-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 6
/
nep-0034-infer-dtype-is-object.html
741 lines (548 loc) · 41.3 KB
/
nep-0034-infer-dtype-is-object.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" data-content_root="./" >
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
<title>NEP 34 — Disallow inferring dtype=object from sequences — NumPy Enhancement Proposals</title>
<script data-cfasync="false">
document.documentElement.dataset.mode = localStorage.getItem("mode") || "";
document.documentElement.dataset.theme = localStorage.getItem("theme") || "";
</script>
<!-- Loaded before other Sphinx assets -->
<link href="_static/styles/theme.css?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="_static/styles/bootstrap.css?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="_static/styles/pydata-sphinx-theme.css?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.5.2/css/all.min.css?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b" rel="stylesheet" />
<link rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin href="_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.5.2/webfonts/fa-solid-900.woff2" />
<link rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin href="_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.5.2/webfonts/fa-brands-400.woff2" />
<link rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin href="_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.5.2/webfonts/fa-regular-400.woff2" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/pygments.css?v=fa44fd50" />
<!-- Pre-loaded scripts that we'll load fully later -->
<link rel="preload" as="script" href="_static/scripts/bootstrap.js?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b" />
<link rel="preload" as="script" href="_static/scripts/pydata-sphinx-theme.js?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b" />
<script src="_static/vendor/fontawesome/6.5.2/js/all.min.js?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b"></script>
<script src="_static/documentation_options.js?v=7f41d439"></script>
<script src="_static/doctools.js?v=888ff710"></script>
<script src="_static/sphinx_highlight.js?v=dc90522c"></script>
<script>DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS.pagename = 'nep-0034-infer-dtype-is-object';</script>
<link rel="icon" href="_static/favicon.ico"/>
<link rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html" />
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="search.html" />
<link rel="next" title="NEP 35 — Array creation dispatching with __array_function__" href="nep-0035-array-creation-dispatch-with-array-function.html" />
<link rel="prev" title="NEP 32 — Remove the financial functions from NumPy" href="nep-0032-remove-financial-functions.html" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"/>
<meta name="docsearch:language" content="en"/>
<meta name="docbuild:last-update" content="Sep 30, 2024"/>
</head>
<body data-bs-spy="scroll" data-bs-target=".bd-toc-nav" data-offset="180" data-bs-root-margin="0px 0px -60%" data-default-mode="">
<div id="pst-skip-link" class="skip-link d-print-none"><a href="#main-content">Skip to main content</a></div>
<div id="pst-scroll-pixel-helper"></div>
<button type="button" class="btn rounded-pill" id="pst-back-to-top">
<i class="fa-solid fa-arrow-up"></i>Back to top</button>
<input type="checkbox"
class="sidebar-toggle"
id="pst-primary-sidebar-checkbox"/>
<label class="overlay overlay-primary" for="pst-primary-sidebar-checkbox"></label>
<input type="checkbox"
class="sidebar-toggle"
id="pst-secondary-sidebar-checkbox"/>
<label class="overlay overlay-secondary" for="pst-secondary-sidebar-checkbox"></label>
<div class="search-button__wrapper">
<div class="search-button__overlay"></div>
<div class="search-button__search-container">
<form class="bd-search d-flex align-items-center"
action="search.html"
method="get">
<i class="fa-solid fa-magnifying-glass"></i>
<input type="search"
class="form-control"
name="q"
id="search-input"
placeholder="Search the docs ..."
aria-label="Search the docs ..."
