[Numpy-discussion] Added atleast_nd, request for clarification/cleanup of atleast_3d

[Joseph Fox-Rabinovitz]

I was using "reduce" in an abstract sense. I put in a 4D array in, get
a 1-3D array out, depending on some other parameters (not strictly
just by reduction, although that is the net effect). The placement of
the dimensions is irrelevant, I just need to make the output 4D again
for further calculations. Since I can have cases where the output is
of different number of dims, I wrote this function as a handy tool to
avoid conditionals.

I realize that this is not a common use-case, but it seemed like a
thing someone else might find useful one day.

    -Joe


On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 12:35 PM, Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Jul 6, 2016 6:12 AM, "Joseph Fox-Rabinovitz" <jfoxrabinovitz at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> I can add a keyword-only argument that lets you put the new dims
>> before or after the existing ones. I am not sure how to specify
>> arbitrary patterns for the new dimensions, but that should take care
>> of most use cases.
>>
>> The use case that motivated this function in the first place is that I
>> am doing some processing on 4D arrays and I need to reduce them but
>> return a result with the original dimensionality (but not shape).
>> atleast_nd seemed like a better solution than atleast_4d.
>
> This is a tangent that might not apply given the details of your code, but
> isn't this what keepdims is for? (And keepdims has the huge advantage that
> it knows which axes are being reduced and thus where to put the new axes.)
>
> I guess even if I couldn't use keepdims for some reason, my inclination
> would be to try to emulate it by fixing up the axes as I went, because I'd
> find it easier to verify that I hadn't accidentally misaligned things if the
> reductions and fix-ups were local to each other, and explicit axis
> insertions are much easier than trying to remember whether atleast_nd
> prepends or appends. This of course is all based on some vague guess at what
> your code actually looks like though...
>
> -n
>
>
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