to contain the name of your startup script.
Unlike MATLAB®, where anything on your path can be called immediately, with Python you need to first do an ‘import’
statement to make functions in a particular file accessible.
For example you might make a startup script that looks like this (Note: this is just an example, not a statement of “best
practices”):
# Make all numpy available via shorter 'np' prefix

import numpy as np
# Make all matlib functions accessible at the top level via M.func()
import numpy.matlib as M
# Make some matlib functions accessible directly at the top level via, e.g. rand(3,3)
from numpy.matlib import rand,zeros,ones,empty,eye
# Define a Hermitian function
def hermitian(A, **kwargs):
return np.transpose(A,**kwargs).conj()
# Make some shortcuts for transpose,hermitian:
# np.transpose(A) --> T(A)
# hermitian(A) --> H(A)
T = np.transpose
H = hermitian
6.7 Links
See http://mathesaurus.sf.net/ for another MATLAB®/NumPy cross-reference.

An extensive list of tools for scientific work with python can be found in the topical software page.
MATLAB® and SimuLink® are registered trademarks of The MathWorks.
6.6. Customizing Your Environment 143


CHAPTER
SEVEN
BUILDING FROM SOURCE
A general overview of building NumPy from source is given here, with detailed instructions for specific platforms given
separately.
7.1 Prerequisites
Building NumPy requires the following software installed:

1) Python 3.6.x or newer
Please note that the Python development headers also need to be installed, e.g., on Debian/Ubuntu one needs to
install both python3 and python3-dev. On Windows and macOS this is normally not an issue.
2) Compilers
To build any extension modules for Python, you’ll need a C compiler. Various NumPy modules use FORTRAN
77 libraries, so you’ll also need a FORTRAN 77 compiler installed.
Note that NumPy is developed mainly using GNU compilers and tested on MSVC and Clang compilers. Com-
pilers from other vendors such as Intel, Absoft, Sun, NAG, Compaq, Vast, Portland, Lahey, HP, IBM are only
supported in the form of community feedback, and may not work out of the box. GCC 4.x (and later) compilers
are recommended.
3) Linear Algebra libraries
NumPy does not require any external linear algebra libraries to be installed. However, if these are available,
NumPy’s setup script can detect them and use them for building. A number of different LAPACK library setups
can be used, including optimized LAPACK libraries such as OpenBLAS or MKL. The choice and location of these
libraries as well as include paths and other such build options can be specified in a site.cfg file located in the
NumPy root repository or a .numpy-site.cfg file in your home directory. See the site.cfg.example
example file included in the NumPy repository or sdist for documentation, and below for specifying search priority
from environmental variables.
4) Cython
For building NumPy, you’ll need a recent version of Cython.
145
7.2 Basic Installation
To install NumPy, run:
pip install .
To perform an in-place build that can be run from the source folder run:
python setup.py build_ext --inplace
Note: for build instructions to do development work on NumPy itself, see development-environment.
7.3 Testing
Make sure to test your builds. To ensure everything stays in shape, see if all tests pass:
$ python runtests.py -v -m full
For detailed info on testing, see testing-builds.
7.3.1 Parallel builds
It’s possible to do a parallel build with:
python setup.py build -j 4 install --prefix $HOME/.local
This will compile numpy on 4 CPUs and install it into the specified prefix. to perform a parallel in-place build, run:
python setup.py build_ext --inplace -j 4
The number of build jobs can also be specified via the environment variable NPY_NUM_BUILD_JOBS.
7.3.2 Choosing the fortran compiler
Compilers are auto-detected; building with a particular compiler can be done with --fcompiler. E.g. to select
gfortran:
python setup.py build --fcompiler=gnu95
For more information see:
python setup.py build --help-fcompiler
146 Chapter 7. Building from source

7.3.3 How to check the ABI of BLAS/LAPACK libraries
One relatively simple and reliable way to check for the compiler used to build a library is to use ldd on the library. If
libg2c.so is a dependency, this means that g77 has been used (note: g77 is no longer supported for building NumPy). If
libgfortran.so is a dependency, gfortran has been used. If both are dependencies, this means both have been used, which
is almost always a very bad idea.
7.4 Accelerated BLAS/LAPACK libraries
NumPy searches for optimized linear algebra libraries such as BLAS and LAPACK. There are specific orders for searching
these libraries, as described below and in the site.cfg.example file.
7.4.1 BLAS
The default order for the libraries are:

1. MKL
2. BLIS
3. OpenBLAS
4. ATLAS
5. Accelerate (MacOS)
6. BLAS (NetLIB)
If you wish to build against OpenBLAS but you also have BLIS available one may predefine the order of searching via
the environment variable NPY_BLAS_ORDER which is a comma-separated list of the above names which is used to
determine what to search for, for instance:
NPY_BLAS_ORDER=ATLAS,blis,openblas,MKL python setup.py build
will prefer to use ATLAS, then BLIS, then OpenBLAS and as a last resort MKL. If neither of these exists the build will
fail (names are compared lower case).
7.4.2 LAPACK
The default order for the libraries are:

1. MKL
2. OpenBLAS
3. libFLAME
4. ATLAS
5. Accelerate (MacOS)
6. LAPACK (NetLIB)
If you wish to build against OpenBLAS but you also have MKL available one may predefine the order of searching via
the environment variable NPY_LAPACK_ORDER which is a comma-separated list of the above names, for instance:
NPY_LAPACK_ORDER=ATLAS,openblas,MKL python setup.py build
7.4. Accelerated BLAS/LAPACK libraries 147

will prefer to use ATLAS, then OpenBLAS and as a last resort MKL. If neither of these exists the build will fail (names
are compared lower case).
7.4.3 Disabling ATLAS and other accelerated libraries
Usage of ATLAS and other accelerated libraries in NumPy can be disabled via:
NPY_BLAS_ORDER= NPY_LAPACK_ORDER= python setup.py build
or:
BLAS=None LAPACK=None ATLAS=None python setup.py build
7.4.4 64-bit BLAS and LAPACK
You can tell Numpy to use 64-bit BLAS/LAPACK libraries by setting the environment variable:
NPY_USE_BLAS_ILP64=1
when building Numpy. The following 64-bit BLAS/LAPACK libraries are supported:
1. OpenBLAS ILP64 with 64_ symbol suffix (openblas64_)
2. OpenBLAS ILP64 without symbol suffix (openblas_ilp64)
The order in which they are preferred is determined by NPY_BLAS_ILP64_ORDER and
NPY_LAPACK_ILP64_ORDER environment variables. The default value is openblas64_,openblas_ilp64.
Note: Using non-symbol-suffixed 64-bit BLAS/LAPACK in a program that also uses 32-bit BLAS/LAPACK can cause
crashes under certain conditions (e.g. with embedded Python interpreters on Linux).
The 64-bit OpenBLAS with 64_ symbol suffix is obtained by compiling OpenBLAS with settings:
make INTERFACE64=1 SYMBOLSUFFIX=64_
The symbol suffix avoids the symbol name clashes between 32-bit and 64-bit BLAS/LAPACK libraries.
7.5 Supplying additional compiler flags
Additional compiler flags can be supplied by setting the OPT, FOPT (for Fortran), and CC environment variables. When
providing options that should improve the performance of the code ensure that you also set -DNDEBUG so that debugging
code is not executed.
148 Chapter 7. Building from source

CHAPTER
EIGHT
USING NUMPY C-API
8.1 How to extend NumPy
That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic

and random is confusing. In between lies art.
— John A. Locke
Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.

— Alan Turing
8.1.1 Writing an extension module
While the ndarray object is designed to allow rapid computation in Python, it is also designed to be general-purpose and
satisfy a wide- variety of computational needs. As a result, if absolute speed is essential, there is no replacement for a
well-crafted, compiled loop specific to your application and hardware. This is one of the reasons that numpy includes
f2py so that an easy-to-use mechanisms for linking (simple) C/C++ and (arbitrary) Fortran code directly into Python are
available. You are encouraged to use and improve this mechanism. The purpose of this section is not to document this
tool but to document the more basic steps to writing an extension module that this tool depends on.
When an extension module is written, compiled, and installed to somewhere in the Python path (sys.path), the code can
then be imported into Python as if it were a standard python file. It will contain objects and methods that have been
defined and compiled in C code. The basic steps for doing this in Python are well-documented and you can find more
information in the documentation for Python itself available online at www.python.org .
In addition to the Python C-API, there is a full and rich C-API for NumPy allowing sophisticated manipulations on a
C-level. However, for most applications, only a few API calls will typically be used. For example, if you need to just
extract a pointer to memory along with some shape information to pass to another calculation routine, then you will use
very different calls than if you are trying to create a new array-like type or add a new data type for ndarrays. This chapter
documents the API calls and macros that are most commonly used.
149
8.1.2 Required subroutine
There is exactly one function that must be defined in your C-code in order for Python to use it as an extension module.
The function must be called init{name} where {name} is the name of the module from Python. This function must be
declared so that it is visible to code outside of the routine. Besides adding the methods and constants you desire, this
subroutine must also contain calls like import_array() and/or import_ufunc() depending on which C-API is
needed. Forgetting to place these commands will show itself as an ugly segmentation fault (crash) as soon as any C-API
subroutine is actually called. It is actually possible to have multiple init{name} functions in a single file in which case
multiple modules will be defined by that file. However, there are some tricks to get that to work correctly and it is not
covered here.
A minimal init{name} method looks like:
PyMODINIT_FUNC
init{name}(void)
{
(void)Py_InitModule({name}, mymethods);
import_array();
}
The mymethods must be an array (usually statically declared) of PyMethodDef structures which contain method names,
actual C-functions, a variable indicating whether the method uses keyword arguments or not, and docstrings. These
are explained in the next section. If you want to add constants to the module, then you store the returned value from
Py_InitModule which is a module object. The most general way to add items to the module is to get the module dictionary
using PyModule_GetDict(module). With the module dictionary, you can add whatever you like to the module manually.
An easier way to add objects to the module is to use one of three additional Python C-API calls that do not require a
separate extraction of the module dictionary. These are documented in the Python documentation, but repeated here for
convenience:
int PyModule_AddObject(PyObject* module, char* name, PyObject* value)
int PyModule_AddIntConstant(PyObject* module, char* name, long value)
int PyModule_AddStringConstant(PyObject* module, char* name, char* value)
All three of these functions require the module object (the return value of Py_InitModule). The name is a string
that labels the value in the module. Depending on which function is called, the value argument is either a general
object (PyModule_AddObject steals a reference to it), an integer constant, or a string constant.
8.1.3 Defining functions
The second argument passed in to the Py_InitModule function is a structure that makes it easy to to define functions in
the module. In the example given above, the mymethods structure would have been defined earlier in the file (usually
right before the init{name} subroutine) to:
static PyMethodDef mymethods[] = {
{ nokeywordfunc,nokeyword_cfunc,
METH_VARARGS,
Doc string},
{ keywordfunc, keyword_cfunc,
METH_VARARGS|METH_KEYWORDS,
Doc string},
{NULL, NULL, 0, NULL} /* Sentinel */
}
Each entry in the mymethods array is a PyMethodDef structure containing 1) the Python name, 2) the C-function that
implements the function, 3) flags indicating whether or not keywords are accepted for this function, and 4) The docstring
for the function. Any number of functions may be defined for a single module by adding more entries to this table. The
150 Chapter 8. Using NumPy C-API

last entry must be all NULL as shown to act as a sentinel. Python looks for this entry to know that all of the functions for
the module have been defined.
The last thing that must be done to finish the extension module is to actually write the code that performs the desired
functions. There are two kinds of functions: those that don’t accept keyword arguments, and those that do.
Functions without keyword arguments
Functions that don’t accept keyword arguments should be written as:
static PyObject*
nokeyword_cfunc (PyObject *dummy, PyObject *args)
{
/* convert Python arguments */
/* do function */
/* return something */
}
The dummy argument is not used in this context and can be safely ignored. The args argument contains all of the
arguments passed in to the function as a tuple. You can do anything you want at this point, but usually the easiest
way to manage the input arguments is to call PyArg_ParseTuple (args, format_string, addresses_to_C_variables…)
or PyArg_UnpackTuple (tuple, “name”, min, max, …). A good description of how to use the first function is
contained in the Python C-API reference manual under section 5.5 (Parsing arguments and building values). You should
pay particular attention to the “O&” format which uses converter functions to go between the Python object and the C
object. All of the other format functions can be (mostly) thought of as special cases of this general rule. There are several
converter functions defined in the NumPy C-API that may be of use. In particular, the PyArray_DescrConverter
function is very useful to support arbitrary data-type specification. This function transforms any valid data-type Python
object into a PyArray_Descr * object. Remember to pass in the address of the C-variables that should be filled in.
There are lots of examples of how to use PyArg_ParseTuple throughout the NumPy source code. The standard
usage is like this:
PyObject *input;
PyArray_Descr *dtype;
if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "OO&", &input,
PyArray_DescrConverter,
&dtype)) return NULL;
It is important to keep in mind that you get a borrowed reference to the object when using the “O” format string. However,
the converter functions usually require some form of memory handling. In this example, if the conversion is successful,
dtype will hold a new reference to a PyArray_Descr * object, while input will hold a borrowed reference. Therefore,
if this conversion were mixed with another conversion (say to an integer) and the data-type conversion was successful but
the integer conversion failed, then you would need to release the reference count to the data-type object before returning.
A typical way to do this is to set dtype to NULL before calling PyArg_ParseTuple and then use Py_XDECREF on
dtype before returning.
After the input arguments are processed, the code that actually does the work is written (likely calling other functions as
needed). The final step of the C-function is to return something. If an error is encountered then NULL should be returned
(making sure an error has actually been set). If nothing should be returned then increment Py_None and return it. If a
single object should be returned then it is returned (ensuring that you own a reference to it first). If multiple objects should
be returned then you need to return a tuple. The Py_BuildValue (format_string, c_variables…) function makes it easy
to build tuples of Python objects from C variables. Pay special attention to the difference between ‘N’ and ‘O’ in the format
string or you can easily create memory leaks. The ‘O’ format string increments the reference count of the PyObject *
C-variable it corresponds to, while the ‘N’ format string steals a reference to the corresponding PyObject * C-variable.
You should use ‘N’ if you have already created a reference for the object and just want to give that reference to the tuple.
You should use ‘O’ if you only have a borrowed reference to an object and need to create one to provide for the tuple.
8.1. How to extend NumPy 151

