Python in a Nutshell

Name

array

Synopsis

array(data,typecode=None,copy=True,savespace=False)

Returns a new array object a. a’s shape depends on data. When data is a number, a has rank 0 and a .shape is the empty tuple ( ). When data is a sequence of numbers, a has rank 1 and a .shape is the singleton tuple (len( data ),). When data is a sequence of sequences of numbers, all of data’s items must have the same length, a has rank 2, and a .shape is the pair (len( data ),len( data [0])). This idea generalizes to any nesting level of data as a sequence of sequences, up to the arbitrarily high limit on rank mentioned earlier in this chapter. If data is nested over that limit, array raises TypeError. (This is unlikely to be a problem in practice, as an array of rank at least 40, with each axis of length at least 2, would have well over a million of millions of elements).

typecode can be any of the values shown in Table 15-2 or None. When typecode is None, array chooses a default type code depending on the types of the elements of data. When any one or more elements in data are long integer values or are neither numbers nor plain strings (e.g., None or Unicode strings), the type code is PyObject. When all elements are plain strings, the type code is Character. When any one or more elements (but not all) are plain strings, all others are numbers (not long integers), and typecode is None, array raises TypeError. You must explicitly pass 'O' or PyObject as argument typecode if you want to have array build an array ...