[Numpy-discussion] saving groups of numpy arrays to disk

[Chris.Barker]

On 8/24/11 9:22 AM, Anthony Scopatz wrote:
>     You can use Python pickling, if you do *not* have a requirement for:

I can't recall why, but it seem pickling of numpy arrays has been 
fragile and not very performant.

I like the npy / npz format, built in to numpy, if you don't need:

>     - access from non-Python programs

it's quick and easy to use:

In [5]: a
Out[5]: array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9])

In [6]: b
Out[6]: array([ 0.,  1.,  2.,  3.,  4.])

In [7]: filename = "test.npz"

In [8]: np.savez(filename, a=a, b=b)

In [9]: del a, b

In [10]: # now reload:

In [11]: data = np.load(filename)

In [14]: data['a']
Out[14]: array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9])

In [15]: data['b']
Out[15]: array([ 0.,  1.,  2.,  3.,  4.])

I'd go with hdf5 or netcdf if you want a standard format that can be 
read by non-python software.

-Chris


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