[Numpy-discussion] rank-0 arrays

[Scott Gilbert]

--- Todd Miller <jmiller at stsci.edu> wrote:
> Two other issues come up trying to implement the "rank-0 experiment":
> 
> 1.  What should be the behavior of subscripting a rank-0 array?
> 
> a.  Return the scalar value                         (what numarray does 
> now.  seems inconsistent)
>

If you think of it as "dereferencing" instead of "indexing", I think this
is most consistent.  It takes 3 elements to dereference a rank-3 array, so
it should take 0 elements to dereference a rank-0 array.


>
> 2.  What's a decent notation for .asScalar()?
> 
> a.  a[ <subscript_resulting_in_rank0> ][0]                (what numarray 
> does now)
> b.  a[ <subscript_resulting_in_rank0> ]()                  (override 
> __call__)
> c.  a[ <subscript_resulting_in_rank0> ].asScalar()  
> 
> Any strong opinions?
> 

Since subscripting a rank-3 array:

  a[1, 2, 3] 

is very much like 

  a[(1, 2, 3)]

The __getitem__ receives the tuple (1, 2, 3) in both cases.  (Try it!)

So that would imply subscripting (dereferencing) a rank-0 array could be:

  a[] could be represented by a[()]

It's just unfortunate that Python doesn't currently recognize the a[] as a
valid syntax.




Cheers,
    -Scott






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