Numerical Python: Scientific Computing and Data Science Applications with Numpy, SciPy and Matplotlib

© Robert Johansson 2019

Robert JohanssonNumerical Python https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4246-9_10

10. Sparse Matrices and Graphs

Robert Johansson¹ 

(1)

Urayasu-shi, Chiba, Japan

 

We have already seen numerous examples of arrays and matrices being the essential entities in many aspects of numerical computing. So far we have represented arrays with the NumPy ndarray data structure, which is a heterogeneous representation that stores all the elements of the array that it represents. In many cases, this is the most efficient way to represent an object such as a vector, matrix, or a higher-dimensional array. However, notable exceptions are matrices where most of the elements are zeros. Such matrices are known as sparse matrices, and they occur in many ...