Functions with keyword arguments
These functions are very similar to functions without keyword arguments. The only difference is that the function signature
is:
static PyObject*
keyword_cfunc (PyObject *dummy, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
{
...
}
The kwds argument holds a Python dictionary whose keys are the names of the keyword arguments and whose values
are the corresponding keyword-argument values. This dictionary can be processed however you see fit. The easiest way
to handle it, however, is to replace the PyArg_ParseTuple (args, format_string, addresses…) function with a call to
PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords (args, kwds, format_string, char *kwlist[], addresses…). The kwlist parameter
to this function is a NULL -terminated array of strings providing the expected keyword arguments. There should be one
string for each entry in the format_string. Using this function will raise a TypeError if invalid keyword arguments are
passed in.
For more help on this function please see section 1.8 (Keyword Parameters for Extension Functions) of the Extending
and Embedding tutorial in the Python documentation.
Reference counting
The biggest difficulty when writing extension modules is reference counting. It is an important reason for the popularity
of f2py, weave, Cython, ctypes, etc…. If you mis-handle reference counts you can get problems from memory-leaks to
segmentation faults. The only strategy I know of to handle reference counts correctly is blood, sweat, and tears. First,
you force it into your head that every Python variable has a reference count. Then, you understand exactly what each
function does to the reference count of your objects, so that you can properly use DECREF and INCREF when you need
them. Reference counting can really test the amount of patience and diligence you have towards your programming craft.
Despite the grim depiction, most cases of reference counting are quite straightforward with the most common difficulty
being not using DECREF on objects before exiting early from a routine due to some error. In second place, is the common
error of not owning the reference on an object that is passed to a function or macro that is going to steal the reference (
e.g. PyTuple_SET_ITEM, and most functions that take PyArray_Descr objects).
Typically you get a new reference to a variable when it is created or is the return value of some function (there are
some prominent exceptions, however — such as getting an item out of a tuple or a dictionary). When you own the
reference, you are responsible to make sure that Py_DECREF (var) is called when the variable is no longer necessary
(and no other function has “stolen” its reference). Also, if you are passing a Python object to a function that will “steal”
the reference, then you need to make sure you own it (or use Py_INCREF to get your own reference). You will also
encounter the notion of borrowing a reference. A function that borrows a reference does not alter the reference count of
the object and does not expect to “hold on “to the reference. It’s just going to use the object temporarily. When you use
PyArg_ParseTuple or PyArg_UnpackTuple you receive a borrowed reference to the objects in the tuple and
should not alter their reference count inside your function. With practice, you can learn to get reference counting right,
but it can be frustrating at first.
One common source of reference-count errors is the Py_BuildValue function. Pay careful attention to the difference
between the ‘N’ format character and the ‘O’ format character. If you create a new object in your subroutine (such as
an output array), and you are passing it back in a tuple of return values, then you should most- likely use the ‘N’ format
character in Py_BuildValue. The ‘O’ character will increase the reference count by one. This will leave the caller with
two reference counts for a brand-new array. When the variable is deleted and the reference count decremented by one,
there will still be that extra reference count, and the array will never be deallocated. You will have a reference-counting
induced memory leak. Using the ‘N’ character will avoid this situation as it will return to the caller an object (inside the
tuple) with a single reference count.

8.1.4 Dealing with array objects
Most extension modules for NumPy will need to access the memory for an ndarray object (or one of it’s sub-classes). The
easiest way to do this doesn’t require you to know much about the internals of NumPy. The method is to
1. Ensure you are dealing with a well-behaved array (aligned, in machine byte-order and single-segment) of the correct
type and number of dimensions.
1. By converting it from some Python object using PyArray_FromAny or a macro built on it.
2. By constructing a new ndarray of your desired shape and type using PyArray_NewFromDescr or a sim-
pler macro or function based on it.
2. Get the shape of the array and a pointer to its actual data.
3. Pass the data and shape information on to a subroutine or other section of code that actually performs the compu-
tation.
4. If you are writing the algorithm, then I recommend that you use the stride information contained in the array to
access the elements of the array (the PyArray_GetPtr macros make this painless). Then, you can relax your
requirements so as not to force a single-segment array and the data-copying that might result.
Each of these sub-topics is covered in the following sub-sections.
Converting an arbitrary sequence object
The main routine for obtaining an array from any Python object that can be converted to an array is PyArray_FromAny.
This function is very flexible with many input arguments. Several macros make it easier to use the basic function.
PyArray_FROM_OTF is arguably the most useful of these macros for the most common uses. It allows you to convert
an arbitrary Python object to an array of a specific builtin data-type ( e.g. float), while specifying a particular set of
requirements ( e.g. contiguous, aligned, and writeable). The syntax is
PyArray_FROM_OTF
Return an ndarray from any Python object, obj, that can be converted to an array. The number of dimensions
in the returned array is determined by the object. The desired data-type of the returned array is provided in
typenum which should be one of the enumerated types. The requirements for the returned array can be any
combination of standard array flags. Each of these arguments is explained in more detail below. You receive
a new reference to the array on success. On failure, NULL is returned and an exception is set.
obj
The object can be any Python object convertible to an ndarray. If the object is already (a subclass
of) the ndarray that satisfies the requirements then a new reference is returned. Otherwise, a new
array is constructed. The contents of obj are copied to the new array unless the array interface is
used so that data does not have to be copied. Objects that can be converted to an array include:
1) any nested sequence object, 2) any object exposing the array interface, 3) any object with an
__array__ method (which should return an ndarray), and 4) any scalar object (becomes a zero-
dimensional array). Sub-classes of the ndarray that otherwise fit the requirements will be passed
through. If you want to ensure a base-class ndarray, then use NPY_ARRAY_ENSUREARRAY in
the requirements flag. A copy is made only if necessary. If you want to guarantee a copy, then
pass in NPY_ARRAY_ENSURECOPY to the requirements flag.
typenum
One of the enumerated types or NPY_NOTYPE if the data-type should be determined from the
object itself. The C-based names can be used:
NPY_BOOL, NPY_BYTE, NPY_UBYTE, NPY_SHORT, NPY_USHORT, NPY_INT,
NPY_UINT, NPY_LONG, NPY_ULONG, NPY_LONGLONG, NPY_ULONGLONG,

NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_LONGDOUBLE, NPY_CFLOAT, NPY_CDOUBLE,

NPY_CLONGDOUBLE, NPY_OBJECT.
Alternatively, the bit-width names can be used as supported on the platform. For example:
NPY_INT8, NPY_INT16, NPY_INT32, NPY_INT64, NPY_UINT8,
NPY_UINT16, NPY_UINT32, NPY_UINT64, NPY_FLOAT32, NPY_FLOAT64,
NPY_COMPLEX64, NPY_COMPLEX128.
The object will be converted to the desired type only if it can be done without losing precision.
Otherwise NULL will be returned and an error raised. Use NPY_ARRAY_FORCECAST in the
requirements flag to override this behavior.
requirements
The memory model for an ndarray admits arbitrary strides in each dimension to advance to the
next element of the array. Often, however, you need to interface with code that expects a C-
contiguous or a Fortran-contiguous memory layout. In addition, an ndarray can be misaligned
(the address of an element is not at an integral multiple of the size of the element) which can
cause your program to crash (or at least work more slowly) if you try and dereference a pointer
into the array data. Both of these problems can be solved by converting the Python object into an
array that is more “well-behaved” for your specific usage.
The requirements flag allows specification of what kind of array is acceptable. If the object passed
in does not satisfy this requirements then a copy is made so that thre returned object will satisfy
the requirements. these ndarray can use a very generic pointer to memory. This flag allows
specification of the desired properties of the returned array object. All of the flags are explained
in the detailed API chapter. The flags most commonly needed are NPY_ARRAY_IN_ARRAY,
NPY_OUT_ARRAY, and NPY_ARRAY_INOUT_ARRAY:
NPY_ARRAY_IN_ARRAY
This flag is useful for arrays that must be in C-contiguous order and aligned. These
kinds of arrays are usually input arrays for some algorithm.
NPY_ARRAY_OUT_ARRAY
This flag is useful to specify an array that is in C-contiguous order, is aligned, and can
be written to as well. Such an array is usually returned as output (although normally
such output arrays are created from scratch).
NPY_ARRAY_INOUT_ARRAY
This flag is useful to specify an array that will be used for both input and out-
put. PyArray_ResolveWritebackIfCopy must be called before Py_DECREF
at the end of the interface routine to write back the temporary data into the
original array passed in. Use of the NPY_ARRAY_WRITEBACKIFCOPY or
NPY_ARRAY_UPDATEIFCOPY flags requires that the input object is already an ar-
ray (because other objects cannot be automatically updated in this fashion). If an error
occurs use PyArray_DiscardWritebackIfCopy (obj) on an array with these
flags set. This will set the underlying base array writable without causing the contents
to be copied back into the original array.
Other useful flags that can be OR’d as additional requirements are:
NPY_ARRAY_FORCECAST
Cast to the desired type, even if it can’t be done without losing information.
NPY_ARRAY_ENSURECOPY
Make sure the resulting array is a copy of the original.

NPY_ARRAY_ENSUREARRAY
Make sure the resulting object is an actual ndarray and not a subclass.
Note: Whether or not an array is byte-swapped is determined by the data-type of the array. Native byte-order arrays
are always requested by PyArray_FROM_OTF and so there is no need for a NPY_ARRAY_NOTSWAPPED flag in the
requirements argument. There is also no way to get a byte-swapped array from this routine.
Creating a brand-new ndarray
Quite often, new arrays must be created from within extension-module code. Perhaps an output array is needed and you
don’t want the caller to have to supply it. Perhaps only a temporary array is needed to hold an intermediate calculation.
Whatever the need there are simple ways to get an ndarray object of whatever data-type is needed. The most general
function for doing this is PyArray_NewFromDescr. All array creation functions go through this heavily re-used
code. Because of its flexibility, it can be somewhat confusing to use. As a result, simpler forms exist that are easier to
use. These forms are part of the PyArray_SimpleNew family of functions, which simplify the interface by providing
default values for common use cases.
Getting at ndarray memory and accessing elements of the ndarray
If obj is an ndarray (PyArrayObject *), then the data-area of the ndarray is pointed to by the void* pointer
PyArray_DATA (obj) or the char* pointer PyArray_BYTES (obj). Remember that (in general) this data-area may
not be aligned according to the data-type, it may represent byte-swapped data, and/or it may not be writeable. If the data
area is aligned and in native byte-order, then how to get at a specific element of the array is determined only by the array
of npy_intp variables, PyArray_STRIDES (obj). In particular, this c-array of integers shows how many bytes must
be added to the current element pointer to get to the next element in each dimension. For arrays less than 4-dimensions
there are PyArray_GETPTR{k} (obj, …) macros where {k} is the integer 1, 2, 3, or 4 that make using the array
strides easier. The arguments …. represent {k} non- negative integer indices into the array. For example, suppose E is a
3-dimensional ndarray. A (void*) pointer to the element E[i,j,k] is obtained as PyArray_GETPTR3 (E, i, j, k).
As explained previously, C-style contiguous arrays and Fortran-style contiguous arrays have particular striding patterns.
Two array flags (NPY_ARRAY_C_CONTIGUOUS and NPY_ARRAY_F_CONTIGUOUS) indicate whether or not the
striding pattern of a particular array matches the C-style contiguous or Fortran-style contiguous or neither. Whether or
not the striding pattern matches a standard C or Fortran one can be tested Using PyArray_IS_C_CONTIGUOUS (obj)
and PyArray_ISFORTRAN (obj) respectively. Most third-party libraries expect contiguous arrays. But, often it is not
difficult to support general-purpose striding. I encourage you to use the striding information in your own code whenever
possible, and reserve single-segment requirements for wrapping third-party code. Using the striding information provided
with the ndarray rather than requiring a contiguous striding reduces copying that otherwise must be made.
8.1.5 Example
The following example shows how you might write a wrapper that accepts two input arguments (that will be converted to
an array) and an output argument (that must be an array). The function returns None and updates the output array. Note
the updated use of WRITEBACKIFCOPY semantics for NumPy v1.14 and above
static PyObject *
example_wrapper(PyObject *dummy, PyObject *args)
{
PyObject *arg1=NULL, *arg2=NULL, *out=NULL;
PyObject *arr1=NULL, *arr2=NULL, *oarr=NULL;


if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "OOO!", &arg1, &arg2,
&PyArray_Type, &out)) return NULL;
arr1 = PyArray_FROM_OTF(arg1, NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_ARRAY_IN_ARRAY);

if (arr1 == NULL) return NULL;
arr2 = PyArray_FROM_OTF(arg2, NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_ARRAY_IN_ARRAY);
if (arr2 == NULL) goto fail;
#if NPY_API_VERSION >= 0x0000000c
oarr = PyArray_FROM_OTF(out, NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_ARRAY_INOUT_ARRAY2);
#else
oarr = PyArray_FROM_OTF(out, NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_ARRAY_INOUT_ARRAY);
#endif
if (oarr == NULL) goto fail;
/* code that makes use of arguments */

/* You will probably need at least
nd = PyArray_NDIM(<..>) -- number of dimensions
dims = PyArray_DIMS(<..>) -- npy_intp array of length nd
showing length in each dim.
dptr = (double *)PyArray_DATA(<..>) -- pointer to data.
If an error occurs goto fail.

*/
Py_DECREF(arr1);
Py_DECREF(arr2);
PyArray_ResolveWritebackIfCopy(oarr);
#endif
Py_DECREF(oarr);
Py_INCREF(Py_None);
return Py_None;
fail:
Py_XDECREF(arr1);
Py_XDECREF(arr2);
PyArray_DiscardWritebackIfCopy(oarr);
#endif
Py_XDECREF(oarr);
return NULL;
}
8.2 Using Python as glue
There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody

agrees.
— Michel de Montaigne
Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and
it holds the universe together.
— Carl Zwanzig

Many people like to say that Python is a fantastic glue language. Hopefully, this Chapter will convince you that this is
true. The first adopters of Python for science were typically people who used it to glue together large application codes
running on super-computers. Not only was it much nicer to code in Python than in a shell script or Perl, in addition, the
ability to easily extend Python made it relatively easy to create new classes and types specifically adapted to the problems
being solved. From the interactions of these early contributors, Numeric emerged as an array-like object that could be
used to pass data between these applications.
As Numeric has matured and developed into NumPy, people have been able to write more code directly in NumPy. Often
this code is fast-enough for production use, but there are still times that there is a need to access compiled code. Either
to get that last bit of efficiency out of the algorithm or to make it easier to access widely-available codes written in C/C++
or Fortran.
This chapter will review many of the tools that are available for the purpose of accessing code written in other compiled
languages. There are many resources available for learning to call other compiled libraries from Python and the purpose
of this Chapter is not to make you an expert. The main goal is to make you aware of some of the possibilities so that you
will know what to “Google” in order to learn more.
8.2.1 Calling other compiled libraries from Python
While Python is a great language and a pleasure to code in, its dynamic nature results in overhead that can cause some
code ( i.e. raw computations inside of for loops) to be up 10-100 times slower than equivalent code written in a static
compiled language. In addition, it can cause memory usage to be larger than necessary as temporary arrays are created
and destroyed during computation. For many types of computing needs, the extra slow-down and memory consumption
can often not be spared (at least for time- or memory- critical portions of your code). Therefore one of the most common
needs is to call out from Python code to a fast, machine-code routine (e.g. compiled using C/C++ or Fortran). The
fact that this is relatively easy to do is a big reason why Python is such an excellent high-level language for scientific and
engineering programming.
Their are two basic approaches to calling compiled code: writing an extension module that is then imported to Python
using the import command, or calling a shared-library subroutine directly from Python using the ctypes module. Writing
an extension module is the most common method.
Warning: Calling C-code from Python can result in Python crashes if you are not careful. None of the approaches
in this chapter are immune. You have to know something about the way data is handled by both NumPy and by the
third-party library being used.
8.2.2 Hand-generated wrappers
Extension modules were discussed in Writing an extension module. The most basic way to interface with compiled code
is to write an extension module and construct a module method that calls the compiled code. For improved readability,
your method should take advantage of the PyArg_ParseTuple call to convert between Python objects and C data-
types. For standard C data-types there is probably already a built-in converter. For others you may need to write your
own converter and use the "O&" format string which allows you to specify a function that will be used to perform the
conversion from the Python object to whatever C-structures are needed.
Once the conversions to the appropriate C-structures and C data-types have been performed, the next step in the wrapper
is to call the underlying function. This is straightforward if the underlying function is in C or C++. However, in order
to call Fortran code you must be familiar with how Fortran subroutines are called from C/C++ using your compiler and
platform. This can vary somewhat platforms and compilers (which is another reason f2py makes life much simpler for
interfacing Fortran code) but generally involves underscore mangling of the name and the fact that all variables are passed
by reference (i.e. all arguments are pointers).
8.2. Using Python as glue 157

The advantage of the hand-generated wrapper is that you have complete control over how the C-library gets used and
called which can lead to a lean and tight interface with minimal over-head. The disadvantage is that you have to write,
debug, and maintain C-code, although most of it can be adapted using the time-honored technique of “cutting-pasting-and-
modifying” from other extension modules. Because, the procedure of calling out to additional C-code is fairly regimented,
code-generation procedures have been developed to make this process easier. One of these code-generation techniques
is distributed with NumPy and allows easy integration with Fortran and (simple) C code. This package, f2py, will be
covered briefly in the next section.
8.2.3 f2py
F2py allows you to automatically construct an extension module that interfaces to routines in Fortran 77/90/95 code. It has
the ability to parse Fortran 77/90/95 code and automatically generate Python signatures for the subroutines it encounters,
or you can guide how the subroutine interfaces with Python by constructing an interface-definition-file (or modifying the
f2py-produced one).
Creating source for a basic extension module
Probably the easiest way to introduce f2py is to offer a simple example. Here is one of the subroutines contained in a file
named add.f:
C
SUBROUTINE ZADD(A,B,C,N)
C
DOUBLE COMPLEX A(*)
DOUBLE COMPLEX B(*)
DOUBLE COMPLEX C(*)
INTEGER N
DO 20 J = 1, N
C(J) = A(J)+B(J)
20 CONTINUE
END
This routine simply adds the elements in two contiguous arrays and places the result in a third. The memory for all three
arrays must be provided by the calling routine. A very basic interface to this routine can be automatically generated by
f2py:
f2py -m add add.f
You should be able to run this command assuming your search-path is set-up properly. This command will produce an
extension module named addmodule.c in the current directory. This extension module can now be compiled and used
from Python just like any other extension module.
Creating a compiled extension module
You can also get f2py to compile add.f and also compile its produced extension module leaving only a shared-library
extension file that can be imported from Python:
f2py -c -m add add.f
This command leaves a file named add.{ext} in the current directory (where {ext} is the appropriate extension for a python
extension module on your platform — so, pyd, etc. ). This module may then be imported from Python. It will contain a
method for each subroutine in add (zadd, cadd, dadd, sadd). The docstring of each method contains information about
how the module method may be called:

>>> import add

>>> print(add.zadd.__doc__)
zadd - Function signature:
zadd(a,b,c,n)
Required arguments:
a : input rank-1 array('D') with bounds (*)
b : input rank-1 array('D') with bounds (*)
c : input rank-1 array('D') with bounds (*)
n : input int
Improving the basic interface
The default interface is a very literal translation of the fortran code into Python. The Fortran array arguments must now be
NumPy arrays and the integer argument should be an integer. The interface will attempt to convert all arguments to their
required types (and shapes) and issue an error if unsuccessful. However, because it knows nothing about the semantics
of the arguments (such that C is an output and n should really match the array sizes), it is possible to abuse this function
in ways that can cause Python to crash. For example:
>>> add.zadd([1,2,3], [1,2], [3,4], 1000)
will cause a program crash on most systems. Under the covers, the lists are being converted to proper arrays but then the
underlying add loop is told to cycle way beyond the borders of the allocated memory.
In order to improve the interface, directives should be provided. This is accomplished by constructing an interface defi-
nition file. It is usually best to start from the interface file that f2py can produce (where it gets its default behavior from).
To get f2py to generate the interface file use the -h option:
f2py -h add.pyf -m add add.f
This command leaves the file add.pyf in the current directory. The section of this file corresponding to zadd is:
subroutine zadd(a,b,c,n) ! in :add:add.f

double complex dimension(*) :: a
double complex dimension(*) :: b
double complex dimension(*) :: c
integer :: n
end subroutine zadd
By placing intent directives and checking code, the interface can be cleaned up quite a bit until the Python module method
is both easier to use and more robust.
subroutine zadd(a,b,c,n) ! in :add:add.f

double complex dimension(n) :: a
double complex dimension(n) :: b
double complex intent(out),dimension(n) :: c
integer intent(hide),depend(a) :: n=len(a)
end subroutine zadd
The intent directive, intent(out) is used to tell f2py that c is an output variable and should be created by the interface
before being passed to the underlying code. The intent(hide) directive tells f2py to not allow the user to specify the
variable, n, but instead to get it from the size of a. The depend( a ) directive is necessary to tell f2py that the value of n
depends on the input a (so that it won’t try to create the variable n until the variable a is created).
After modifying add.pyf, the new python module file can be generated by compiling both add.f and add.pyf:

f2py -c add.pyf add.f
The new interface has docstring:
>>> import add

>>> print(add.zadd.__doc__)
zadd - Function signature:
c = zadd(a,b)
Required arguments:
a : input rank-1 array('D') with bounds (n)
b : input rank-1 array('D') with bounds (n)
Return objects:
c : rank-1 array('D') with bounds (n)
Now, the function can be called in a much more robust way:
>>> add.zadd([1,2,3],[4,5,6])
array([ 5.+0.j, 7.+0.j, 9.+0.j])
Notice the automatic conversion to the correct format that occurred.
Inserting directives in Fortran source
The nice interface can also be generated automatically by placing the variable directives as special comments in the original
fortran code. Thus, if I modify the source code to contain:
C
SUBROUTINE ZADD(A,B,C,N)
C
CF2PY INTENT(OUT) :: C
CF2PY INTENT(HIDE) :: N
CF2PY DOUBLE COMPLEX :: A(N)
CF2PY DOUBLE COMPLEX :: B(N)
CF2PY DOUBLE COMPLEX :: C(N)
DOUBLE COMPLEX A(*)
DOUBLE COMPLEX B(*)
DOUBLE COMPLEX C(*)
INTEGER N
DO 20 J = 1, N
C(J) = A(J) + B(J)
20 CONTINUE
END
Then, I can compile the extension module using:
f2py -c -m add add.f
The resulting signature for the function add.zadd is exactly the same one that was created previously. If the original source
code had contained A(N) instead of A(*) and so forth with B and C, then I could obtain (nearly) the same interface
simply by placing the INTENT(OUT) :: C comment line in the source code. The only difference is that N would be
an optional input that would default to the length of A.

A filtering example
For comparison with the other methods to be discussed. Here is another example of a function that filters a two-
dimensional array of double precision floating-point numbers using a fixed averaging filter. The advantage of using
Fortran to index into multi-dimensional arrays should be clear from this example.
SUBROUTINE DFILTER2D(A,B,M,N)
C
DOUBLE PRECISION A(M,N)
DOUBLE PRECISION B(M,N)
INTEGER N, M
CF2PY INTENT(OUT) :: B
CF2PY INTENT(HIDE) :: N
CF2PY INTENT(HIDE) :: M
DO 20 I = 2,M-1
DO 40 J=2,N-1
B(I,J) = A(I,J) +
$ (A(I-1,J)+A(I+1,J) +
$ A(I,J-1)+A(I,J+1) )*0.5D0 +
$ (A(I-1,J-1) + A(I-1,J+1) +
$ A(I+1,J-1) + A(I+1,J+1))*0.25D0
40 CONTINUE
20 CONTINUE
END
This code can be compiled and linked into an extension module named filter using:
f2py -c -m filter filter.f
This will produce an extension module named filter.so in the current directory with a method named dfilter2d that returns
a filtered version of the input.
Calling f2py from Python
The f2py program is written in Python and can be run from inside your code to compile Fortran code at runtime, as
follows:
from numpy import f2py

with open("add.f") as sourcefile:
sourcecode = sourcefile.read()
f2py.compile(sourcecode, modulename='add')
import add
The source string can be any valid Fortran code. If you want to save the extension-module source code then a suitable
file-name can be provided by the source_fn keyword to the compile function.

Automatic extension module generation
If you want to distribute your f2py extension module, then you only need to include the .pyf file and the Fortran code.
The distutils extensions in NumPy allow you to define an extension module entirely in terms of this interface file. A valid
setup.py file allowing distribution of the add.f module (as part of the package f2py_examples so that it would
be loaded as f2py_examples.add) is:
def configuration(parent_package='', top_path=None)

from numpy.distutils.misc_util import Configuration
config = Configuration('f2py_examples',parent_package, top_path)
config.add_extension('add', sources=['add.pyf','add.f'])
return config
if __name__ == '__main__':
from numpy.distutils.core import setup
setup(**configuration(top_path='').todict())
Installation of the new package is easy using:
pip install .
assuming you have the proper permissions to write to the main site- packages directory for the version of Python you
are using. For the resulting package to work, you need to create a file named __init__.py (in the same directory as
add.pyf). Notice the extension module is defined entirely in terms of the add.pyf and add.f files. The conversion
of the .pyf file to a .c file is handled by numpy.disutils.
Conclusion
The interface definition file (.pyf) is how you can fine-tune the interface between Python and Fortran. There is decent
documentation for f2py found in the numpy/f2py/docs directory where-ever NumPy is installed on your system (usually
under site-packages). There is also more information on using f2py (including how to use it to wrap C codes) at https:
//scipy-cookbook.readthedocs.io under the “Interfacing With Other Languages” heading.
The f2py method of linking compiled code is currently the most sophisticated and integrated approach. It allows clean
separation of Python with compiled code while still allowing for separate distribution of the extension module. The only
draw-back is that it requires the existence of a Fortran compiler in order for a user to install the code. However, with the
existence of the free-compilers g77, gfortran, and g95, as well as high-quality commercial compilers, this restriction is not
particularly onerous. In my opinion, Fortran is still the easiest way to write fast and clear code for scientific computing.
It handles complex numbers, and multi-dimensional indexing in the most straightforward way. Be aware, however, that
some Fortran compilers will not be able to optimize code as well as good hand- written C-code.
8.2.4 Cython
Cython is a compiler for a Python dialect that adds (optional) static typing for speed, and allows mixing C or C++ code
into your modules. It produces C or C++ extensions that can be compiled and imported in Python code.
If you are writing an extension module that will include quite a bit of your own algorithmic code as well, then Cython is
a good match. Among its features is the ability to easily and quickly work with multidimensional arrays.
Notice that Cython is an extension-module generator only. Unlike f2py, it includes no automatic facility for compiling and
linking the extension module (which must be done in the usual fashion). It does provide a modified distutils class called
build_ext which lets you build an extension module from a .pyx source. Thus, you could write in a setup.py file:

from Cython.Distutils import build_ext

from distutils.extension import Extension
from distutils.core import setup
import numpy
setup(name='mine', description='Nothing',
ext_modules=[Extension('filter', ['filter.pyx'],
include_dirs=[numpy.get_include()])],
cmdclass = {'build_ext':build_ext})
Adding the NumPy include directory is, of course, only necessary if you are using NumPy arrays in the extension module
(which is what we assume you are using Cython for). The distutils extensions in NumPy also include support for automat-
ically producing the extension-module and linking it from a .pyx file. It works so that if the user does not have Cython
installed, then it looks for a file with the same file-name but a .c extension which it then uses instead of trying to produce
the .c file again.
If you just use Cython to compile a standard Python module, then you will get a C extension module that typically runs
a bit faster than the equivalent Python module. Further speed increases can be gained by using the cdef keyword to
statically define C variables.
Let’s look at two examples we’ve seen before to see how they might be implemented using Cython. These examples were
compiled into extension modules using Cython 0.21.1.
Complex addition in Cython
Here is part of a Cython module named add.pyx which implements the complex addition functions we previously
implemented using f2py:
cimport cython
cimport numpy as np
import numpy as np
# We need to initialize NumPy.

np.import_array()
#@cython.boundscheck(False)
def zadd(in1, in2):
cdef double complex[:] a = in1.ravel()
cdef double complex[:] b = in2.ravel()
out = np.empty(a.shape[0], np.complex64)

cdef double complex[:] c = out.ravel()
for i in range(c.shape[0]):
c[i].real = a[i].real + b[i].real
c[i].imag = a[i].imag + b[i].imag
return out
This module shows use of the cimport statement to load the definitions from the numpy.pxd header that ships with
Cython. It looks like NumPy is imported twice; cimport only makes the NumPy C-API available, while the regular
import causes a Python-style import at runtime and makes it possible to call into the familiar NumPy Python API.
The example also demonstrates Cython’s “typed memoryviews”, which are like NumPy arrays at the C level, in the sense
that they are shaped and strided arrays that know their own extent (unlike a C array addressed through a bare pointer).
The syntax double complex[:] denotes a one-dimensional array (vector) of doubles, with arbitrary strides. A
contiguous array of ints would be int[::1], while a matrix of floats would be float[:, :].