autocomplete="off"
autocorrect="off"
autocapitalize="off"
spellcheck="false"/>
<span class="search-button__kbd-shortcut"><kbd class="kbd-shortcut__modifier">Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>K</kbd></span>
</form></div>
</div>
<div class="pst-async-banner-revealer d-none">
<aside id="bd-header-version-warning" class="d-none d-print-none" aria-label="Version warning"></aside>
</div>
<header class="bd-header navbar navbar-expand-lg bd-navbar d-print-none">
<div class="bd-header__inner bd-page-width">
<button class="pst-navbar-icon sidebar-toggle primary-toggle" aria-label="Site navigation">
<span class="fa-solid fa-bars"></span>
</button>
<div class="col-lg-3 navbar-header-items__start">
<div class="navbar-item">
<a class="navbar-brand logo" href="content.html">
<img src="_static/numpylogo.svg" class="logo__image only-light" alt="NumPy Enhancement Proposals - Home"/>
<script>document.write(`<img src="_static/numpylogo.svg" class="logo__image only-dark" alt="NumPy Enhancement Proposals - Home"/>`);</script>
</a></div>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-9 navbar-header-items">
<div class="me-auto navbar-header-items__center">
<div class="navbar-item">
<nav>
<ul class="bd-navbar-elements navbar-nav">
<li class="nav-item current active">
<a class="nav-link nav-internal" href="index.html">
Index
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-internal" href="scope.html">
The Scope of NumPy
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-internal" href="roadmap.html">
Current roadmap
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%2223+-+Wish+List%22">
Wish list
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%2223+-+Wish+List%22">
Wishlist
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</nav></div>
</div>
<div class="navbar-header-items__end">
<div class="navbar-item navbar-persistent--container">
<script>
document.write(`
<button class="btn search-button-field search-button__button" title="Search" aria-label="Search" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-toggle="tooltip">
<i class="fa-solid fa-magnifying-glass"></i>
<span class="search-button__default-text">Search</span>
<span class="search-button__kbd-shortcut"><kbd class="kbd-shortcut__modifier">Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd class="kbd-shortcut__modifier">K</kbd></span>
</button>
`);
</script>
</div>
<div class="navbar-item">
<script>
document.write(`
<button class="btn btn-sm nav-link pst-navbar-icon theme-switch-button" title="light/dark" aria-label="light/dark" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-toggle="tooltip">
<i class="theme-switch fa-solid fa-sun fa-lg" data-mode="light"></i>
<i class="theme-switch fa-solid fa-moon fa-lg" data-mode="dark"></i>
<i class="theme-switch fa-solid fa-circle-half-stroke fa-lg" data-mode="auto"></i>
</button>
`);
</script></div>
<div class="navbar-item"><ul class="navbar-icon-links"
aria-label="Icon Links">
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy" title="GitHub" class="nav-link pst-navbar-icon" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-bs-toggle="tooltip" data-bs-placement="bottom"><i class="fa-brands fa-square-github fa-lg" aria-hidden="true"></i>
<span class="sr-only">GitHub</span></a>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="navbar-persistent--mobile">
<script>
document.write(`
<button class="btn search-button-field search-button__button" title="Search" aria-label="Search" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-toggle="tooltip">
<i class="fa-solid fa-magnifying-glass"></i>
<span class="search-button__default-text">Search</span>
<span class="search-button__kbd-shortcut"><kbd class="kbd-shortcut__modifier">Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd class="kbd-shortcut__modifier">K</kbd></span>
</button>
`);
</script>
</div>
<button class="pst-navbar-icon sidebar-toggle secondary-toggle" aria-label="On this page">
<span class="fa-solid fa-outdent"></span>
</button>
</div>
</header>
<div class="bd-container">
<div class="bd-container__inner bd-page-width">
<div class="bd-sidebar-primary bd-sidebar">
<div class="sidebar-header-items sidebar-primary__section">
<div class="sidebar-header-items__center">
<div class="navbar-item">
<nav>
<ul class="bd-navbar-elements navbar-nav">
<li class="nav-item current active">
<a class="nav-link nav-internal" href="index.html">
Index
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-internal" href="scope.html">
The Scope of NumPy
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-internal" href="roadmap.html">
Current roadmap
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%2223+-+Wish+List%22">
Wish list
</a>
</li>
<li class="nav-item ">
<a class="nav-link nav-external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%2223+-+Wish+List%22">
Wishlist
</a>
</li>
</ul>
</nav></div>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-header-items__end">
<div class="navbar-item">
<script>
document.write(`
<button class="btn btn-sm nav-link pst-navbar-icon theme-switch-button" title="light/dark" aria-label="light/dark" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-toggle="tooltip">
<i class="theme-switch fa-solid fa-sun fa-lg" data-mode="light"></i>
<i class="theme-switch fa-solid fa-moon fa-lg" data-mode="dark"></i>
<i class="theme-switch fa-solid fa-circle-half-stroke fa-lg" data-mode="auto"></i>
</button>
`);
</script></div>
<div class="navbar-item"><ul class="navbar-icon-links"
aria-label="Icon Links">
<li class="nav-item">
<a href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy" title="GitHub" class="nav-link pst-navbar-icon" rel="noopener" target="_blank" data-bs-toggle="tooltip" data-bs-placement="bottom"><i class="fa-brands fa-square-github fa-lg" aria-hidden="true"></i>
<span class="sr-only">GitHub</span></a>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-primary-items__start sidebar-primary__section">
<div class="sidebar-primary-item">
<nav class="bd-docs-nav bd-links"
aria-label="Section Navigation">
<p class="bd-links__title" role="heading" aria-level="1">Section Navigation</p>
<div class="bd-toc-item navbar-nav"><ul class="nav bd-sidenav">
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="scope.html">The Scope of NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="roadmap.html">Current roadmap</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%2223+-+Wish+List%22">Wish list</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class="current nav bd-sidenav">
