[SciPy-user] sparse matrix dtype

[Nathan Bell]

Robin <robince <at> gmail.com> writes:

> 
> On 10/9/07, Robin <robince <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> I am trying to make a large sparse matrix - the values are all integers (in
fact all non-zeros will be 1) so it would save me a lot of memory if I could use
dtype=byte.
> 
> I added 'b' to the string of allowed dtypes in  getdtype() on line  2791 of 
> sparse.py.It now seems to behave as I would expect (hope), but it can't be
that simple can it?Is it likely that doing this will break something else? Why
are the dtypes restricted in the first place.ThanksRobin
> 

FWIW integer dtypes are supported in the next release (and the current SVN)
http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/scipy/ticket/225

The problem before was not on the python side.  It was the backend code
(sparse.sparsetools) that didn't support integer types.