Shown commented is the cython.boundscheck decorator, which turns bounds-checking for memory view accesses
on or off on a per-function basis. We can use this to further speed up our code, at the expense of safety (or a manual
check prior to entering the loop).
Other than the view syntax, the function is immediately readable to a Python programmer. Static typing of the variable i
is implicit. Instead of the view syntax, we could also have used Cython’s special NumPy array syntax, but the view syntax
is preferred.
Image filter in Cython
The two-dimensional example we created using Fortran is just as easy to write in Cython:
cimport numpy as np
import numpy as np
np.import_array()
def filter(img):
cdef double[:, :] a = np.asarray(img, dtype=np.double)
out = np.zeros(img.shape, dtype=np.double)
cdef double[:, ::1] b = out
cdef np.npy_intp i, j
for i in range(1, a.shape[0] - 1):

for j in range(1, a.shape[1] - 1):
b[i, j] = (a[i, j]
+ .5 * ( a[i-1, j] + a[i+1, j]
+ a[i, j-1] + a[i, j+1])
+ .25 * ( a[i-1, j-1] + a[i-1, j+1]
+ a[i+1, j-1] + a[i+1, j+1]))
return out
This 2-d averaging filter runs quickly because the loop is in C and the pointer computations are done only as needed. If
the code above is compiled as a module image, then a 2-d image, img, can be filtered using this code very quickly using:
import image
out = image.filter(img)
Regarding the code, two things are of note: firstly, it is impossible to return a memory view to Python. Instead, a NumPy
array out is first created, and then a view b onto this array is used for the computation. Secondly, the view b is typed
double[:, ::1]. This means 2-d array with contiguous rows, i.e., C matrix order. Specifying the order explicitly
can speed up some algorithms since they can skip stride computations.
Conclusion
Cython is the extension mechanism of choice for several scientific Python libraries, including Scipy, Pandas, SAGE, scikit-
image and scikit-learn, as well as the XML processing library LXML. The language and compiler are well-maintained.
There are several disadvantages of using Cython:
1. When coding custom algorithms, and sometimes when wrapping existing C libraries, some familiarity with C is
required. In particular, when using C memory management (malloc and friends), it’s easy to introduce memory
leaks. However, just compiling a Python module renamed to .pyx can already speed it up, and adding a few type
declarations can give dramatic speedups in some code.

2. It is easy to lose a clean separation between Python and C which makes re-using your C-code for other non-Python-
related projects more difficult.
3. The C-code generated by Cython is hard to read and modify (and typically compiles with annoying but harmless
warnings).
One big advantage of Cython-generated extension modules is that they are easy to distribute. In summary, Cython is a
very capable tool for either gluing C code or generating an extension module quickly and should not be over-looked. It is
especially useful for people that can’t or won’t write C or Fortran code.
8.2.5 ctypes
Ctypes is a Python extension module, included in the stdlib, that allows you to call an arbitrary function in a shared
library directly from Python. This approach allows you to interface with C-code directly from Python. This opens up
an enormous number of libraries for use from Python. The drawback, however, is that coding mistakes can lead to
ugly program crashes very easily (just as can happen in C) because there is little type or bounds checking done on the
parameters. This is especially true when array data is passed in as a pointer to a raw memory location. The responsibility
is then on you that the subroutine will not access memory outside the actual array area. But, if you don’t mind living a
little dangerously ctypes can be an effective tool for quickly taking advantage of a large shared library (or writing extended
functionality in your own shared library).
Because the ctypes approach exposes a raw interface to the compiled code it is not always tolerant of user mistakes.
Robust use of the ctypes module typically involves an additional layer of Python code in order to check the data types
and array bounds of objects passed to the underlying subroutine. This additional layer of checking (not to mention the
conversion from ctypes objects to C-data-types that ctypes itself performs), will make the interface slower than a hand-
written extension-module interface. However, this overhead should be negligible if the C-routine being called is doing
any significant amount of work. If you are a great Python programmer with weak C skills, ctypes is an easy way to write
a useful interface to a (shared) library of compiled code.
To use ctypes you must
1. Have a shared library.
2. Load the shared library.
3. Convert the python objects to ctypes-understood arguments.
4. Call the function from the library with the ctypes arguments.
Having a shared library
There are several requirements for a shared library that can be used with ctypes that are platform specific. This guide
assumes you have some familiarity with making a shared library on your system (or simply have a shared library available
to you). Items to remember are:
• A shared library must be compiled in a special way ( e.g. using the -shared flag with gcc).
• On some platforms (e.g. Windows), a shared library requires a .def file that specifies the functions to be exported.
For example a mylib.def file might contain:
LIBRARY mylib.dll
EXPORTS
cool_function1
cool_function2
Alternatively, you may be able to use the storage-class specifier __declspec(dllexport) in the C-definition
of the function to avoid the need for this .def file.

There is no standard way in Python distutils to create a standard shared library (an extension module is a “special” shared
library Python understands) in a cross-platform manner. Thus, a big disadvantage of ctypes at the time of writing this
book is that it is difficult to distribute in a cross-platform manner a Python extension that uses ctypes and includes your
own code which should be compiled as a shared library on the users system.
Loading the shared library
A simple, but robust way to load the shared library is to get the absolute path name and load it using the cdll object of
ctypes:
lib = ctypes.cdll[<full_path_name>]
However, on Windows accessing an attribute of the cdll method will load the first DLL by that name found in the
current directory or on the PATH. Loading the absolute path name requires a little finesse for cross-platform work since
the extension of shared libraries varies. There is a ctypes.util.find_library utility available that can simplify
the process of finding the library to load but it is not foolproof. Complicating matters, different platforms have different
default extensions used by shared libraries (e.g. .dll – Windows, .so – Linux, .dylib – Mac OS X). This must also be taken
into account if you are using ctypes to wrap code that needs to work on several platforms.
NumPy provides a convenience function called ctypeslib.load_library (name, path). This function takes the
name of the shared library (including any prefix like ‘lib’ but excluding the extension) and a path where the shared li-
brary can be located. It returns a ctypes library object or raises an OSError if the library cannot be found or raises
an ImportError if the ctypes module is not available. (Windows users: the ctypes library object loaded using
load_library is always loaded assuming cdecl calling convention. See the ctypes documentation under ctypes.
windll and/or ctypes.oledll for ways to load libraries under other calling conventions).
The functions in the shared library are available as attributes of the ctypes library object (returned from ctypeslib.
load_library) or as items using lib['func_name'] syntax. The latter method for retrieving a function name
is particularly useful if the function name contains characters that are not allowable in Python variable names.
Converting arguments
Python ints/longs, strings, and unicode objects are automatically converted as needed to equivalent ctypes arguments
The None object is also converted automatically to a NULL pointer. All other Python objects must be converted to
ctypes-specific types. There are two ways around this restriction that allow ctypes to integrate with other objects.
1. Don’t set the argtypes attribute of the function object and define an _as_parameter_ method for the object
you want to pass in. The _as_parameter_ method must return a Python int which will be passed directly to
the function.
2. Set the argtypes attribute to a list whose entries contain objects with a classmethod named from_param that knows
how to convert your object to an object that ctypes can understand (an int/long, string, unicode, or object with the
_as_parameter_ attribute).
NumPy uses both methods with a preference for the second method because it can be safer. The ctypes attribute of the
ndarray returns an object that has an _as_parameter_ attribute which returns an integer representing the address of
the ndarray to which it is associated. As a result, one can pass this ctypes attribute object directly to a function expecting
a pointer to the data in your ndarray. The caller must be sure that the ndarray object is of the correct type, shape, and has
the correct flags set or risk nasty crashes if the data-pointer to inappropriate arrays are passed in.
To implement the second method, NumPy provides the class-factory function ndpointer in the numpy.ctypeslib
module. This class-factory function produces an appropriate class that can be placed in an argtypes attribute entry of a
ctypes function. The class will contain a from_param method which ctypes will use to convert any ndarray passed in to
the function to a ctypes-recognized object. In the process, the conversion will perform checking on any properties of the
ndarray that were specified by the user in the call to ndpointer. Aspects of the ndarray that can be checked include
the data-type, the number-of-dimensions, the shape, and/or the state of the flags on any array passed. The return value of

the from_param method is the ctypes attribute of the array which (because it contains the _as_parameter_ attribute
pointing to the array data area) can be used by ctypes directly.
The ctypes attribute of an ndarray is also endowed with additional attributes that may be convenient when passing ad-
ditional information about the array into a ctypes function. The attributes data, shape, and strides can provide ctypes
compatible types corresponding to the data-area, the shape, and the strides of the array. The data attribute returns a
c_void_p representing a pointer to the data area. The shape and strides attributes each return an array of ctypes inte-
gers (or None representing a NULL pointer, if a 0-d array). The base ctype of the array is a ctype integer of the same
size as a pointer on the platform. There are also methods data_as({ctype}), shape_as(<base ctype>),
and strides_as(<base ctype>). These return the data as a ctype object of your choice and the shape/strides
arrays using an underlying base type of your choice. For convenience, the ctypeslib module also contains c_intp
as a ctypes integer data-type whose size is the same as the size of c_void_p on the platform (its value is None if ctypes
is not installed).
Calling the function
The function is accessed as an attribute of or an item from the loaded shared-library. Thus, if ./mylib.so has a
function named cool_function1, I could access this function either as:
lib = numpy.ctypeslib.load_library('mylib','.')
func1 = lib.cool_function1 # or equivalently
func1 = lib['cool_function1']
In ctypes, the return-value of a function is set to be ‘int’ by default. This behavior can be changed by setting the restype
attribute of the function. Use None for the restype if the function has no return value (‘void’):
func1.restype = None
As previously discussed, you can also set the argtypes attribute of the function in order to have ctypes check the types of
the input arguments when the function is called. Use the ndpointer factory function to generate a ready-made class
for data-type, shape, and flags checking on your new function. The ndpointer function has the signature
ndpointer(dtype=None, ndim=None, shape=None, flags=None)
Keyword arguments with the value None are not checked. Specifying a keyword enforces checking of that aspect
of the ndarray on conversion to a ctypes-compatible object. The dtype keyword can be any object understood as a
data-type object. The ndim keyword should be an integer, and the shape keyword should be an integer or a sequence
of integers. The flags keyword specifies the minimal flags that are required on any array passed in. This can be
specified as a string of comma separated requirements, an integer indicating the requirement bits OR’d together,
or a flags object returned from the flags attribute of an array with the necessary requirements.
Using an ndpointer class in the argtypes method can make it significantly safer to call a C function using ctypes and the
data- area of an ndarray. You may still want to wrap the function in an additional Python wrapper to make it user-friendly
(hiding some obvious arguments and making some arguments output arguments). In this process, the requires function
in NumPy may be useful to return the right kind of array from a given input.

Complete example
In this example, I will show how the addition function and the filter function implemented previously using the other
approaches can be implemented using ctypes. First, the C code which implements the algorithms contains the functions
zadd, dadd, sadd, cadd, and dfilter2d. The zadd function is:
/* Add arrays of contiguous data */
typedef struct {double real; double imag;} cdouble;
typedef struct {float real; float imag;} cfloat;
void zadd(cdouble *a, cdouble *b, cdouble *c, long n)
{
while (n--) {
c->real = a->real + b->real;
c->imag = a->imag + b->imag;
a++; b++; c++;
}
}
with similar code for cadd, dadd, and sadd that handles complex float, double, and float data-types, respectively:
void cadd(cfloat *a, cfloat *b, cfloat *c, long n)
{
while (n--) {
c->real = a->real + b->real;
c->imag = a->imag + b->imag;
a++; b++; c++;
}
}
void dadd(double *a, double *b, double *c, long n)
{
while (n--) {
*c++ = *a++ + *b++;
}
}
void sadd(float *a, float *b, float *c, long n)
{
while (n--) {
*c++ = *a++ + *b++;
}
}
The code.c file also contains the function dfilter2d:

/*
* Assumes b is contiguous and has strides that are multiples of
* sizeof(double)
*/
void
dfilter2d(double *a, double *b, ssize_t *astrides, ssize_t *dims)
{
ssize_t i, j, M, N, S0, S1;
ssize_t r, c, rm1, rp1, cp1, cm1;
M = dims[0]; N = dims[1];
S0 = astrides[0]/sizeof(double);
S1 = astrides[1]/sizeof(double);
for (i = 1; i < M - 1; i++) {
r = i*S0;


rp1 = r + S0;
rm1 = r - S0;
for (j = 1; j < N - 1; j++) {
c = j*S1;
cp1 = j + S1;
cm1 = j - S1;
b[i*N + j] = a[r + c] +
(a[rp1 + c] + a[rm1 + c] +
a[r + cp1] + a[r + cm1])*0.5 +
(a[rp1 + cp1] + a[rp1 + cm1] +
a[rm1 + cp1] + a[rm1 + cp1])*0.25;
}
}
}
A possible advantage this code has over the Fortran-equivalent code is that it takes arbitrarily strided (i.e. non-contiguous
arrays) and may also run faster depending on the optimization capability of your compiler. But, it is an obviously more
complicated than the simple code in filter.f. This code must be compiled into a shared library. On my Linux system
this is accomplished using:
gcc -o code.so -shared code.c
Which creates a shared_library named code.so in the current directory. On Windows don’t forget to either add
__declspec(dllexport) in front of void on the line preceding each function definition, or write a code.def
file that lists the names of the functions to be exported.
A suitable Python interface to this shared library should be constructed. To do this create a file named interface.py with
the following lines at the top:
__all__ = ['add', 'filter2d']
import numpy as np
import os
_path = os.path.dirname('__file__')
lib = np.ctypeslib.load_library('code', _path)
_typedict = {'zadd' : complex, 'sadd' : np.single,
'cadd' : np.csingle, 'dadd' : float}
for name in _typedict.keys():
val = getattr(lib, name)
val.restype = None
_type = _typedict[name]
val.argtypes = [np.ctypeslib.ndpointer(_type,
flags='aligned, contiguous'),
np.ctypeslib.ndpointer(_type,
flags='aligned, contiguous'),
np.ctypeslib.ndpointer(_type,
flags='aligned, contiguous,'\
'writeable'),
np.ctypeslib.c_intp]
This code loads the shared library named code.{ext} located in the same path as this file. It then adds a return type
of void to the functions contained in the library. It also adds argument checking to the functions in the library so that
ndarrays can be passed as the first three arguments along with an integer (large enough to hold a pointer on the platform)
as the fourth argument.
Setting up the filtering function is similar and allows the filtering function to be called with ndarray arguments as the first

two arguments and with pointers to integers (large enough to handle the strides and shape of an ndarray) as the last two
arguments.:
lib.dfilter2d.restype=None
lib.dfilter2d.argtypes = [np.ctypeslib.ndpointer(float, ndim=2,
flags='aligned'),
np.ctypeslib.ndpointer(float, ndim=2,
flags='aligned, contiguous,'\
'writeable'),
ctypes.POINTER(np.ctypeslib.c_intp),
ctypes.POINTER(np.ctypeslib.c_intp)]
Next, define a simple selection function that chooses which addition function to call in the shared library based on the
data-type:
def select(dtype):
if dtype.char in ['?bBhHf']:
return lib.sadd, single
elif dtype.char in ['F']:
return lib.cadd, csingle
elif dtype.char in ['DG']:
return lib.zadd, complex
else:
return lib.dadd, float
return func, ntype
Finally, the two functions to be exported by the interface can be written simply as:
def add(a, b):

requires = ['CONTIGUOUS', 'ALIGNED']
a = np.asanyarray(a)
func, dtype = select(a.dtype)
a = np.require(a, dtype, requires)
b = np.require(b, dtype, requires)
c = np.empty_like(a)
func(a,b,c,a.size)
return c
and:
def filter2d(a):
a = np.require(a, float, ['ALIGNED'])
b = np.zeros_like(a)
lib.dfilter2d(a, b, a.ctypes.strides, a.ctypes.shape)
return b
Conclusion
Using ctypes is a powerful way to connect Python with arbitrary C-code. Its advantages for extending Python include
• clean separation of C code from Python code
– no need to learn a new syntax except Python and C
– allows re-use of C code
– functionality in shared libraries written for other purposes can be obtained with a simple Python wrapper and
search for the library.

