[Numpy-discussion] Creating a 1-d structured array

[Bruce Southey]

Hi,
How do you create a 'single' structured array using np.array()?
Basically I am attempting to do something like this that does not work:
a=np.array([1,2, 3,4, 5,6], dtype=np.dtype([('foo', int)]))

I realize that this is essentially redundant as if A is an 1-d array 
then a structured array with a named field 'foo' is the same thing - A 
would be A['foo'], just shorter.

So if that is valid then a clearer error message is required to indicate 
this and provide the suitable error message to address ticket 1264 
(http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/ticket/1264).

$ python
Python 2.7 (r27:82500, Sep 16 2010, 18:02:00)
[GCC 4.5.1 20100907 (Red Hat 4.5.1-3)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>> import numpy as np
 >>> a=np.array([1,2, 3,4, 5,6], dtype=np.dtype([('foo', int)]))
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: expected a readable buffer object
 >>> np.array([(1,2), (3,4), (5,6)], dtype=np.dtype([('foo', int), 
('foo2', int)]))
array([(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)],
       dtype=[('foo', '<i8'), ('foo2', '<i8')])
 >>> a=np.array([(1), (3), (5)], dtype=np.dtype([('foo', int)]))
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: expected a readable buffer object
 >>> np.array([(1), (3), (5)], dtype=np.dtype(int))
array([1, 3, 5])
 >>> np.array((1,2, 3,4, 5,6))
array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])

Thanks
Bruce