[Numpy-discussion] Casting to np.byte before clearing values

Hi all, I'm trying to understand why viewing an array as bytes before clearing makes the whole operation faster. I imagine there is some kind of special treatment for byte arrays but I've no clue. # Native float Z_float = np.ones(1000000, float) Z_int = np.ones(1000000, int) %timeit Z_float[...] = 0 1000 loops, best of 3: 361 µs per loop %timeit Z_int[...] = 0 1000 loops, best of 3: 366 µs per loop %timeit Z_float.view(np.byte)[...] = 0 1000 loops, best of 3: 267 µs per loop %timeit Z_int.view(np.byte)[...] = 0 1000 loops, best of 3: 266 µs per loop Nicolas