[Numpy-discussion] Pickling ufuncs?

[Robert Kern]

Travis Oliphant wrote:
> Why don't you store the name of the ufunc instead:
> 
> def __init__(self, a):
>       self._a = a.__name__
> 
> Then, whenever you are going to use the ufunc you do
> 
> import numpy
> func = getattr(numpy,self._a)
> 
> Then, pickle should work.

Or you can register pickler/unpickler functions for ufuncs:


In [24]: import copy_reg

In [25]: import numpy

In [26]: def ufunc_pickler(ufunc):
    return ufunc.__name__
   ....:

In [28]: def ufunc_unpickler(name):
    import numpy
    return getattr(numpy, name)
   ....:

In [31]: copy_reg.pickle(numpy.ufunc, ufunc_pickler, ufunc_unpickler)

In [32]: import cPickle

In [33]: cPickle.dumps(numpy.add)
Out[33]: 'cnumpy.core.umath\nadd\np1\n.'

In [34]: cPickle.loads(cPickle.dumps(numpy.add))
Out[34]: <ufunc 'add'>


Note that this is a hack. It won't work for the ufuncs in scipy.special, for
example.

We should look into including __module__ information in ufuncs. This is how
regular functions are pickled.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
 that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
 an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco