[Numpy-discussion] alterNEP - was: missing data discussion round 2

[Matthew Brett]

Hi,

On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 5:18 PM, Bruce Southey <bsouthey at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 07/01/2011 10:15 AM, Nathaniel Smith wrote:

> I really find that you are 'splitting hairs' in your arguments as it
> really has to be up to the application on how missing values and NaN
> have to be handled. I see no difference between a missing value and a
> NaN because in virtually all statistical applications, both of these are
> dropped.

The argument is that NA and IGNORE are conceptually different and
should have a separate API.

That if you don't, it will be confusing.

By default, in alterNEP, NAs propagate and masked values are ignored.
If you want to treat them just the same, then that's an argument to
your ufunc.  Or use an 'isvalid' utility function.

Do you have a concrete case where making NA and IGNORE the same thing
in the API, gives some benefit?

Best,

Matthew