[Numpy-discussion] Database with Nulls to Numpy Structure

[Christopher Barker]

Mark Janikas wrote:
> Thanks for the input!  I wonder if I can resize my own record array?  I.e. one call to truncate... Ill give it a go.

you should be able too, yes. Be careful though, you can't call resize() 
if there are any other references to the array.

>  But the resize works great as it doesn't make a copy:

Actually, it's not that simple. With numpy arrays, there is the array 
object itself, and there is the data block that the array points to. Whn 
you call resize() it may make a copy of the data block (which is why it 
won't work if there are other references to it), while keeping the same 
python object.

> In [12]: a = NUM.arange(10)
> 
> In [13]: id(a)
> Out[13]: 190182896
> 
> In [14]: a.resize(5,)
> 
> In [15]: a
> Out[15]: array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
> 
> In [16]: id(a)
> Out[16]: 190182896

So this shows you have the same python object. I think there is a way to 
get the value of the pointer to the data block, but I dont' know off the 
top of my head how.

> Whereas the slice seems to make a copy/reassign:
> 
> In [18]: a = a[0:2]
> 
> In [19]: id(a)
> Out[19]: 189981184

slicing creates a new python object, but it doesn't copy the actual data:

In [4]: b = a[2:5]

In [5]: a is b
Out[5]: False

In [6]: a[2:5] = 10

In [7]: a
Out[7]: array([ 0,  1, 10, 10, 10,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9])

In [8]: b
Out[8]: array([10, 10, 10])

so you can see a and b are different python objects, but they share the 
same data block.

HTH,
-Chris

-- 
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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