[Numpy-discussion] np.zeros(2, 'S') returns empty strings.

[Paul Anton Letnes]

On 15. jan. 2012, at 01:21, josef.pktd at gmail.com wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 5:25 PM, Benjamin Root <ben.root at ou.edu> wrote:
>> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 4:16 PM, Benjamin Root <ben.root at ou.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 4:12 PM, Charles R Harris
>>> <charlesr.harris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> This sort of makes sense, but is it the 'correct' behavior?
>>>> 
>>>> In [20]: zeros(2, 'S')
>>>> Out[20]:
>>>> array(['', ''],
>>>>       dtype='|S1')
>>>> 
>>>> It might be more consistent to return '0' instead, as in
>>>> 
>>>> In [3]: zeros(2, int).astype('S')
>>>> Out[3]:
>>>> array(['0', '0'],
>>>>       dtype='|S24')
> 
> 
> 
> I would be surprised if zeros is not an empty string, since an empty
> string is the "zero" for string addition.
> multiplication for strings doesn't exist, so ones can be anything even
> literally '1'

My python disagrees.
In [1]: 2 * 'spam ham '
Out[1]: 'spam ham spam ham '

Not sure what the element-wise numpy array equivalent would be, though.

Paul