[Numpy-discussion] .max() and zero length arrays

[Robert Kern]

David M. Cooke wrote:
> On Mon, May 14, 2007 at 12:38:58PM -0500, Nick Fotopoulos wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I find myself frequently wanting to take the max of an array that
>> might have zero length.  If it is zero length, it throws an exception,
>> when I would like to gracefully substitute my own value.  For example,
>> one solution with lists is to do max(possibly_empty_list +
>> [minimum_value]), but it seems clunky to do a similar trick with
>> arrays and concatenate or to use a try: except: block.  What do other
>> people do?  If there's no good idiom, would it be possible to add
>> kwargs like default_value and/or minimum_value?
> 
> What about if maximum returned negative infinity (for floats)
> or the minimum int? That would make maximum act like sum and product,
> where the identity for those functions is returned:

If possible, I would prefer a way to pass a value to use and raise the error if
no such value is passed rather than hardcode an identity value for min() and max().

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco