efficent test for array with only one value?

[Robert Kern]

Kyler Laird wrote:

> I'm trying to discover if there's an efficient way to determine
> if all of the values of a Numeric array are the same.  In C, I
> would search from the second value, checking each against the
> first value.  The first one that doesn't match would trigger a
> False return value.  If the loop completes, True would be
> returned.
> 
> Looking through array functions, I'm not finding anything like
> that.  I'm imagining that there should be something like an
> equal function (Is that Lisp I'm recalling?) that performs
> 	a[0,0] == a[0,1] == a[0,2] == ...
> and returns False as soon as it is known.  I don't see that.
> 
> I can, of course, iterate through all of the values, but it
> seems like there should be an efficient built-in function to do
> it.

Python 2.3.3 (#1, Dec 28 2003, 00:16:29)
[GCC 3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 1495)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>> from Numeric import *
 >>> a = ones((3,5))
 >>> equal.reduce(a.flat)
1
 >>> a[0,3] = 0
 >>> equal.reduce(a.flat)
0
 >>>

Ufuncs are wonderful things.

> Thank you.
> 
> --kyler


-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
  Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
   -- Richard Harter