[Numpy-discussion] problem: I get an array that doesn't have a length

[Pierre GM]

On Wednesday 02 May 2007 12:27:10 mark wrote:
> Any reason NOT to have asarray(3,'d') return an array of length 1?

Because then, it would be "an array, not necessarily a float" ;) You just 
noticed yourself that an array of dimension 1 is pretty much like a list, 
while an array of dimension 0 is pretty much like a scalar. Keeping that in 
mind, I'm sure that you can see the advantage of 0D arrays: they are indeed 
arrays AND scalar at the same time...

If you need your inputs to be array or scalar and stay that way, then 
the "asarray" method is the best. You can just perform some additional test 
on the dimension of the array, before trying to access its length or its 
size.
A 0D array as a size of 1 and a dimension of zero, and therefore no length.
A 1D array as a size of n and a dimension of 1. and a length (n).