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="meta.html">Meta-NEPs (NEPs about NEPs or active Processes)</a><details><summary><span class="toctree-toggle" role="presentation"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></span></summary><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0000.html">NEP 0 — Purpose and process</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0023-backwards-compatibility.html">NEP 23 — Backwards compatibility and deprecation policy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0036-fair-play.html">NEP 36 — Fair play</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0045-c_style_guide.html">NEP 45 — C style guide</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0046-sponsorship-guidelines.html">NEP 46 — NumPy sponsorship guidelines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0048-spending-project-funds.html">NEP 48 — Spending NumPy project funds</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-template.html">NEP X — Template and instructions</a></li>
</ul>
</details></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="provisional.html">Provisional NEPs (provisionally accepted; interface may change)</a><details><summary><span class="toctree-toggle" role="presentation"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></span></summary><ul class="simple">
</ul>
</details></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="accepted.html">Accepted NEPs (implementation in progress)</a><details><summary><span class="toctree-toggle" role="presentation"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></span></summary><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0041-improved-dtype-support.html">NEP 41 — First step towards a new datatype system</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0042-new-dtypes.html">NEP 42 — New and extensible DTypes</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0044-restructuring-numpy-docs.html">NEP 44 — Restructuring the NumPy documentation</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0051-scalar-representation.html">NEP 51 — Changing the representation of NumPy scalars</a></li>
</ul>
</details></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="open.html">Open NEPs (under consideration)</a><details><summary><span class="toctree-toggle" role="presentation"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></span></summary><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0043-extensible-ufuncs.html">NEP 43 — Enhancing the extensibility of UFuncs</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0053-c-abi-evolution.html">NEP 53 — Evolving the NumPy C-API for NumPy 2.0</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0054-simd-cpp-highway.html">NEP 54 — SIMD infrastructure evolution: adopting Google Highway when moving to C++?</a></li>
</ul>
</details></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 current active has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="finished.html">Finished NEPs</a><details open="open"><summary><span class="toctree-toggle" role="presentation"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></span></summary><ul class="current">
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0001-npy-format.html">NEP 1 — A simple file format for NumPy arrays</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0005-generalized-ufuncs.html">NEP 5 — Generalized universal functions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0007-datetime-proposal.html">NEP 7 — A proposal for implementing some date/time types in NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0010-new-iterator-ufunc.html">NEP 10 — Optimizing iterator/UFunc performance</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0013-ufunc-overrides.html">NEP 13 — A mechanism for overriding Ufuncs</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0014-dropping-python2.7-proposal.html">NEP 14 — Plan for dropping Python 2.7 support</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0015-merge-multiarray-umath.html">NEP 15 — Merging multiarray and umath</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0018-array-function-protocol.html">NEP 18 — A dispatch mechanism for NumPy's high level array functions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0019-rng-policy.html">NEP 19 — Random number generator policy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0020-gufunc-signature-enhancement.html">NEP 20 — Expansion of generalized universal function signatures</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0022-ndarray-duck-typing-overview.html">NEP 22 — Duck typing for NumPy arrays – high level overview</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0027-zero-rank-arrarys.html">NEP 27 — Zero rank arrays</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0028-website-redesign.html">NEP 28 — numpy.org website redesign</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0029-deprecation_policy.html">NEP 29 — Recommend Python and NumPy version support as a community policy standard</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0032-remove-financial-functions.html">NEP 32 — Remove the financial functions from NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2 current active"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">NEP 34 — Disallow inferring ``dtype=object`` from sequences</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0035-array-creation-dispatch-with-array-function.html">NEP 35 — Array creation dispatching with __array_function__</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0038-SIMD-optimizations.html">NEP 38 — Using SIMD optimization instructions for performance</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0040-legacy-datatype-impl.html">NEP 40 — Legacy datatype implementation in NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0049.html">NEP 49 — Data allocation strategies</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0050-scalar-promotion.html">NEP 50 — Promotion rules for Python scalars</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0052-python-api-cleanup.html">NEP 52 — Python API cleanup for NumPy 2.0</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0055-string_dtype.html">NEP 55 — Add a UTF-8 variable-width string DType to NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0056-array-api-main-namespace.html">NEP 56 — Array API standard support in NumPy's main namespace</a></li>
</ul>
</details></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="deferred.html">Deferred and Superseded NEPs</a><details><summary><span class="toctree-toggle" role="presentation"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></span></summary><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0002-warnfix.html">NEP 2 — A proposal to build numpy without warning with a big set of warning flags</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0003-math_config_clean.html">NEP 3 — Cleaning the math configuration of numpy.core</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0004-datetime-proposal3.html">NEP 4 — A (third) proposal for implementing some date/time types in NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0006-newbugtracker.html">NEP 6 — Replacing Trac with a different bug tracker</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0008-groupby_additions.html">NEP 8 — A proposal for adding groupby functionality to NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0009-structured_array_extensions.html">NEP 9 — Structured array extensions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0011-deferred-ufunc-evaluation.html">NEP 11 — Deferred UFunc evaluation</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0012-missing-data.html">NEP 12 — Missing data functionality in NumPy</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0021-advanced-indexing.html">NEP 21 — Simplified and explicit advanced indexing</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0024-missing-data-2.html">NEP 24 — Missing data functionality - alternative 1 to NEP 12</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0025-missing-data-3.html">NEP 25 — NA support via special dtypes</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0026-missing-data-summary.html">NEP 26 — Summary of missing data NEPs and discussion</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0030-duck-array-protocol.html">NEP 30 — Duck typing for NumPy arrays - implementation</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0031-uarray.html">NEP 31 — Context-local and global overrides of the NumPy API</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0037-array-module.html">NEP 37 — A dispatch protocol for NumPy-like modules</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0047-array-api-standard.html">NEP 47 — Adopting the array API standard</a></li>
</ul>
</details></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="rejected.html">Rejected and Withdrawn NEPs</a><details><summary><span class="toctree-toggle" role="presentation"><i class="fa-solid fa-chevron-down"></i></span></summary><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0016-abstract-array.html">NEP 16 — An abstract base class for identifying "duck arrays"</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="nep-0017-split-out-maskedarray.html">NEP 17 — Split out masked arrays</a></li>
</ul>
</details></li>
</ul>
</div>
</nav></div>
</div>
<div class="sidebar-primary-items__end sidebar-primary__section">
</div>
<div id="rtd-footer-container"></div>
</div>
<main id="main-content" class="bd-main" role="main">
<div class="bd-content">
<div class="bd-article-container">
<div class="bd-header-article d-print-none">
<div class="header-article-items header-article__inner">
<div class="header-article-items__start">
<div class="header-article-item">
<nav aria-label="Breadcrumb" class="d-print-none">
<ul class="bd-breadcrumbs">
<li class="breadcrumb-item breadcrumb-home">
<a href="content.html" class="nav-link" aria-label="Home">
<i class="fa-solid fa-home"></i>
</a>
</li>
<li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="index.html" class="nav-link">Roadmap & NumPy enhancement proposals</a></li>
<li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="finished.html" class="nav-link">Finished NEPs</a></li>
<li class="breadcrumb-item active" aria-current="page">NEP 34 —...</li>
</ul>
</nav>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="searchbox"></div>
<article class="bd-article">
<section id="nep-34-disallow-inferring-dtype-object-from-sequences">
<span id="nep34"></span><h1>NEP 34 — Disallow inferring <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dtype=object</span></code> from sequences<a class="headerlink" href="#nep-34-disallow-inferring-dtype-object-from-sequences" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h1>
<dl class="field-list simple">
<dt class="field-odd">Author<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><p>Matti Picus</p>
</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Status<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even"><p>Final</p>
</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Type<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><p>Standards Track</p>
</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Created<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even"><p>2019-10-10</p>
</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Resolution<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><p><a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/2019-October/080200.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/numpy-discussion/2019-October/080200.html</a></p>
</dd>
</dl>
<section id="abstract">
<h2>Abstract<a class="headerlink" href="#abstract" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>When users create arrays with sequences-of-sequences, they sometimes err in
matching the lengths of the nested <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3.7/glossary.html#term-sequence">sequences</a>, commonly called “ragged
arrays”. Here we will refer to them as ragged nested sequences. Creating such
arrays via <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.array([<ragged_nested_sequence>])</span></code> with no <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dtype</span></code> keyword
argument will today default to an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object</span></code>-dtype array. Change the behaviour to
raise a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code> instead.</p>
</section>
<section id="motivation-and-scope">
<h2>Motivation and scope<a class="headerlink" href="#motivation-and-scope" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Users who specify lists-of-lists when creating a <cite>numpy.ndarray</cite> via
