[Numpy-discussion] ndarray.fill and ma.array.filled

[Tim Hochberg]

Fernando Perez wrote:

> Tim Hochberg wrote:
>
>> My opinion is that all methods and functions should either:
>>
>>     1. Always return a copy.
>>     2. Always return a view
>>     3. Return a view if possible otherwise raise an exception.
>
>
> Well, but is copy/view the /only/ invariant worth guaranteeing?  I 
> think there is a valid need for functions which ensure other 
> invariants, such as contiguity.  There are applications (such as 
> passing pointers to C/Fortran libraries which don't have striding 
> mechanisms but will not modify their inputs) which require contiguous 
> inputs, but where one would rather make a copy only if necessary.

This is a different case, I think. The result of this copy is not user 
visible except in terms of performance. I'm only concerned with 
functions that *return* copies or views depending on the input. I don't 
care if a function sometimes makes a copy under the covers but doesn't 
return it.

> My take on this is that we should /document/ clearly what invariants 
> any given function satisfies, but I think the 'always view/always 
> copy' view excludes an important usage case.  There may be others 
> beyond contiguity, but that's the one that pops immediately to mind.

I don't think we're in disagreement here although I'm not sure.

I will add, on the subject of continuity, that I think there should be a 
function 'ascontiguous' that parallels asarray, but assures that the 
result is contiguous. Although this sometimes returns a copy, I thinks 
that's OK since that's it's job. I would like to see all of the implicit 
copying pushed into functions like asarray and ascontiguous.

This also helps efficiency. Imagine I have some calls to functions that 
require contiguous arrays and do copies under the covers if their args 
are not contiguous. In that case:

a = ascontiguous(a)
param1 = computeSomethingOnContiguousData(a)
param2 = computeSomethingElseOnContiguousData(a)
# etc.

Will be much more efficient than the equivalent code without the 
ascontiguous when the initial a value is not discontiguous.

Regards,

-tim