• easy integration with NumPy through the ctypes attribute

• full argument checking with the ndpointer class factory
Its disadvantages include
• It is difficult to distribute an extension module made using ctypes because of a lack of support for building shared
libraries in distutils (but I suspect this will change in time).
• You must have shared-libraries of your code (no static libraries).
• Very little support for C++ code and its different library-calling conventions. You will probably need a C wrapper
around C++ code to use with ctypes (or just use Boost.Python instead).
Because of the difficulty in distributing an extension module made using ctypes, f2py and Cython are still the easiest ways
to extend Python for package creation. However, ctypes is in some cases a useful alternative. This should bring more
features to ctypes that should eliminate the difficulty in extending Python and distributing the extension using ctypes.
8.2.6 Additional tools you may find useful
These tools have been found useful by others using Python and so are included here. They are discussed separately because
they are either older ways to do things now handled by f2py, Cython, or ctypes (SWIG, PyFort) or because I don’t know
much about them (SIP, Boost). I have not added links to these methods because my experience is that you can find the
most relevant link faster using Google or some other search engine, and any links provided here would be quickly dated.
Do not assume that just because it is included in this list, I don’t think the package deserves your attention. I’m including
information about these packages because many people have found them useful and I’d like to give you as many options
as possible for tackling the problem of easily integrating your code.
SWIG
Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator (SWIG) is an old and fairly stable method for wrapping C/C++-libraries
to a large variety of other languages. It does not specifically understand NumPy arrays but can be made useable with
NumPy through the use of typemaps. There are some sample typemaps in the numpy/tools/swig directory under numpy.i
together with an example module that makes use of them. SWIG excels at wrapping large C/C++ libraries because it can
(almost) parse their headers and auto-produce an interface. Technically, you need to generate a .i file that defines the
interface. Often, however, this .i file can be parts of the header itself. The interface usually needs a bit of tweaking to
be very useful. This ability to parse C/C++ headers and auto-generate the interface still makes SWIG a useful approach
to adding functionalilty from C/C++ into Python, despite the other methods that have emerged that are more targeted
to Python. SWIG can actually target extensions for several languages, but the typemaps usually have to be language-
specific. Nonetheless, with modifications to the Python-specific typemaps, SWIG can be used to interface a library with
other languages such as Perl, Tcl, and Ruby.
My experience with SWIG has been generally positive in that it is relatively easy to use and quite powerful. I used to use
it quite often before becoming more proficient at writing C-extensions. However, I struggled writing custom interfaces
with SWIG because it must be done using the concept of typemaps which are not Python specific and are written in a
C-like syntax. Therefore, I tend to prefer other gluing strategies and would only attempt to use SWIG to wrap a very-large
C/C++ library. Nonetheless, there are others who use SWIG quite happily.

SIP
SIP is another tool for wrapping C/C++ libraries that is Python specific and appears to have very good support for C++.
Riverbank Computing developed SIP in order to create Python bindings to the QT library. An interface file must be
written to generate the binding, but the interface file looks a lot like a C/C++ header file. While SIP is not a full C++
parser, it understands quite a bit of C++ syntax as well as its own special directives that allow modification of how the
Python binding is accomplished. It also allows the user to define mappings between Python types and C/C++ structures
and classes.
Boost Python
Boost is a repository of C++ libraries and Boost.Python is one of those libraries which provides a concise interface for
binding C++ classes and functions to Python. The amazing part of the Boost.Python approach is that it works entirely in
pure C++ without introducing a new syntax. Many users of C++ report that Boost.Python makes it possible to combine
the best of both worlds in a seamless fashion. I have not used Boost.Python because I am not a big user of C++ and using
Boost to wrap simple C-subroutines is usually over-kill. It’s primary purpose is to make C++ classes available in Python.
So, if you have a set of C++ classes that need to be integrated cleanly into Python, consider learning about and using
Boost.Python.
PyFort
PyFort is a nice tool for wrapping Fortran and Fortran-like C-code into Python with support for Numeric arrays. It was
written by Paul Dubois, a distinguished computer scientist and the very first maintainer of Numeric (now retired). It is
worth mentioning in the hopes that somebody will update PyFort to work with NumPy arrays as well which now support
either Fortran or C-style contiguous arrays.
8.3 Writing your own ufunc
I have the Power!

— He-Man
8.3.1 Creating a new universal function
Before reading this, it may help to familiarize yourself with the basics of C extensions for Python by reading/skimming
the tutorials in Section 1 of Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter and in How to extend NumPy
The umath module is a computer-generated C-module that creates many ufuncs. It provides a great many examples of
how to create a universal function. Creating your own ufunc that will make use of the ufunc machinery is not difficult
either. Suppose you have a function that you want to operate element-by-element over its inputs. By creating a new ufunc
you will obtain a function that handles
• broadcasting
• N-dimensional looping
• automatic type-conversions with minimal memory usage
• optional output arrays
It is not difficult to create your own ufunc. All that is required is a 1-d loop for each data-type you want to support. Each
1-d loop must have a specific signature, and only ufuncs for fixed-size data-types can be used. The function call used to

create a new ufunc to work on built-in data-types is given below. A different mechanism is used to register ufuncs for
user-defined data-types.
In the next several sections we give example code that can be easily modified to create your own ufuncs. The examples
are successively more complete or complicated versions of the logit function, a common function in statistical modeling.
Logit is also interesting because, due to the magic of IEEE standards (specifically IEEE 754), all of the logit functions
created below automatically have the following behavior.
>>> logit(0)
-inf
>>> logit(1)
inf
>>> logit(2)
nan
>>> logit(-2)
nan
This is wonderful because the function writer doesn’t have to manually propagate infs or nans.
8.3.2 Example Non-ufunc extension
For comparison and general edification of the reader we provide a simple implementation of a C extension of logit that
uses no numpy.
To do this we need two files. The first is the C file which contains the actual code, and the second is the setup.py file used
to create the module.
#include <Python.h>
#include <math.h>
/*
* spammodule.c
* This is the C code for a non-numpy Python extension to
* define the logit function, where logit(p) = log(p/(1-p)).
* This function will not work on numpy arrays automatically.
* numpy.vectorize must be called in python to generate
* a numpy-friendly function.
*
* Details explaining the Python-C API can be found under
* 'Extending and Embedding' and 'Python/C API' at
* docs.python.org .
*/
/* This declares the logit function */

static PyObject* spam_logit(PyObject *self, PyObject *args);
/*
* This tells Python what methods this module has.
* See the Python-C API for more information.
*/
static PyMethodDef SpamMethods[] = {
{"logit",
spam_logit,
METH_VARARGS, "compute logit"},
{NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
8.3. Writing your own ufunc 173


};
/*
* This actually defines the logit function for
* input args from Python.
*/
static PyObject* spam_logit(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)

{
double p;
/* This parses the Python argument into a double */

if(!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "d", &p)) {
return NULL;
}
/* THE ACTUAL LOGIT FUNCTION */

p = p/(1-p);
p = log(p);
/*This builds the answer back into a python object */

return Py_BuildValue("d", p);
}
/* This initiates the module using the above definitions. */

static struct PyModuleDef moduledef = {
PyModuleDef_HEAD_INIT,
"spam",
NULL,
-1,
SpamMethods,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL
};
PyMODINIT_FUNC PyInit_spam(void)
{
PyObject *m;
m = PyModule_Create(&moduledef);
if (!m) {
return NULL;
}
return m;
}
To use the setup.py file, place setup.py and spammodule.c in the same folder. Then python setup.py build will build the
module to import, or setup.py install will install the module to your site-packages directory.
'''
setup.py file for spammodule.c
Calling


$python setup.py build_ext --inplace
will build the extension library in the current file.
Calling
$python setup.py build
will build a file that looks like ./build/lib*, where
lib* is a file that begins with lib. The library will
be in this file and end with a C library extension,
such as .so
Calling
$python setup.py install
will install the module in your site-packages file.
See the distutils section of

'Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter'
at docs.python.org for more information.
'''
from distutils.core import setup, Extension
module1 = Extension('spam', sources=['spammodule.c'],

include_dirs=['/usr/local/lib'])
setup(name = 'spam',
version='1.0',
description='This is my spam package',
ext_modules = [module1])
Once the spam module is imported into python, you can call logit via spam.logit. Note that the function used above cannot
be applied as-is to numpy arrays. To do so we must call numpy.vectorize on it. For example, if a python interpreter is
opened in the file containing the spam library or spam has been installed, one can perform the following commands:

>>> import spam
>>> spam.logit(0)
-inf
>>> spam.logit(1)
inf
>>> spam.logit(0.5)
0.0
>>> x = np.linspace(0,1,10)
>>> spam.logit(x)
TypeError: only length-1 arrays can be converted to Python scalars
>>> f = np.vectorize(spam.logit)
>>> f(x)
array([ -inf, -2.07944154, -1.25276297, -0.69314718, -0.22314355,
0.22314355, 0.69314718, 1.25276297, 2.07944154, inf])
THE RESULTING LOGIT FUNCTION IS NOT FAST! numpy.vectorize simply loops over spam.logit. The loop is
done at the C level, but the numpy array is constantly being parsed and build back up. This is expensive. When the author
compared numpy.vectorize(spam.logit) against the logit ufuncs constructed below, the logit ufuncs were almost exactly 4
times faster. Larger or smaller speedups are, of course, possible depending on the nature of the function.

8.3.3 Example NumPy ufunc for one dtype
For simplicity we give a ufunc for a single dtype, the ‘f8’ double. As in the previous section, we first give the .c file and
then the setup.py file used to create the module containing the ufunc.
The place in the code corresponding to the actual computations for the ufunc are marked with /*BEGIN main ufunc
computation*/ and /*END main ufunc computation*/. The code in between those lines is the primary thing that must be
changed to create your own ufunc.
#include "Python.h"
#include "math.h"
#include "numpy/ndarraytypes.h"
#include "numpy/ufuncobject.h"
#include "numpy/npy_3kcompat.h"
/*
* single_type_logit.c
* This is the C code for creating your own
* NumPy ufunc for a logit function.
*
* In this code we only define the ufunc for
* a single dtype. The computations that must
* be replaced to create a ufunc for
* a different function are marked with BEGIN
* and END.
*
* docs.python.org .
*/
static PyMethodDef LogitMethods[] = {

};
/* The loop definition must precede the PyMODINIT_FUNC. */
static void double_logit(char **args, npy_intp *dimensions,

npy_intp* steps, void* data)
{
npy_intp i;
npy_intp n = dimensions[0];
char *in = args[0], *out = args[1];
npy_intp in_step = steps[0], out_step = steps[1];
double tmp;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

/*BEGIN main ufunc computation*/
tmp = *(double *)in;
tmp /= 1-tmp;
*((double *)out) = log(tmp);
/*END main ufunc computation*/
in += in_step;
out += out_step;
}
}

/*This a pointer to the above function*/

PyUFuncGenericFunction funcs[1] = {&double_logit};
/* These are the input and return dtypes of logit.*/

static char types[2] = {NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_DOUBLE};
static void *data[1] = {NULL};

"npufunc",
NULL,
-1,
LogitMethods,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL
};
PyMODINIT_FUNC PyInit_npufunc(void)
{
PyObject *m, *logit, *d;
if (!m) {
return NULL;
}
import_array();
import_umath();
logit = PyUFunc_FromFuncAndData(funcs, data, types, 1, 1, 1,

PyUFunc_None, "logit",
"logit_docstring", 0);
d = PyModule_GetDict(m);
PyDict_SetItemString(d, "logit", logit);

Py_DECREF(logit);
return m;
}
This is a setup.py file for the above code. As before, the module can be build via calling python setup.py build at the
command prompt, or installed to site-packages via python setup.py install.
'''
setup.py file for logit.c
Note that since this is a numpy extension
we use numpy.distutils instead of
distutils from the python standard library.
Calling

Calling
such as .so
Calling

at docs.python.org and the documentation
on numpy.distutils for more information.
'''
def configuration(parent_package='', top_path=None):

import numpy
config = Configuration('npufunc_directory',
parent_package,
top_path)
config.add_extension('npufunc', ['single_type_logit.c'])
return config
if __name__ == "__main__":
setup(configuration=configuration)
After the above has been installed, it can be imported and used as follows.
>>> import npufunc
>>> npufunc.logit(0.5)
0.0
>>> a = np.linspace(0,1,5)
>>> npufunc.logit(a)
array([ -inf, -1.09861229, 0. , 1.09861229, inf])
8.3.4 Example NumPy ufunc with multiple dtypes
We finally give an example of a full ufunc, with inner loops for half-floats, floats, doubles, and long doubles. As in the
previous sections we first give the .c file and then the corresponding setup.py file.
The places in the code corresponding to the actual computations for the ufunc are marked with /*BEGIN main ufunc
computation*/ and /*END main ufunc computation*/. The code in between those lines is the primary thing that must be
changed to create your own ufunc.
#include "Python.h"
#include "math.h"


#include "numpy/halffloat.h"
/*
* multi_type_logit.c
* NumPy ufunc for a logit function.
*
* Each function of the form type_logit defines the
* logit function for a different numpy dtype. Each
* of these functions must be modified when you
* create your own ufunc. The computations that must
* be replaced to create a ufunc for
* a different function are marked with BEGIN
* and END.
*
* docs.python.org .
*
*/

};
/* The loop definitions must precede the PyMODINIT_FUNC. */
static void long_double_logit(char **args, npy_intp *dimensions,

{
npy_intp i;
char *in = args[0], *out=args[1];
long double tmp;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

tmp = *(long double *)in;
tmp /= 1-tmp;
*((long double *)out) = logl(tmp);
in += in_step;
out += out_step;
}
}
static void double_logit(char **args, npy_intp *dimensions,

{
npy_intp i;


double tmp;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

tmp = *(double *)in;
tmp /= 1-tmp;
*((double *)out) = log(tmp);
in += in_step;
out += out_step;
}
}
static void float_logit(char **args, npy_intp *dimensions,

{
npy_intp i;
char *in=args[0], *out = args[1];
float tmp;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

tmp = *(float *)in;
tmp /= 1-tmp;
*((float *)out) = logf(tmp);
in += in_step;
out += out_step;
}
}
static void half_float_logit(char **args, npy_intp *dimensions,

{
npy_intp i;
float tmp;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

tmp = *(npy_half *)in;
tmp = npy_half_to_float(tmp);
tmp /= 1-tmp;
tmp = logf(tmp);


*((npy_half *)out) = npy_float_to_half(tmp);
in += in_step;
out += out_step;
}
}
/*This gives pointers to the above functions*/

PyUFuncGenericFunction funcs[4] = {&half_float_logit,
&float_logit,
&double_logit,
&long_double_logit};
static char types[8] = {NPY_HALF, NPY_HALF,

NPY_FLOAT, NPY_FLOAT,
NPY_DOUBLE,NPY_DOUBLE,
NPY_LONGDOUBLE, NPY_LONGDOUBLE};
static void *data[4] = {NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL};

"npufunc",
NULL,
-1,
LogitMethods,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL
};
{
if (!m) {
return NULL;
}
import_array();
import_umath();


Py_DECREF(logit);
return m;
}
This is a setup.py file for the above code. As before, the module can be build via calling python setup.py build at the

command prompt, or installed to site-packages via python setup.py install.
'''
setup.py file for logit.c
Note that since this is a numpy extension
we use numpy.distutils instead of
distutils from the python standard library.
Calling
Calling
such as .so
Calling

at docs.python.org and the documentation
on numpy.distutils for more information.
'''
def configuration(parent_package='', top_path=None):

import numpy
from numpy.distutils.misc_util import get_info
#Necessary for the half-float d-type.

info = get_info('npymath')
config = Configuration('npufunc_directory',
parent_package,
top_path)
config.add_extension('npufunc',
['multi_type_logit.c'],
extra_info=info)
return config
if __name__ == "__main__":
setup(configuration=configuration)
After the above has been installed, it can be imported and used as follows.

>>> import npufunc
>>> npufunc.logit(0.5)
0.0
>>> a = np.linspace(0,1,5)


>>> npufunc.logit(a)
array([ -inf, -1.09861229, 0. , 1.09861229, inf])
8.3.5 Example NumPy ufunc with multiple arguments/return values
Our final example is a ufunc with multiple arguments. It is a modification of the code for a logit ufunc for data with a
single dtype. We compute (A*B, logit(A*B)).
We only give the C code as the setup.py file is exactly the same as the setup.py file in Example NumPy ufunc for one dtype,
except that the line
is replaced with
config.add_extension('npufunc', ['multi_arg_logit.c'])
The C file is given below. The ufunc generated takes two arguments A and B. It returns a tuple whose first element is A*B
and whose second element is logit(A*B). Note that it automatically supports broadcasting, as well as all other properties
of a ufunc.
#include "Python.h"
#include "math.h"
#include "numpy/halffloat.h"
/*
* multi_arg_logit.c
* NumPy ufunc for a multiple argument, multiple
* return value ufunc. The places where the
* ufunc computation is carried out are marked
* with comments.
*
* docs.python.org .
*
*/

};
static void double_logitprod(char **args, npy_intp *dimensions,

{
npy_intp i;
char *in1 = args[0], *in2 = args[1];
char *out1 = args[2], *out2 = args[3];


npy_intp in1_step = steps[0], in2_step = steps[1];
npy_intp out1_step = steps[2], out2_step = steps[3];
double tmp;
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

tmp = *(double *)in1;
tmp *= *(double *)in2;
*((double *)out1) = tmp;
*((double *)out2) = log(tmp/(1-tmp));
in1 += in1_step;
in2 += in2_step;
out1 += out1_step;
out2 += out2_step;
}
}
/*This a pointer to the above function*/

PyUFuncGenericFunction funcs[1] = {&double_logitprod};
/* These are the input and return dtypes of logit.*/
static char types[4] = {NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_DOUBLE,

NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_DOUBLE};

"npufunc",
NULL,
-1,
LogitMethods,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL
};
{
if (!m) {
return NULL;
}
import_array();
import_umath();




Py_DECREF(logit);
return m;
}
8.3.6 Example NumPy ufunc with structured array dtype arguments
This example shows how to create a ufunc for a structured array dtype. For the example we show a trivial ufunc
for adding two arrays with dtype ‘u8,u8,u8’. The process is a bit different from the other examples since a call to
PyUFunc_FromFuncAndData doesn’t fully register ufuncs for custom dtypes and structured array dtypes. We need
to also call PyUFunc_RegisterLoopForDescr to finish setting up the ufunc.
We only give the C code as the setup.py file is exactly the same as the setup.py file in Example NumPy ufunc for one dtype,
except that the line
is replaced with
config.add_extension('npufunc', ['add_triplet.c'])
The C file is given below.

#include "Python.h"
#include "math.h"
#include "numpy/npy_3kcompat.h"
/*
* add_triplet.c
* NumPy ufunc for a structured array dtype.
*
* docs.python.org .
*/
static PyMethodDef StructUfuncTestMethods[] = {

};
static void add_uint64_triplet(char **args, npy_intp *dimensions,

{
npy_intp i;


npy_intp is1=steps[0];
npy_intp is2=steps[1];
npy_intp os=steps[2];
npy_intp n=dimensions[0];
uint64_t *x, *y, *z;
char *i1=args[0];
char *i2=args[1];
char *op=args[2];
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
x = (uint64_t*)i1;
y = (uint64_t*)i2;
z = (uint64_t*)op;
z[0] = x[0] + y[0];

z[1] = x[1] + y[1];
z[2] = x[2] + y[2];
i1 += is1;
i2 += is2;
op += os;
}
}
/* This a pointer to the above function */

PyUFuncGenericFunction funcs[1] = {&add_uint64_triplet};
/* These are the input and return dtypes of add_uint64_triplet. */

static char types[3] = {NPY_UINT64, NPY_UINT64, NPY_UINT64};

"struct_ufunc_test",
NULL,
-1,
StructUfuncTestMethods,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL,
NULL
};
PyMODINIT_FUNC PyInit_struct_ufunc_test(void)
{
PyObject *m, *add_triplet, *d;
PyObject *dtype_dict;
PyArray_Descr *dtype;
PyArray_Descr *dtypes[3];
if (m == NULL) {
return NULL;


}
import_array();
import_umath();
/* Create a new ufunc object */

add_triplet = PyUFunc_FromFuncAndData(NULL, NULL, NULL, 0, 2, 1,
PyUFunc_None, "add_triplet",
"add_triplet_docstring", 0);
dtype_dict = Py_BuildValue("[(s, s), (s, s), (s, s)]",

"f0", "u8", "f1", "u8", "f2", "u8");
PyArray_DescrConverter(dtype_dict, &dtype);
Py_DECREF(dtype_dict);
dtypes[0] = dtype;
dtypes[1] = dtype;
dtypes[2] = dtype;
/* Register ufunc for structured dtype */

PyUFunc_RegisterLoopForDescr(add_triplet,
dtype,
&add_uint64_triplet,
dtypes,
NULL);
PyDict_SetItemString(d, "add_triplet", add_triplet);

Py_DECREF(add_triplet);
return m;
}
The returned ufunc object is a callable Python object. It should be placed in a (module) dictionary under the same name as
was used in the name argument to the ufunc-creation routine. The following example is adapted from the umath module
static PyUFuncGenericFunction atan2_functions[] = {

PyUFunc_ff_f, PyUFunc_dd_d,
PyUFunc_gg_g, PyUFunc_OO_O_method};
static void* atan2_data[] = {
(void *)atan2f,(void *) atan2,
(void *)atan2l,(void *)"arctan2"};
static char atan2_signatures[] = {
NPY_FLOAT, NPY_FLOAT, NPY_FLOAT,
NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_DOUBLE, NPY_DOUBLE,
NPY_LONGDOUBLE, NPY_LONGDOUBLE, NPY_LONGDOUBLE
NPY_OBJECT, NPY_OBJECT, NPY_OBJECT};
...
/* in the module initialization code */
PyObject *f, *dict, *module;
...
dict = PyModule_GetDict(module);
...
f = PyUFunc_FromFuncAndData(atan2_functions,
atan2_data, atan2_signatures, 4, 2, 1,
PyUFunc_None, "arctan2",


"a safe and correct arctan(x1/x2)", 0);
PyDict_SetItemString(dict, "arctan2", f);
Py_DECREF(f);
...
8.4 Beyond the Basics
The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having

new eyes.
— Marcel Proust
Discovery is seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no
one else has thought.
— Albert Szent-Gyorgi
8.4.1 Iterating over elements in the array
Basic Iteration
One common algorithmic requirement is to be able to walk over all elements in a multidimensional array. The array
iterator object makes this easy to do in a generic way that works for arrays of any dimension. Naturally, if you know
the number of dimensions you will be using, then you can always write nested for loops to accomplish the iteration. If,
however, you want to write code that works with any number of dimensions, then you can make use of the array iterator.
An array iterator object is returned when accessing the .flat attribute of an array.
Basic usage is to call PyArray_IterNew ( array ) where array is an ndarray object (or one of its sub-classes).
The returned object is an array-iterator object (the same object returned by the .flat attribute of the ndarray). This
object is usually cast to PyArrayIterObject* so that its members can be accessed. The only members that are needed are
iter->size which contains the total size of the array, iter->index, which contains the current 1-d index into the
array, and iter->dataptr which is a pointer to the data for the current element of the array. Sometimes it is also
useful to access iter->ao which is a pointer to the underlying ndarray object.
After processing data at the current element of the array, the next element of the array can be obtained using the macro
PyArray_ITER_NEXT ( iter ). The iteration always proceeds in a C-style contiguous fashion (last index varying the
fastest). The PyArray_ITER_GOTO ( iter, destination ) can be used to jump to a particular point in the array,
where destination is an array of npy_intp data-type with space to handle at least the number of dimensions in the
underlying array. Occasionally it is useful to use PyArray_ITER_GOTO1D ( iter, index ) which will jump to the
1-d index given by the value of index. The most common usage, however, is given in the following example.
PyObject *obj; /* assumed to be some ndarray object */

PyArrayIterObject *iter;
...
iter = (PyArrayIterObject *)PyArray_IterNew(obj);
if (iter == NULL) goto fail; /* Assume fail has clean-up code */
while (iter->index < iter->size) {
/* do something with the data at it->dataptr */
PyArray_ITER_NEXT(it);
}
...

You can also use PyArrayIter_Check ( obj ) to ensure you have an iterator object and PyArray_ITER_RESET
( iter ) to reset an iterator object back to the beginning of the array.
It should be emphasized at this point that you may not need the array iterator if your array is already contiguous (using an
array iterator will work but will be slower than the fastest code you could write). The major purpose of array iterators is to
encapsulate iteration over N-dimensional arrays with arbitrary strides. They are used in many, many places in the NumPy
source code itself. If you already know your array is contiguous (Fortran or C), then simply adding the element- size to
a running pointer variable will step you through the array very efficiently. In other words, code like this will probably be
faster for you in the contiguous case (assuming doubles).
npy_intp size;
double *dptr; /* could make this any variable type */
size = PyArray_SIZE(obj);
dptr = PyArray_DATA(obj);
while(size--) {
/* do something with the data at dptr */
dptr++;
}
Iterating over all but one axis
A common algorithm is to loop over all elements of an array and perform some function with each element by issuing a
function call. As function calls can be time consuming, one way to speed up this kind of algorithm is to write the function
so it takes a vector of data and then write the iteration so the function call is performed for an entire dimension of data at a
time. This increases the amount of work done per function call, thereby reducing the function-call over-head to a small(er)
fraction of the total time. Even if the interior of the loop is performed without a function call it can be advantageous to
perform the inner loop over the dimension with the highest number of elements to take advantage of speed enhancements
available on micro- processors that use pipelining to enhance fundamental operations.
The PyArray_IterAllButAxis ( array, &dim ) constructs an iterator object that is modified so that it
will not iterate over the dimension indicated by dim. The only restriction on this iterator object, is that the
PyArray_Iter_GOTO1D ( it, ind ) macro cannot be used (thus flat indexing won’t work either if you pass this
object back to Python — so you shouldn’t do this). Note that the returned object from this routine is still usually cast
to PyArrayIterObject *. All that’s been done is to modify the strides and dimensions of the returned iterator to simulate
iterating over array[…,0,…] where 0 is placed on the dimth dimension. If dim is negative, then the dimension with the
largest axis is found and used.
Iterating over multiple arrays
Very often, it is desirable to iterate over several arrays at the same time. The universal functions are an example of this
kind of behavior. If all you want to do is iterate over arrays with the same shape, then simply creating several iterator
objects is the standard procedure. For example, the following code iterates over two arrays assumed to be the same shape
and size (actually obj1 just has to have at least as many total elements as does obj2):
/* It is already assumed that obj1 and obj2

are ndarrays of the same shape and size.
*/
iter1 = (PyArrayIterObject *)PyArray_IterNew(obj1);
if (iter1 == NULL) goto fail;
iter2 = (PyArrayIterObject *)PyArray_IterNew(obj2);
if (iter2 == NULL) goto fail; /* assume iter1 is DECREF'd at fail */
while (iter2->index < iter2->size) {
/* process with iter1->dataptr and iter2->dataptr */
PyArray_ITER_NEXT(iter1);
8.4. Beyond the Basics 189


PyArray_ITER_NEXT(iter2);
}
Broadcasting over multiple arrays
When multiple arrays are involved in an operation, you may want to use the same broadcasting rules that the math
operations (i.e. the ufuncs) use. This can be done easily using the PyArrayMultiIterObject. This is the
object returned from the Python command numpy.broadcast and it is almost as easy to use from C. The function
PyArray_MultiIterNew ( n, ... ) is used (with n input objects in place of ... ). The input objects can be
arrays or anything that can be converted into an array. A pointer to a PyArrayMultiIterObject is returned. Broad-
casting has already been accomplished which adjusts the iterators so that all that needs to be done to advance to
the next element in each array is for PyArray_ITER_NEXT to be called for each of the inputs. This increment-
ing is automatically performed by PyArray_MultiIter_NEXT ( obj ) macro (which can handle a multiterator
obj as either a PyArrayMultiObject * or a PyObject *). The data from input number i is available using
PyArray_MultiIter_DATA ( obj, i ) and the total (broadcasted) size as PyArray_MultiIter_SIZE ( obj).
An example of using this feature follows.
mobj = PyArray_MultiIterNew(2, obj1, obj2);

size = PyArray_MultiIter_SIZE(obj);
while(size--) {
ptr1 = PyArray_MultiIter_DATA(mobj, 0);
ptr2 = PyArray_MultiIter_DATA(mobj, 1);
/* code using contents of ptr1 and ptr2 */
PyArray_MultiIter_NEXT(mobj);
}
The function PyArray_RemoveSmallest ( multi ) can be used to take a multi-iterator object and adjust all the
iterators so that iteration does not take place over the largest dimension (it makes that dimension of size 1). The code
being looped over that makes use of the pointers will very-likely also need the strides data for each of the iterators. This
information is stored in multi->iters[i]->strides.
There are several examples of using the multi-iterator in the NumPy source code as it makes N-dimensional broadcasting-
code very simple to write. Browse the source for more examples.
8.4.2 User-defined data-types
NumPy comes with 24 builtin data-types. While this covers a large majority of possible use cases, it is conceivable that
a user may have a need for an additional data-type. There is some support for adding an additional data-type into the
NumPy system. This additional data- type will behave much like a regular data-type except ufuncs must have 1-d loops
registered to handle it separately. Also checking for whether or not other data-types can be cast “safely” to and from this
new type or not will always return “can cast” unless you also register which types your new data-type can be cast to and
from.
The NumPy source code includes an example of a custom data-type as part of its test suite. The file
_rational_tests.c.src in the source code directory numpy/numpy/core/src/umath/ contains an im-
plementation of a data-type that represents a rational number as the ratio of two 32 bit integers.

Adding the new data-type
To begin to make use of the new data-type, you need to first define a new Python type to hold the scalars of your new
data-type. It should be acceptable to inherit from one of the array scalars if your new type has a binary compatible layout.
This will allow your new data type to have the methods and attributes of array scalars. New data- types must have a fixed
memory size (if you want to define a data-type that needs a flexible representation, like a variable-precision number, then
use a pointer to the object as the data-type). The memory layout of the object structure for the new Python type must be
PyObject_HEAD followed by the fixed-size memory needed for the data- type. For example, a suitable structure for the
new Python type is:
typedef struct {
PyObject_HEAD;
some_data_type obval;
/* the name can be whatever you want */
} PySomeDataTypeObject;
After you have defined a new Python type object, you must then define a new PyArray_Descr structure whose type-
object member will contain a pointer to the data-type you’ve just defined. In addition, the required functions in the
“.f” member must be defined: nonzero, copyswap, copyswapn, setitem, getitem, and cast. The more functions in the “.f”
member you define, however, the more useful the new data-type will be. It is very important to initialize unused functions
to NULL. This can be achieved using PyArray_InitArrFuncs (f).
Once a new PyArray_Descr structure is created and filled with the needed information and useful functions you
call PyArray_RegisterDataType (new_descr). The return value from this call is an integer providing you
with a unique type_number that specifies your data-type. This type number should be stored and made available
by your module so that other modules can use it to recognize your data-type (the other mechanism for finding a
user-defined data-type number is to search based on the name of the type-object associated with the data-type using
PyArray_TypeNumFromName ).
Registering a casting function
You may want to allow builtin (and other user-defined) data-types to be cast automatically to your data-type. In order to
make this possible, you must register a casting function with the data-type you want to be able to cast from. This requires
writing low-level casting functions for each conversion you want to support and then registering these functions with the
data-type descriptor. A low-level casting function has the signature.
void castfunc(void* from, void* to, npy_intp n, void* fromarr, void* toarr)
Cast n elements from one type to another. The data to cast from is in a contiguous, correctly-swapped and aligned
chunk of memory pointed to by from. The buffer to cast to is also contiguous, correctly-swapped and aligned. The
fromarr and toarr arguments should only be used for flexible-element-sized arrays (string, unicode, void).
An example castfunc is:
static void
double_to_float(double *from, float* to, npy_intp n,
void* ignore1, void* ignore2) {
while (n--) {
(*to++) = (double) *(from++);
}
}
This could then be registered to convert doubles to floats using the code:
doub = PyArray_DescrFromType(NPY_DOUBLE);
PyArray_RegisterCastFunc(doub, NPY_FLOAT,


(PyArray_VectorUnaryFunc *)double_to_float);
Py_DECREF(doub);
Registering coercion rules
By default, all user-defined data-types are not presumed to be safely castable to any builtin data-types. In addition builtin
data-types are not presumed to be safely castable to user-defined data-types. This situation limits the ability of user-
defined data-types to participate in the coercion system used by ufuncs and other times when automatic coercion takes
place in NumPy. This can be changed by registering data-types as safely castable from a particular data-type object. The
function PyArray_RegisterCanCast (from_descr, totype_number, scalarkind) should be used to specify that the
data-type object from_descr can be cast to the data-type with type number totype_number. If you are not trying to alter
scalar coercion rules, then use NPY_NOSCALAR for the scalarkind argument.
If you want to allow your new data-type to also be able to share in the scalar coercion rules, then you need to specify the
scalarkind function in the data-type object’s “.f” member to return the kind of scalar the new data-type should be seen as
(the value of the scalar is available to that function). Then, you can register data-types that can be cast to separately for
each scalar kind that may be returned from your user-defined data-type. If you don’t register scalar coercion handling,
then all of your user-defined data-types will be seen as NPY_NOSCALAR.
Registering a ufunc loop
You may also want to register low-level ufunc loops for your data-type so that an ndarray of your data-type can have math
applied to it seamlessly. Registering a new loop with exactly the same arg_types signature, silently replaces any previously
registered loops for that data-type.
Before you can register a 1-d loop for a ufunc, the ufunc must be previously created. Then you call
PyUFunc_RegisterLoopForType (…) with the information needed for the loop. The return value of this function
is 0 if the process was successful and -1 with an error condition set if it was not successful.
8.4.3 Subtyping the ndarray in C
One of the lesser-used features that has been lurking in Python since 2.2 is the ability to sub-class types in C. This facility
is one of the important reasons for basing NumPy off of the Numeric code-base which was already in C. A sub-type in C
allows much more flexibility with regards to memory management. Sub-typing in C is not difficult even if you have only
a rudimentary understanding of how to create new types for Python. While it is easiest to sub-type from a single parent
type, sub-typing from multiple parent types is also possible. Multiple inheritance in C is generally less useful than it is in
Python because a restriction on Python sub-types is that they have a binary compatible memory layout. Perhaps for this
reason, it is somewhat easier to sub-type from a single parent type.
All C-structures corresponding to Python objects must begin with PyObject_HEAD (or PyObject_VAR_HEAD). In
the same way, any sub-type must have a C-structure that begins with exactly the same memory layout as the parent type
(or all of the parent types in the case of multiple-inheritance). The reason for this is that Python may attempt to access
a member of the sub-type structure as if it had the parent structure ( i.e. it will cast a given pointer to a pointer to the
parent structure and then dereference one of it’s members). If the memory layouts are not compatible, then this attempt
will cause unpredictable behavior (eventually leading to a memory violation and program crash).
One of the elements in PyObject_HEAD is a pointer to a type-object structure. A new Python type is created by creating
a new type-object structure and populating it with functions and pointers to describe the desired behavior of the type.
Typically, a new C-structure is also created to contain the instance-specific information needed for each object of the type
as well. For example, &PyArray_Type is a pointer to the type-object table for the ndarray while a PyArrayObject
* variable is a pointer to a particular instance of an ndarray (one of the members of the ndarray structure is, in turn,

a pointer to the type- object table &PyArray_Type). Finally PyType_Ready (<pointer_to_type_object>) must be
called for every new Python type.
Creating sub-types
To create a sub-type, a similar procedure must be followed except only behaviors that are different require new entries
in the type- object structure. All other entries can be NULL and will be filled in by PyType_Ready with appropriate
functions from the parent type(s). In particular, to create a sub-type in C follow these steps:
1. If needed create a new C-structure to handle each instance of your type. A typical C-structure would be:
typedef _new_struct {
PyArrayObject base;
/* new things here */
} NewArrayObject;
Notice that the full PyArrayObject is used as the first entry in order to ensure that the binary layout of instances of
the new type is identical to the PyArrayObject.
2. Fill in a new Python type-object structure with pointers to new functions that will over-ride the default behavior while
leaving any function that should remain the same unfilled (or NULL). The tp_name element should be different.
3. Fill in the tp_base member of the new type-object structure with a pointer to the (main) parent type object. For
multiple-inheritance, also fill in the tp_bases member with a tuple containing all of the parent objects in the order
they should be used to define inheritance. Remember, all parent-types must have the same C-structure for multiple
inheritance to work properly.
4. Call PyType_Ready (<pointer_to_new_type>). If this function returns a negative number, a failure occurred
and the type is not initialized. Otherwise, the type is ready to be used. It is generally important to place a reference
to the new type into the module dictionary so it can be accessed from Python.
More information on creating sub-types in C can be learned by reading PEP 253 (available at https://www.python.org/
dev/peps/pep-0253).
Specific features of ndarray sub-typing
Some special methods and attributes are used by arrays in order to facilitate the interoperation of sub-types with the base
ndarray type.
The __array_finalize__ method

ndarray.__array_finalize__
Several array-creation functions of the ndarray allow specification of a particular sub-type to be created. This al-
lows sub-types to be handled seamlessly in many routines. When a sub-type is created in such a fashion, however,
neither the __new__ method nor the __init__ method gets called. Instead, the sub-type is allocated and the ap-
propriate instance-structure members are filled in. Finally, the __array_finalize__ attribute is looked-up
in the object dictionary. If it is present and not None, then it can be either a CObject containing a pointer to a
PyArray_FinalizeFunc or it can be a method taking a single argument (which could be None).
If the __array_finalize__ attribute is a CObject, then the pointer must be a pointer to a function with the
signature:
(int) (PyArrayObject *, PyObject *)
The first argument is the newly created sub-type. The second argument (if not NULL) is the “parent” array (if
the array was created using slicing or some other operation where a clearly-distinguishable parent is present). This
routine can do anything it wants to. It should return a -1 on error and 0 otherwise.

If the __array_finalize__ attribute is not None nor a CObject, then it must be a Python method that takes
the parent array as an argument (which could be None if there is no parent), and returns nothing. Errors in this
method will be caught and handled.
The __array_priority__ attribute

ndarray.__array_priority__
This attribute allows simple but flexible determination of which sub- type should be considered “primary” when an
operation involving two or more sub-types arises. In operations where different sub-types are being used, the sub-
type with the largest __array_priority__ attribute will determine the sub-type of the output(s). If two sub-
types have the same __array_priority__ then the sub-type of the first argument determines the output. The
default __array_priority__ attribute returns a value of 0.0 for the base ndarray type and 1.0 for a sub-type.
This attribute can also be defined by objects that are not sub-types of the ndarray and can be used to determine
which __array_wrap__ method should be called for the return output.
The __array_wrap__ method

ndarray.__array_wrap__
Any class or type can define this method which should take an ndarray argument and return an instance of the
type. It can be seen as the opposite of the __array__ method. This method is used by the ufuncs (and other
NumPy functions) to allow other objects to pass through. For Python >2.4, it can also be used to write a decorator
that converts a function that works only with ndarrays to one that works with any type with __array__ and
__array_wrap__ methods.

CHAPTER
NINE
NUMPY TUTORIALS
These documents are intended as an introductory overview of NumPy and its features. For detailed reference documen-
tation of the functions and classes contained in the package, see the API reference.
9.1 Tutorial: Linear algebra on n-dimensional arrays
Prerequisites
Before reading this tutorial, you should know a bit of Python. If you would like to refresh your memory, take a look at
the Python tutorial.
If you want to be able to run the examples in this tutorial, you should also have matplotlib and SciPy installed on your
computer.
Learner profile
This tutorial is for people who have a basic understanding of linear algebra and arrays in NumPy and want to understand
how n-dimensional (n >= 2) arrays are represented and can be manipulated. In particular, if you don’t know how to
apply common functions to n-dimensional arrays (without using for-loops), or if you want to understand axis and shape
properties for n-dimensional arrays, this tutorial might be of help.
Learning Objectives
After this tutorial, you should be able to:
• Understand the difference between one-, two- and n-dimensional arrays in NumPy;
• Understand how to apply some linear algebra operations to n-dimensional arrays without using for-loops;
• Understand axis and shape properties for n-dimensional arrays.
Content
In this tutorial, we will use a matrix decomposition from linear algebra, the Singular Value Decomposition, to generate a
compressed approximation of an image. We’ll use the face image from the scipy.misc module:
>>> from scipy import misc

>>> img = misc.face()
Note: If you prefer, you can use your own image as you work through this tutorial. In order to transform your image
into a NumPy array that can be manipulated, you can use the imread function from the matplotlib.pyplot
submodule. Alternatively, you can use the imageio.imread function from the imageio library. Be aware that if
you use your own image, you’ll likely need to adapt the steps below. For more information on how images are treated
when converted to NumPy arrays, see A crash course on NumPy for images from the scikit-image documentation.
195
Now, img is a NumPy array, as we can see when using the type function:
>>> type(img)
We can see the image using the matplotlib.pyplot.imshow function:

>>> plt.imshow(img)
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Note: If you are executing the commands above in the IPython shell, it might be necessary to use the command plt.
show() to show the image window.
Shape, axis and array properties

Note that, in linear algebra, the dimension of a vector refers to the number of entries in an array. In NumPy, it instead
defines the number of axes. For example, a 1D array is a vector such as [1, 2, 3], a 2D array is a matrix, and so
forth.
First, let’s check for the shape of the data in our array. Since this image is two-dimensional (the pixels in the image form
a rectangle), we might expect a two-dimensional array to represent it (a matrix). However, using the shape property of
this NumPy array gives us a different result:
>>> img.shape
(768, 1024, 3)
The output is a tuple with three elements, which means that this is a three-dimensional array. In fact, since this is a color
image, and we have used the imread function to read it, the data is organized in three 2D arrays, representing color
channels (in this case, red, green and blue - RGB). You can see this by looking at the shape above: it indicates that we
have an array of 3 matrices, each having shape 768x1024.
Furthermore, using the ndim property of this array, we can see that
>>> img.ndim
3
196 Chapter 9. NumPy Tutorials

NumPy refers to each dimension as an axis. Because of how imread works, the first index in the 3rd axis is the red pixel
data for our image. We can access this by using the syntax
>>> img[:, :, 0]
array([[121, 138, 153, ..., 119, 131, 139],
[ 89, 110, 130, ..., 118, 134, 146],
[ 73, 94, 115, ..., 117, 133, 144],
...,
[ 87, 94, 107, ..., 120, 119, 119],
[ 85, 95, 112, ..., 121, 120, 120],
[ 85, 97, 111, ..., 120, 119, 118]], dtype=uint8)
From the output above, we can see that every value in img[:,:,0] is an integer value between 0 and 255, representing
the level of red in each corresponding image pixel (keep in mind that this might be different if you use your own image
instead of scipy.misc.face).
As expected, this is a 768x1024 matrix:
>>> img[:, :, 0].shape

(768, 1024)
Since we are going to perform linear algebra operations on this data, it might be more interesting to have real numbers
between 0 and 1 in each entry of the matrices to represent the RGB values. We can do that by setting
>>> img_array = img / 255
This operation, dividing an array by a scalar, works because of NumPy’s broadcasting rules). (Note that in real-world
applications, it would be better to use, for example, the img_as_float utility function from scikit-image).
You can check that the above works by doing some tests; for example, inquiring about maximum and minimum values
for this array:
>>> img_array.max(), img_array.min()

