[Numpy-discussion] Masked array fill_value

[Ryan May]

Eric Firing wrote:
> Ryan May wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just noticed this and found it surprising:
>>
>> In [8]: from numpy import ma
>>
>> In [9]: a = ma.array([1,2,3,4],mask=[False,False,True,False],fill_value=0)
>>
>> In [10]: a
>> Out[10]:
>> masked_array(data = [1 2 -- 4],
>>        mask = [False False  True False],
>>        fill_value=0)
>>
>>
>> In [11]: a[2]
>> Out[11]:
>> masked_array(data = --,
>>        mask = True,
>>        fill_value=1e+20)
>>
>> In [12]: np.__version__
>> Out[12]: '1.1.0'
>>
>> Is there a reason that the fill_value isn't inherited from the parent array?
> 
> There was a thread about this a couple months ago, and Pierre GM 
> explained it.  I think the point was that indexing is giving you a new 
> masked scalar, which is therefore taking the default mask value of the 
> type.  I don't see it as a problem; you can always specify the fill 
> value explicitly when you need to.

I thought it sounded familiar.  You're right, it's not a big problem, it 
just seemed unintuitive.  Thanks for the explaination.

Ryan

-- 
Ryan May
Graduate Research Assistant
School of Meteorology
University of Oklahoma