[newbie] confusion concerning fetching an element in a 2d-array

[Jean Dubois]

Op dinsdag 25 maart 2014 12:01:37 UTC+1 schreef Steven D'Aprano:
> On Tue, 25 Mar 2014 03:26:26 -0700, Jean Dubois wrote:
>
> > I'm confused by the behaviour of the following python-script I wrote:
> > 
> > #!/usr/bin/env python
> > #I first made a data file 'test.dat' with the following content 
> > #1.0 2 3
> > #4 5 6.0
> > #7 8 9
> > import numpy as np
> > lines=[line.strip() for line in open('test.dat')] 
> > #convert lines-list to numpy-array
> > array_lines=np.array(lines)
> > #fetch element at 2nd row, 2nd column: 
> > print array_lines[1, 1]
> > 
> > 
> > When running the script I always get the following error: IndexError:
> > invalid index
> > 
> > Can anyone here explain me what I am doing wrong and how to fix it?
>
> Yes. Inspect the array by printing it, and you'll see that it is a one-
> dimensional array, not two, and the entries are strings:
>
>
> py> import numpy as np
> py> # simulate a text file
> ... data = """1.0 2 3
> ... 4 5 6.0
> ... 7 8 9"""
> py> lines=[line.strip() for line in data.split('\n')]
> py> # convert lines-list to numpy-array
> ... array_lines = np.array(lines)
> py> print array_lines
> ['1.0 2 3' '4 5 6.0' '7 8 9']
>
>
> The interactive interpreter is your friend! You never need to guess what 
> the problem is, Python has powerful introspection abilities, one of the 
> most powerful is also one of the simplest: print. Another powerful tool 
> in the interactive interpreter is help().
>
> So, what to do about it? Firstly, convert your string read from a file 
> into numbers, then build your array. Here's one way:
>
> py> values = [float(s) for s in data.split()]
> py> print values
> [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0]
> py> array_lines = np.array(values)
> py> array_lines = array_lines.reshape(3, 3)
> py> print array_lines
> [[ 1.  2.  3.]
>  [ 4.  5.  6.]
>  [ 7.  8.  9.]]
>
Dear Steve,
Thanks for answering my question but unfortunately now I'm totally
confused. 
Above I see parts from different programs which I can't
assemble together to one working program (I really tried hard).
Can I tell from your comment I shouldn't use numpy?
I also don't see how to get the value an element specified by (row,
column) from a numpy_array like "array_lines" in my original code

All I need is a little python-example reading a file with e.g. three lines
with three numbers per line and putting those numbers  as floats in a
3x3-numpy_array, then selecting an element from that numpy_array using
it's row and column-number.

thanks in advance and kind regards,
jean