[Numpy-discussion] loadtxt and usecols

[Sebastian Berg]

On Di, 2015-11-10 at 17:39 +0100, Irvin Probst wrote:
> On 10/11/2015 16:52, Daπid wrote:
> > ((((42,))))  is exactly the same as (42,) If you want a tuple of 
> > tuples, you have to do ((42,),), but then it raises: TypeError: list 
> > indices must be integers, not tuple.
> 
> My bad, I wrote that too fast, please forget this.
> 
> > I think loadtxt should be a tool to read text files in the least 
> > surprising fashion, and a text file is a 1 or 2D container, so it 
> > shouldn't return any other shapes.
> 
> And I *do* agree with the "shouldn't return any other shapes" part of 
> your phrase. What I was trying to say, admitedly with a very bogus 
> example, is that either loadtxt() should always output an array whose 
> shape matches the shape of the object passed to usecol or it should 
> never do it, and I'm if favor of never.

Sounds fine to me, and considering the squeeze logic (which I think is
unfortunate, but it is not something you can easily change), I would be
for simply adding logic to accept a single integral argument and
otherwise not change anything.
I am personally against the flattening and even the array-like logic [1]
currently in the PR, it seems like arbitrary generality for my taste
without any obvious application.

As said before, the other/additional thing that might be very helpful is
trying to give a more useful error message.

- Sebastian


[1] Almost all 1-d array-likes will be sequences/iterables in any case,
those that are not are so obscure that there is no point in explicitly
supporting them.


> I'm perfectly aware that what I suggest would break the current behavior 
> of usecols=(2,) so I know it does not have the slightest probability of 
> being accepted but still, I think that the "least surprising fashion" is 
> to always return an 2-D array because for many, many, many people a text 
> data file has N lines and M columns and N=1 or M=1 is not a specific case.
> 
> Anyway I will of course modify my PR according to any decision made here.
> 
> In your example:
> >
> > a=[[[2,],[],[],],[],[],[]]
> > foo=np.loadtxt("CONCARNEAU_2010.txt", usecols=a)
> >
> > What would the shape of foo be?
> 
> As I said in my previous email:
> 
>  > should just work and return me a 2-D (or 1-D if you like) array with 
> the data I asked for
> 
> So, 1-D or 2-D it is up to you, but as long as there is no ambiguity in 
> which columns the user is asking for it should imho work.
> 
> Regards.
> _______________________________________________
> NumPy-Discussion mailing list
> NumPy-Discussion at scipy.org
> https://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/attachments/20151111/61753514/attachment.sig>