[Numpy-discussion] can int and float exists in one array?(about difference in indexing Matlab matrix and Numpy array)

[Travis Oliphant]

Zhang Sam wrote:

> Thanks for so many replies.
>  
> In fact, I want to use several arrays to store the original data from 
> a practical project. In every arrays, two or three column will be 
> store the index. The main computation is still on matrices(float type) 
> which is built from the original data. When building the main 
> matrix, I need the repeated use of the index stored in the original 
> data. So I hope both int and float can exist in one array with numpy, 
> just for the original data.

I think you probably want to use a record-array here.

Matlab does not store both integers and floating point in the same 
matrix.   It stores integers *as* floating point in your float array.  
Matlab just allows floating-point arrays to be used as indexes (because 
for a long time there was only floating-point matrices in Matlab).  

NumPy forces you to be explicit in using an integer array for indexing 
into an array.    You are mis-interpreting the situation with Matlab.  
The accurate representation is that Matlab allows indexing with floating 
point arrays.  It would be possible to lift the restriction with NumPy, 
but I suspect it's probably best to leave it the way it is so that users 
are clear about how they want to convert from integers to floating-point.


-Travis