[Numpy-discussion] Assigning complex values to a real array

[Dr. Phillip M. Feldman]

Darren Dale wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 5:18 AM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 04:10, Stéfan van der Walt <stefan at sun.ac.za>
>> wrote:
>> > 2009/3/7 Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com>:
>> >> In [5]: z = zeros(3, int)
>> >>
>> >> In [6]: z[1] = 1.5
>> >>
>> >> In [7]: z
>> >> Out[7]: array([0, 1, 0])
>> >
>> > Blind moment, sorry.  So, what is your take -- should this kind of
>> > thing pass silently?
>>
>> Downcasting data is a necessary operation sometimes. We explicitly
>> made a choice a long time ago to allow this.
> 
> In that case, do you know why this raises an exception:
> 
> np.int64(10+20j)
> 
> Darren
> 
> 

I think that you have a good point, Darren, and that Robert is
oversimplifying
the situation. NumPy and Python are somewhat out of step. The NumPy approach
is
stricter and more likely to catch errors than Python. Python tends to be
somewhat laissez-faire about numerical errors and the correctness of
results.
Unfortunately, NumPy seems to be a sort of step-child of Python, tolerated,
but
not fully accepted. There are a number of people who continue to use Matlab,
despite all of its deficiencies, because it can at least be counted on to
produce correct answers most of the time.

Dr. Phillip M. Feldman
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