[Numpy-discussion] Selection of only a certain number of fields

[Travis E. Oliphant]

Francesc Alted wrote:
> A Saturday 07 February 2009, Neil escrigué:
>   
>> Travis E. Oliphant <oliphant <at> enthought.com> writes:
>>     
>>> I've been fairly quiet on this list for awhile due to work and
>>> family schedule, but I think about how things can improve
>>> regularly.    One feature that's been requested by a few people is
>>> the ability to select multiple fields from a structured array.
>>>
>>> Thus,  suppose *arr* is a structured array with dtype:
>>>
>>> [('name', 'S25'),
>>>   ('height', float),
>>>   ('age', int),
>>>   ('gender', 'S8')
>>> ]
>>>
>>> Then,  newarr = arr[['name', 'age']]  should be a structured array
>>> with just the name and age fields.
>>>       
>> What are some common use cases for this feature?
>>
>> I use structured arrays quite a lot, but I haven't found myself
>> wanting something like this. If I do need a subset of a structured
>> array generally I use something like
>>
>> [rec[n] for n in 'name age gender'.split()]
>>     
>
> Good point.  However, there are still some very valid reasons for having 
> an idiom like:
>
> newarr = arr[['name', 'age']]
>
> returning a record array.
>
> The first one (and most important IMO), is that newarr continues to be 
> an structured array (BTW, when changed this name from the original 
> record array?), 
To avoid confusion with the "record array" subclass which maps 
attributes to fields, Eric Jones and I have been using this terminology 
for about a year. 

-Travis



-- 

Travis Oliphant
Enthought, Inc.
(512) 536-1057 (office)
(512) 536-1059 (fax)
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oliphant at enthought.com