(1.0, 0.0)
or checking the type of data in the array:
>>> img_array.dtype
dtype('float64')
Note that we can assign each color channel to a separate matrix using the slice syntax:
>>> red_array = img_array[:, :, 0]

>>> green_array = img_array[:, :, 1]
>>> blue_array = img_array[:, :, 2]
Operations on an axis
It is possible to use methods from linear algebra to approximate an existing set of data. Here, we will use the SVD
(Singular Value Decomposition) to try to rebuild an image that uses less singular value information than the original one,
while still retaining some of its features.
Note: We will use NumPy’s linear algebra module, numpy.linalg, to perform the operations in this tutorial. Most
of the linear algebra functions in this module can also be found in scipy.linalg, and users are encouraged to use
the scipy module for real-world applications. However, it is currently not possible to apply linear algebra operations to
n-dimensional arrays using the scipy.linalg module. For more information on this, check the scipy.linalg Reference.
9.1. Tutorial: Linear algebra on n-dimensional arrays 197

To proceed, import the linear algebra submodule from NumPy:
>>> from numpy import linalg
In order to extract information from a given matrix, we can use the SVD to obtain 3 arrays which can be multiplied to
obtain the original matrix. From the theory of linear algebra, given a matrix A, the following product can be computed:
U ΣV T = A
where U and V T are square and Σ is the same size as A. Σ is a diagonal matrix and contains the singular values of
A, organized from largest to smallest. These values are always non-negative and can be used as an indicator of the
“importance” of some features represented by the matrix A.
Let’s see how this works in practice with just one matrix first. Note that according to colorimetry, it is possible to obtain
a fairly reasonable grayscale version of our color image if we apply the formula
Y = 0.2126R + 0.7152G + 0.0722B
where Y is the array representing the grayscale image, and R, G and B are the red, green and blue channel arrays we had
originally. Notice we can use the @ operator (the matrix multiplication operator for NumPy arrays, see numpy.matmul)
for this:
>>> img_gray = img_array @ [0.2126, 0.7152, 0.0722]
Now, img_gray has shape
>>> img_gray.shape
(768, 1024)
To see if this makes sense in our image, we should use a colormap from matplotlib corresponding to the color we
wish to see in out image (otherwise, matplotlib will default to a colormap that does not correspond to the real data).
In our case, we are approximating the grayscale portion of the image, so we will use the colormap gray:
>>> plt.imshow(img_gray, cmap="gray")
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Now, applying the linalg.svd function to this matrix, we obtain the following decomposition:

>>> U, s, Vt = linalg.svd(img_gray)
Note: If you are using your own image, this command might take a while to run, depending on the size of your image
and your hardware. Don’t worry, this is normal! The SVD can be a pretty intensive computation.
Let’s check that this is what we expected:
>>> U.shape, s.shape, Vt.shape

((768, 768), (768,), (1024, 1024))
Note that s has a particular shape: it has only one dimension. This means that some linear algebra functions that expect
2d arrays might not work. For example, from the theory, one might expect s and Vt to be compatible for multiplication.
However, this is not true as s does not have a second axis. Executing
>>> s @ Vt
...
ValueError: matmul: Input operand 1 has a mismatch in its core dimension 0,
with gufunc signature (n?,k),(k,m?)->(n?,m?) (size 1024 is different from
768)
results in a ValueError. This happens because having a one-dimensional array for s, in this case, is much more
economic in practice than building a diagonal matrix with the same data. To reconstruct the original matrix, we can
rebuild the diagonal matrix Σ with the elements of s in its diagonal and with the appropriate dimensions for multiplying:
in our case, Σ should be 768x1024 since U is 768x768 and Vt is 1024x1024.

>>> Sigma = np.zeros((768, 1024))
>>> for i in range(768):
... Sigma[i, i] = s[i]
Now, we want to check if the reconstructed U @ Sigma @ Vt is close to the original img_gray matrix.
Approximation
The linalg module includes a norm function, which computes the norm of a vector or matrix represented in a NumPy
array. For example, from the SVD explanation above, we would expect the norm of the difference between img_gray
and the reconstructed SVD product to be small. As expected, you should see something like
>>> linalg.norm(img_gray - U @ Sigma @ Vt)

1.3926466851808837e-12
(The actual result of this operation might be different depending on your architecture and linear algebra setup. Regardless,
you should see a small number.)
We could also have used the numpy.allclose function to make sure the reconstructed product is, in fact, close to our
original matrix (the difference between the two arrays is small):
>>> np.allclose(img_gray, U @ Sigma @ Vt)

True
To see if an approximation is reasonable, we can check the values in s:
>>> plt.plot(s)

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In the graph, we can see that although we have 768 singular values in s, most of those (after the 150th entry or so) are
pretty small. So it might make sense to use only the information related to the first (say, 50) singular values to build a
more economical approximation to our image.
The idea is to consider all but the first k singular values in Sigma (which are the same as in s) as zeros, keeping U and
Vt intact, and computing the product of these matrices as the approximation.
For example, if we choose
>>> k = 10
we can build the approximation by doing

>>> approx = U @ Sigma[:, :k] @ Vt[:k, :]
Note that we had to use only the first k rows of Vt, since all other rows would be multiplied by the zeros corresponding
to the singular values we eliminated from this approximation.
>>> plt.imshow(approx, cmap="gray")
Now, you can go ahead and repeat this experiment with other values of k, and each of your experiments should give you
a slightly better (or worse) image depending on the value you choose.
Applying to all colors
Now we want to do the same kind of operation, but to all three colors. Our first instinct might be to repeat the same
operation we did above to each color matrix individually. However, NumPy’s broadcasting takes care of this for us.
If our array has more than two dimensions, then the SVD can be applied to all axes at once. However, the linear algebra
functions in NumPy expect to see an array of the form (N, M, M), where the first axis represents the number of
matrices.
In our case,
>>> img_array.shape
(768, 1024, 3)
so we need to permutate the axis on this array to get a shape like (3, 768, 1024). Fortunately, the numpy.
transpose function can do that for us:

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np.transpose(x, axes=(i, j, k))
indicates that the axis will be reordered such that the final shape of the transposed array will be reordered according to
the indices (i, j, k).
Let’s see how this goes for our array:
>>> img_array_transposed = np.transpose(img_array, (2, 0, 1))

>>> img_array_transposed.shape
(3, 768, 1024)
Now we are ready to apply the SVD:
>>> U, s, Vt = linalg.svd(img_array_transposed)
Finally, to obtain the full approximated image, we need to reassemble these matrices into the approximation. Now, note
that
>>> U.shape, s.shape, Vt.shape

((3, 768, 768), (3, 768), (3, 1024, 1024))
To build the final approximation matrix, we must understand how multiplication across different axes works.
Products with n-dimensional arrays
If you have worked before with only one- or two-dimensional arrays in NumPy, you might use numpy.dot and numpy.
matmul (or the @ operator) interchangeably. However, for n-dimensional arrays, they work in very different ways. For
more details, check the documentation numpy.matmul.
Now, to build our approximation, we first need to make sure that our singular values are ready for multiplication, so we
build our Sigma matrix similarly to what we did before. The Sigma array must have dimensions (3, 768, 1024).
In order to add the singular values to the diagonal of Sigma, we will use the fill_diagonal function from NumPy,
using each of the 3 rows in s as the diagonal for each of the 3 matrices in Sigma:
>>> Sigma = np.zeros((3, 768, 1024))

>>> for j in range(3):
... np.fill_diagonal(Sigma[j, :, :], s[j, :])

Now, if we wish to rebuild the full SVD (with no approximation), we can do
>>> reconstructed = U @ Sigma @ Vt
Note that
>>> reconstructed.shape
(3, 768, 1024)
and
>>> plt.imshow(np.transpose(reconstructed, (1, 2, 0)))
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should give you an image indistinguishable from the original one (although we may introduce floating point errors for this
reconstruction). In fact, you might see a warning message saying “Clipping input data to the valid range for imshow with
RGB data ([0..1] for floats or [0..255] for integers).” This is expected from the manipulation we just did on the original
image.
Now, to do the approximation, we must choose only the first k singular values for each color channel. This can be done
using the following syntax:
>>> approx_img = U @ Sigma[..., :k] @ Vt[..., :k, :]
You can see that we have selected only the first k components of the last axis for Sigma (this means that we have used
only the first k columns of each of the three matrices in the stack), and that we have selected only the first k components
in the second-to-last axis of Vt (this means we have selected only the first k rows from every matrix in the stack Vt and
all columns). If you are unfamiliar with the ellipsis syntax, it is a placeholder for other axes. For more details, see the
documentation on Indexing.
Now,
>>> approx_img.shape
(3, 768, 1024)
which is not the right shape for showing the image. Finally, reordering the axes back to our original shape of (768,
1024, 3), we can see our approximation:

>>> plt.imshow(np.transpose(approx_img, (1, 2, 0)))
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700
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Even though the image is not as sharp, using a small number of k singular values (compared to the original set of 768
values), we can recover many of the distinguishing features from this image.
Final words
Of course, this is not the best method to approximate an image. However, there is, in fact, a result in linear algebra
that says that the approximation we built above is the best we can get to the original matrix in terms of the norm of the
difference. For more information, see G. H. Golub and C. F. Van Loan, Matrix Computations, Baltimore, MD, Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1985.
Further reading
• Python tutorial
• reference
• SciPy Tutorial
• SciPy Lecture Notes
• A matlab, R, IDL, NumPy/SciPy dictionary


CHAPTER
TEN
NUMPY HOW TOS
These documents are intended as recipes to common tasks using NumPy. For detailed reference documentation of the
functions and classes contained in the package, see the API reference.
10.1 How to read and write data using NumPy
Objectives
• Writing NumPy arrays to files
• Reading NumPy arrays from files
• Dealing with encoding and dtype issues
Content
To be completed.
205
206 Chapter 10. NumPy How Tos

PYTHON MODULE INDEX
n
numpy.doc.basics, 65
numpy.doc.broadcasting, 86
numpy.doc.byteswapping, 89
numpy.doc.creation, 69
numpy.doc.dispatch, 113
numpy.doc.indexing, 79
numpy.doc.misc, 131
numpy.doc.structured_arrays, 91
numpy.doc.subclassing, 118
numpy.lib.recfunctions, 101
207
208 Python Module Index

INDEX
Non-alphabetical G
__array_finalize__ (ndarray attribute), 193 get_fieldstructure() (in module
__array_priority__ (ndarray attribute), 194 numpy.lib.recfunctions), 104
__array_wrap__ (ndarray attribute), 194 get_names() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions), 104
get_names_flat() (in module
A numpy.lib.recfunctions), 105
adding new
dtype, 190, 192 J
ufunc, 172, 173, 176, 178, 187 join_by() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions), 105
append_fields() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions),
101 M
apply_along_fields() (in module merge_arrays() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions),
numpy.lib.recfunctions), 101 106
array iterator, 188, 190
assign_fields_by_name() (in module N
numpy.lib.recfunctions), 102 ndarray
subtyping, 192, 194
B ndpointer() (built-in function), 167
Boost.Python, 172 numpy.doc.basics (module), 65
broadcasting, 190 numpy.doc.broadcasting (module), 86
numpy.doc.byteswapping (module), 89
C numpy.doc.creation (module), 69
castfunc (C function), 191 numpy.doc.dispatch (module), 113
ctypes, 165, 170 numpy.doc.indexing (module), 79
cython, 162, 165 numpy.doc.misc (module), 131
numpy.doc.structured_arrays (module), 91
D numpy.doc.subclassing (module), 118
numpy.lib.recfunctions (module), 101
drop_fields() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions),
102 P
dtype
PyModule_AddIntConstant (C function), 150
adding new, 190, 192
PyModule_AddObject (C function), 150
PyModule_AddStringConstant (C function), 150
E
extension module, 149, 155 R
rec_append_fields() (in module
F numpy.lib.recfunctions), 107
f2py, 158, 162 rec_drop_fields() (in module
find_duplicates() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions), 108
numpy.lib.recfunctions), 103 rec_join() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions), 108
flatten_descr() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions), recursive_fill_fields() (in module
104 numpy.lib.recfunctions), 108
209
reference counting, 152

rename_fields() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions),
108
repack_fields() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions),
109
require_fields() (in module
numpy.lib.recfunctions), 110
S
SIP, 172
stack_arrays() (in module numpy.lib.recfunctions),
110
structured_to_unstructured() (in module
subtyping
ndarray, 192, 194
swig, 171
U
ufunc
adding new, 172, 173, 176, 178, 187
unstructured_to_structured() (in module
210 Index

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NumPy User Guide

Written by the NumPy community

June 29, 2020

3 NumPy: the absolute basics for beginners 33

6 NumPy for Matlab users 137

7 Building from source 145

8 Using NumPy C-API 149

9 NumPy Tutorials 195

10 NumPy How Tos 205

Python Module Index 207

1.1 What is NumPy?

for (i = 0; i < rows; i++): {

for (i = 0; i < rows; i++): {

1.1.1 Why is NumPy Fast?

1.1.2 Who Else Uses NumPy?

1.2 Installing NumPy

1.3 Troubleshooting ImportError

The error also has additional information to help you troubleshoot:

1.2. Installing NumPy 5

Using Python from conda (Anaconda)

Using PyCharm with Anaconda/conda Python

Using VSCode with Anaconda/conda Python (or environments)

Using Eclipse/PyDev with Anaconda/conda Python (or environments)

libf77blas.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The solution will be to either:

sudo apt-get install libatlas-base-dev

pip3 uninstall numpy # remove previously installed version

Debug build on Windows

Check Environment Variables

1.3. Troubleshooting ImportError 7

2.2 The Basics

[[ 1., 0., 0.],

>>> import numpy as np

10 Chapter 2. Quickstart tutorial

2.2.2 Array Creation

There are several ways to create arrays.

2.2. The Basics 11

(continued from previous page)

>>> np.arange( 10, 30, 5 )

>>> from numpy import pi

2.2.3 Printing Arrays

>>> a = np.arange(6) # 1d array

12 Chapter 2. Quickstart tutorial

(continued from previous page)

See below to get more details on reshape.

2.2.4 Basic Operations

2.2. The Basics 13

(continued from previous page)

>>> rg = np.random.default_rng(1) # create instance of default random number␣

>>> a = np.ones((2,3), dtype=int)

Traceback (most recent call last):

>>> a = np.ones(3, dtype=np.int32)

14 Chapter 2. Quickstart tutorial

(continued from previous page)

2.2.5 Universal Functions

2.2. The Basics 15

2.2.6 Indexing, Slicing and Iterating

>>> def f(x,y):

>>> b[-1] # the last row. Equivalent to b[-1,:]