[Numpy-discussion] Nansum function behavior

[Charles Rilhac]

Hello,

I noticed the change regarding nan function and especially nansum function. I think this choice is a big mistake. I know that Matlab and R have made this choice but it is illogical and counterintuitive.

First argument is about logic. An arithmetic operation between Nothing and Nothing cannot make a figure or an object. Nothing + Object can be an object or something else, but from nothing, it cannot ensue something else than nothing. I hope you see what I mean.

Secondly, it's counterintuitive and not convenient. Because, if you want to fill the result of nanfunction you can do that easily :

a = np.array([[np.nan, np.nan], [1,np.nan]])
a = np.nansum(a, axis=1)
print(a)
array([np.nan,  1.])
a[np.isnan(a)] = 0
Whereas, if the result is already filled with zero on NaN-full rows, you cannot replace the result of NaN-full rows by NaN easily. In the case above, you cannot because you lost information about NaN-full rows.

I know it is tough to come back to a previous stage but I really think that it is wrong to absolutely fill with zeros the result of arithmetic operation containing NaN.

Thank for your work guys ;-)
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