NumPy Tutorial

NumPy, which stands for Numerical Python, is a library consisting of multidimensional array objects and
a collection of routines for processing those arrays. Using NumPy, mathematical and logical operations
on arrays can be performed. This tutorial explains the basics of NumPy such as its architecture and
environment. It also discusses the various array functions, types of indexing, etc. An introduction to
Matplotlib is also provided. All this is explained with the help of examples for better understanding.

NumPy is a Python package. It stands for 'Numerical Python'. It is a library consisting of

multidimensional array objects and a collection of routines for processing of array.

Numeric, the ancestor of NumPy, was developed by Jim Hugunin. Another package Numarray
was also developed, having some additional functionalities. In 2005, Travis Oliphant created
NumPy package by incorporating the features of Numarray into Numeric package. There are
many contributors to this open source project.

Operations using NumPy

Using NumPy, a developer can perform the following operations −

 Mathematical and logical operations on arrays.

 Fourier transforms and routines for shape manipulation.
 Operations related to linear algebra. NumPy has in-built functions for linear algebra and
random number generation.

NumPy – A Replacement for MatLab

NumPy is often used along with packages like SciPy (Scientific Python) and Mat−plotlib
(plotting library). This combination is widely used as a replacement for MatLab, a popular
platform for technical computing. However, Python alternative to MatLab is now seen as a more
modern and complete programming language.

It is open source, which is an added advantage of NumPy.

NumPy - Environment
Standard Python distribution doesn't come bundled with NumPy module. A lightweight
alternative is to install NumPy using popular Python package installer, pip.

pip install numpy

The best way to enable NumPy is to use an installable binary package specific to your operating
system. These binaries contain full SciPy stack (inclusive of NumPy, SciPy, matplotlib, IPython,
SymPy and nose packages along with core Python).

Windows

Anaconda (from https://www.continuum.io) is a free Python distribution for SciPy stack. It is

also available for Linux and Mac.

Canopy (https://www.enthought.com/products/canopy/) is available as free as well as

commercial distribution with full SciPy stack for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Python (x,y): It is a free Python distribution with SciPy stack and Spyder IDE for Windows OS.
(Downloadable from https://www.python-xy.github.io/)

Linux

Package managers of respective Linux distributions are used to install one or more packages in
SciPy stack.

For Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install python-numpy
python-scipy python-matplotlibipythonipythonnotebook python-pandas
python-sympy python-nose

For Fedora
sudo yum install numpyscipy python-matplotlibipython
python-pandas sympy python-nose atlas-devel

Building from Source

Core Python (2.6.x, 2.7.x and 3.2.x onwards) must be installed with distutils and zlib module
should be enabled.

GNU gcc (4.2 and above) C compiler must be available.

To install NumPy, run the following command.

Python setup.py install

To test whether NumPy module is properly installed, try to import it from Python prompt.

import numpy

If it is not installed, the following error message will be displayed.

Traceback (most recent call last):

 File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
import numpy
ImportError: No module named 'numpy'

Alternatively, NumPy package is imported using the following syntax −

import numpy as np

NumPy - Ndarray Object

The most important object defined in NumPy is an N-dimensional array type called ndarray. It
describes the collection of items of the same type. Items in the collection can be accessed using a
zero-based index.

Every item in an ndarray takes the same size of block in the memory. Each element in ndarray is
an object of data-type object (called dtype).

Any item extracted from ndarray object (by slicing) is represented by a Python object of one of
array scalar types. The following diagram shows a relationship between ndarray, data type object
(dtype) and array scalar type −

An instance of ndarray class can be constructed by different array creation routines described
later in the tutorial. The basic ndarray is created using an array function in NumPy as follows −

numpy.array

It creates an ndarray from any object exposing array interface, or from any method that returns
an array.

numpy.array(object, dtype = None, copy = True, order = None, subok = False,

ndmin = 0)

The above constructor takes the following parameters −

Sr.No. Parameter & Description

 object
1
Any object exposing the array interface method returns an array, or any (nested) sequence.
dtype
2
Desired data type of array, optional
copy
3
Optional. By default (true), the object is copied
order
4
C (row major) or F (column major) or A (any) (default)
subok
5
By default, returned array forced to be a base class array. If true, sub-classes passed
through
ndmin
6
Specifies minimum dimensions of resultant array

Take a look at the following examples to understand better.

Example 1
Live Demo

import numpy as np
a = np.array([1,2,3])
print a

The output is as follows −

[1, 2, 3]

Example 2
Live Demo

# more than one dimensions

import numpy as np
a = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4]])
print a

The output is as follows −

[[1, 2]
[3, 4]]
Example 3
Live Demo

# minimum dimensions
import numpy as np
a = np.array([1, 2, 3,4,5], ndmin = 2)
print a

The output is as follows −

[[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]]

Example 4
Live Demo

# dtype parameter
import numpy as np
a = np.array([1, 2, 3], dtype = complex)
print a

The output is as follows −

[ 1.+0.j, 2.+0.j, 3.+0.j]

The ndarray object consists of contiguous one-dimensional segment of computer memory,

combined with an indexing scheme that maps each item to a location in the memory block. The
memory block holds the elements in a row-major order (C style) or a column-major order
(FORTRAN or MatLab style).

NumPy - Data Types

NumPy supports a much greater variety of numerical types than Python does. The following
table shows different scalar data types defined in NumPy.

Sr.No. Data Types & Description

bool_
1
Boolean (True or False) stored as a byte
int_
2
Default integer type (same as C long; normally either int64 or int32)
intc
3
Identical to C int (normally int32 or int64)
 intp
4
Integer used for indexing (same as C ssize_t; normally either int32 or int64)
int8
5
Byte (-128 to 127)
int16
6
Integer (-32768 to 32767)
int32
7
Integer (-2147483648 to 2147483647)
int64
8
Integer (-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807)
uint8
9
Unsigned integer (0 to 255)
uint16
10
Unsigned integer (0 to 65535)
uint32
11
Unsigned integer (0 to 4294967295)
uint64
12
Unsigned integer (0 to 18446744073709551615)
float_
13
Shorthand for float64
float16
14
Half precision float: sign bit, 5 bits exponent, 10 bits mantissa
float32
15
Single precision float: sign bit, 8 bits exponent, 23 bits mantissa
float64
16
Double precision float: sign bit, 11 bits exponent, 52 bits mantissa
complex_
17
Shorthand for complex128
 complex64
18
Complex number, represented by two 32-bit floats (real and imaginary components)
complex128
19
Complex number, represented by two 64-bit floats (real and imaginary components)

NumPy numerical types are instances of dtype (data-type) objects, each having unique
characteristics. The dtypes are available as np.bool_, np.float32, etc.

Data Type Objects (dtype)

A data type object describes interpretation of fixed block of memory corresponding to an array,
depending on the following aspects −

 Type of data (integer, float or Python object)

 Size of data
 Byte order (little-endian or big-endian)
 In case of structured type, the names of fields, data type of each field and part of the
memory block taken by each field.
 If data type is a subarray, its shape and data type

The byte order is decided by prefixing '<' or '>' to data type. '<' means that encoding is little-
endian (least significant is stored in smallest address). '>' means that encoding is big-endian
(most significant byte is stored in smallest address).

A dtype object is constructed using the following syntax −

numpy.dtype(object, align, copy)

The parameters are −

 Object − To be converted to data type object

 Align − If true, adds padding to the field to make it similar to C-struct
 Copy − Makes a new copy of dtype object. If false, the result is reference to builtin data
type object

Example 1
Live Demo

# using array-scalar type

import numpy as np
dt = np.dtype(np.int32)
print dt

The output is as follows −

int32

Example 2
Live Demo

#int8, int16, int32, int64 can be replaced by equivalent string 'i1',

'i2','i4', etc.
import numpy as np

dt = np.dtype('i4')
print dt

The output is as follows −

int32

Example 3
Live Demo

# using endian notation

import numpy as np
dt = np.dtype('>i4')
print dt

The output is as follows −

>i4

The following examples show the use of structured data type. Here, the field name and the
corresponding scalar data type is to be declared.

Example 4
Live Demo

# first create structured data type

import numpy as np
dt = np.dtype([('age',np.int8)])
print dt

The output is as follows −

[('age', 'i1')]

Example 5
Live Demo

# now apply it to ndarray object

import numpy as np

dt = np.dtype([('age',np.int8)])
a = np.array([(10,),(20,),(30,)], dtype = dt)
print a
The output is as follows −

[(10,) (20,) (30,)]

Example 6
Live Demo

# file name can be used to access content of age column

import numpy as np

dt = np.dtype([('age',np.int8)])
a = np.array([(10,),(20,),(30,)], dtype = dt)
print a['age']

The output is as follows −

[10 20 30]

Example 7

The following examples define a structured data type called student with a string field 'name', an
integer field 'age' and a float field 'marks'. This dtype is applied to ndarray object.

Live Demo

import numpy as np
student = np.dtype([('name','S20'), ('age', 'i1'), ('marks', 'f4')])
print student

The output is as follows −

[('name', 'S20'), ('age', 'i1'), ('marks', '<f4')])

Example 8
Live Demo

import numpy as np

student = np.dtype([('name','S20'), ('age', 'i1'), ('marks', 'f4')])

a = np.array([('abc', 21, 50),('xyz', 18, 75)], dtype = student)
print a

The output is as follows −

[('abc', 21, 50.0), ('xyz', 18, 75.0)]

Each built-in data type has a character code that uniquely identifies it.

 'b' − boolean
 'i' − (signed) integer
 'u' − unsigned integer
  'f' − floating-point
 'c' − complex-floating point
 'm' − timedelta
 'M' − datetime
 'O' − (Python) objects
 'S', 'a' − (byte-)string
 'U' − Unicode
 'V' − raw data (void)

NumPy - Array Attributes

In this chapter, we will discuss the various array attributes of NumPy.

ndarray.shape

This array attribute returns a tuple consisting of array dimensions. It can also be used to resize
the array.

Example 1
Live Demo

import numpy as np
a = np.array([[1,2,3],[4,5,6]])
print a.shape

The output is as follows −

(2, 3)

Example 2
Live Demo

# this resizes the ndarray

import numpy as np

a = np.array([[1,2,3],[4,5,6]])
a.shape = (3,2)
print a

The output is as follows −

[[1, 2]
[3, 4]
[5, 6]]

Example 3

NumPy also provides a reshape function to resize an array.

Live Demo

import numpy as np
a = np.array([[1,2,3],[4,5,6]])
b = a.reshape(3,2)
print b

The output is as follows −

[[1, 2]
[3, 4]
[5, 6]]

ndarray.ndim

This array attribute returns the number of array dimensions.

Example 1
Live Demo

# an array of evenly spaced numbers

import numpy as np
a = np.arange(24)
print a

The output is as follows −

[0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23]

Example 2
Live Demo

# this is one dimensional array

import numpy as np
a = np.arange(24)
a.ndim

# now reshape it
b = a.reshape(2,4,3)
print b
# b is having three dimensions

The output is as follows −

[[[ 0, 1, 2]
[ 3, 4, 5]
[ 6, 7, 8]
[ 9, 10, 11]]
[[12, 13, 14]
[15, 16, 17]
[18, 19, 20]
 [21, 22, 23]]]

numpy.itemsize

This array attribute returns the length of each element of array in bytes.

Example 1
Live Demo

# dtype of array is int8 (1 byte)

import numpy as np
x = np.array([1,2,3,4,5], dtype = np.int8)
print x.itemsize

The output is as follows −

Example 2
Live Demo

# dtype of array is now float32 (4 bytes)

import numpy as np
x = np.array([1,2,3,4,5], dtype = np.float32)
print x.itemsize

The output is as follows −

numpy.flags

The ndarray object has the following attributes. Its current values are returned by this function.

Sr.No. Attribute & Description

C_CONTIGUOUS (C)
1
The data is in a single, C-style contiguous segment
F_CONTIGUOUS (F)
2
The data is in a single, Fortran-style contiguous segment
OWNDATA (O)
3
The array owns the memory it uses or borrows it from another object
WRITEABLE (W)
4
The data area can be written to. Setting this to False locks the data, making it read-only
 ALIGNED (A)
5
The data and all elements are aligned appropriately for the hardware
UPDATEIFCOPY (U)
6
This array is a copy of some other array. When this array is deallocated, the base array will
be updated with the contents of this array

Example

The following example shows the current values of flags.

Live Demo

import numpy as np
x = np.array([1,2,3,4,5])
print x.flags

The output is as follows −

C_CONTIGUOUS : True
F_CONTIGUOUS : True
OWNDATA : True
WRITEABLE : True
ALIGNED : True
UPDATEIFCOPY : False