[Numpy-discussion] numpy.random.shuffle

[Robert Kern]

Alan G Isaac wrote:

>>>> rr=N.array(zip(range(20),range(20)))
>>>> pid = N.random.permutation(rr.shape[0])
>>>> rr=rr[pid]
>>>> rr
> array([[ 9,  9],
>        [ 2,  2],
>        [ 3,  3],
>        [15, 15],
>        [ 4,  4],
>        [11, 11],
>        [18, 18],
>        [17, 17],
>        [ 5,  5],
>        [12, 12],
>        [13, 13],
>        [ 1,  1],
>        [ 8,  8],
>        [14, 14],
>        [16, 16],
>        [19, 19],
>        [ 7,  7],
>        [ 6,  6],
>        [10, 10],
>        [ 0,  0]])

This is really a thinko on my part. I copied the algorithm from Python's random
module. At the core of it is a set of swaps:

    x[i], x[j] = x[j], x[i]

With the kind of sequences that the stdlib random module is expecting, that
makes perfect sense. However, with N-dim arrays (N > 1), x[i] is a *view* into
the array. By the time that x[j] = x[i] gets executed, x[i] = x[j] has already
executed and the underlying memory that x[i] points to has been modified.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco