Todd, What are the objections to returning a scalar? To me, this seems to be simpler than some kluge, such as float(array) or int(array). To use these, one has first to determine what array._type is. Colin W. Todd Miller wrote:
On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 06:50, Nadav Horesh wrote:
b has a scalar properties:
b+3
5
b.rank
0
The odd issue is that rank>0 arrays keeps their type in similar operations:
a = array((2,), type=Int16) a
array([2], type=Int16)
a + 3
array([5], type=Int16)
I would expect that rank 0 arrays would behave like scalars with a given numarray type (Int8, UInt64, ...).
Nadav.
Originally, I think your expected behavior was the behavior. The official policy now, always subject to debate, is that rank-0 arrays should be a mostly hidden implementation detail. The fact that a scalar is returned here is a matter of consistency and no accident. (This is not to say that I'm confident that we're completely consistent... I'm just trying to explain the direction we're heading.)
Todd