[Numpy-discussion] strange behavior with a numpy array as member of a list

[Tim Hirzel]

Excellent.  That explains it.
thank you Robert,
tim

Robert Kern wrote:
> Tim Hirzel wrote:
>   
>> Thanks Robert.
>> That makes more sense now.  Although I am still a little puzzled by the 
>> equality behavior of an array.  for example:
>>
>>  >>> a = numpy.arange(5)
>>  >>> None == a
>> False
>>
>>  >>> 5 == a
>> array([False, False, False, False, False], dtype=bool)
>>
>>  >>> class Empty:
>>     pass
>>  >>> e = Empty()
>>  >>> e == a
>> array([False, False, False, False, False], dtype=bool)
>>
>>  >>> L = []
>>  >>> L == a
>> False
>>
>> #this behavior seems consistent regardless of the dtype of the array:
>>  >>> b = numpy.array([None, 5])
>>  >>> b
>> array([None, 5], dtype=object)
>>  >>> b  == 4
>> array([False, False], dtype=bool)
>>
>> What determines if an array tests for equality as the entire array or 
>> element-wise?
>>     
>
> There are some special cases for backwards compatibility. They are covered in
> this portion of arrayobject.c in the function array_richcompare():
>
>                 case Py_EQ:
>                         if (other == Py_None) {
>                                 Py_INCREF(Py_False);
>                                 return Py_False;
>                         }
>                         /* Try to convert other to an array */
>                         if (!PyArray_Check(other)) {
>                                 typenum = self->descr->type_num;
>                                 if (typenum != PyArray_OBJECT) {
>                                         typenum = PyArray_NOTYPE;
>                                 }
>                                 array_other = PyArray_FromObject(other,
>                                                                  typenum, 0, 0);
>                                 /* If not successful, then return False
>                                    This fixes code that used to
>                                    allow equality comparisons between arrays
>                                    and other objects which would give a result
>                                    of False
>                                 */
>                                 if ((array_other == NULL) ||    \
>                                     (array_other == Py_None)) {
>                                         Py_XDECREF(array_other);
>                                         PyErr_Clear();
>                                         Py_INCREF(Py_False);
>                                         return Py_False;
>                                 }
>                         }
>
>