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.array</span></code> may mistakenly pass in lists of different lengths. Currently we
accept this input and automatically create an array with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dtype=object</span></code>. This
can be confusing, since it is rarely what is desired. Changing the automatic
dtype detection to never return <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object</span></code> for ragged nested sequences (defined as a
recursive sequence of sequences, where not all the sequences on the same
level have the same length) will force users who actually wish to create
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object</span></code> arrays to specify that explicitly. Note that <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">lists</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tuples</span></code>,
and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">nd.ndarrays</span></code> are all sequences <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id2" id="id1" role="doc-noteref"><span class="fn-bracket">[</span>0<span class="fn-bracket">]</span></a>. See for instance <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/5303">issue 5303</a>.</p>
</section>
<section id="usage-and-impact">
<h2>Usage and impact<a class="headerlink" href="#usage-and-impact" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>After this change, array creation with ragged nested sequences must explicitly
define a dtype:</p>
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">([[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]])</span>
<span class="go">ValueError: cannot guess the desired dtype from the input</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">([[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]],</span> <span class="n">dtype</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go"># succeeds, with no change from current behaviour</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The deprecation will affect any call that internally calls <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.asarray</span></code>. For
instance, the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">assert_equal</span></code> family of functions calls <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.asarray</span></code>, so
users will have to change code like:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_equal</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>to:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">assert_equal</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">([[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="n">dtype</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">))</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="detailed-description">
<h2>Detailed description<a class="headerlink" href="#detailed-description" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>To explicitly set the shape of the object array, since it is sometimes hard to
determine what shape is desired, one could use:</p>
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">arr</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">empty</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">correct_shape</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">dtype</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">arr</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="o">...</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">values</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>We will also reject mixed sequences of non-sequence and sequence, for instance
all of these will be rejected:</p>
<div class="doctest highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">arr</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">arange</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">]])</span>
<span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">arr</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">([[</span><span class="nb">range</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="nb">range</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="nb">range</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">range</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]])</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="related-work">
<h2>Related work<a class="headerlink" href="#related-work" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/14341">PR 14341</a> tried to raise an error when ragged nested sequences were specified
with a numeric dtype <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.array,</span> <span class="pre">[[1],</span> <span class="pre">[2,</span> <span class="pre">3]],</span> <span class="pre">dtype=int)</span></code> but failed due to
false-positives, for instance <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.array([1,</span> <span class="pre">np.array([5])],</span> <span class="pre">dtype=int)</span></code>.</p>
</section>
<section id="implementation">
<h2>Implementation<a class="headerlink" href="#implementation" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>The code to be changed is inside <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyArray_GetArrayParamsFromObject</span></code> and the
internal <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">discover_dimensions</span></code> function. The first implementation in <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/14794">PR
14794</a> caused a number of downstream library failures and was reverted before
the release of 1.18. Subsequently downstream libraries fixed the places they
were using ragged arrays. The reimplementation became <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/15119">PR 15119</a> which was
merged for the 1.19 release.</p>
</section>
<section id="backward-compatibility">
<h2>Backward compatibility<a class="headerlink" href="#backward-compatibility" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Anyone depending on creating object arrays from ragged nested sequences will
need to modify their code. There will be a deprecation period during which the
current behaviour will emit a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DeprecationWarning</span></code>.</p>
</section>
<section id="alternatives">
<h2>Alternatives<a class="headerlink" href="#alternatives" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>We could continue with the current situation.</p></li>
<li><p>It was also suggested to add a kwarg <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">depth</span></code> to array creation, or perhaps
to add another array creation API function <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ragged_array_object</span></code>. The goal
was to eliminate the ambiguity in creating an object array from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">array([[1,</span>
<span class="pre">2],</span> <span class="pre">[1]],</span> <span class="pre">dtype=object)</span></code>: should the returned array have a shape of
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(1,)</span></code>, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(2,)</span></code>? This NEP does not deal with that issue, and only
deprecates the use of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">array</span></code> with no <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dtype=object</span></code> for ragged nested
sequences. Users of ragged nested sequences may face another deprecation
cycle in the future. Rationale: we expect that there are very few users who
intend to use ragged arrays like that, this was never intended as a use case
of NumPy arrays. Users are likely better off with <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward-array">another library</a> or just
using list of lists.</p></li>
<li><p>It was also suggested to deprecate all automatic creation of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object</span></code>-dtype
arrays, which would require adding an explicit <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dtype=object</span></code> for something
like <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.array([Decimal(10),</span> <span class="pre">Decimal(10)])</span></code>. This too is out of scope for
the current NEP. Rationale: it’s harder to asses the impact of this larger
change, we’re not sure how many users this may impact.</p></li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="discussion">
<h2>Discussion<a class="headerlink" href="#discussion" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>Comments to <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/5303">issue 5303</a> indicate this is unintended behaviour as far back as
2014. Suggestions to change it have been made in the ensuing years, but none
have stuck. The WIP implementation in <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/14794">PR 14794</a> seems to point to the
viability of this approach.</p>
</section>
<section id="references-and-footnotes">
<h2>References and footnotes<a class="headerlink" href="#references-and-footnotes" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<aside class="footnote-list brackets">
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id2" role="doc-footnote">
<span class="label"><span class="fn-bracket">[</span><a role="doc-backlink" href="#id1">0</a><span class="fn-bracket">]</span></span>
<p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">np.ndarrays</span></code> are not recursed into, rather their shape is used
directly. This will not emit warnings:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">ragged</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">([[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">]],</span> <span class="n">dtype</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">object</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">array</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="n">ragged</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ragged</span><span class="p">])</span> <span class="c1"># no dtype needed</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</aside>
</aside>
</section>
<section id="copyright">
<h2>Copyright<a class="headerlink" href="#copyright" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
</section>
</section>
</article>
</div>
<div class="bd-sidebar-secondary bd-toc"><div class="sidebar-secondary-items sidebar-secondary__inner">
<div class="sidebar-secondary-item">
<div
id="pst-page-navigation-heading-2"
class="page-toc tocsection onthispage">
<i class="fa-solid fa-list"></i> On this page
</div>
<nav class="bd-toc-nav page-toc" aria-labelledby="pst-page-navigation-heading-2">
<ul class="visible nav section-nav flex-column">
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#motivation-and-scope">Motivation and scope</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#usage-and-impact">Usage and impact</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#detailed-description">Detailed description</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#related-work">Related work</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#implementation">Implementation</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#backward-compatibility">Backward compatibility</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#alternatives">Alternatives</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#discussion">Discussion</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#references-and-footnotes">References and footnotes</a></li>
<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</nav></div>
</div></div>
</div>
<footer class="bd-footer-content">
</footer>
</main>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Scripts loaded after <body> so the DOM is not blocked -->
<script src="_static/scripts/bootstrap.js?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b"></script>
<script src="_static/scripts/pydata-sphinx-theme.js?digest=dfe6caa3a7d634c4db9b"></script>
<footer class="bd-footer">
<div class="bd-footer__inner bd-page-width">
<div class="footer-items__start">
<div class="footer-item">
<p class="copyright">
© Copyright 2017-2024, NumPy Developers.
<br/>
</p>
</div>
<div class="footer-item">
<p class="sphinx-version">
Created using <a href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> 7.2.6.
<br/>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="footer-items__end">
<div class="footer-item">
<p class="theme-version">
Built with the <a href="https://pydata-sphinx-theme.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html">PyData Sphinx Theme</a> 0.15.4.
</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</footer>
</body>
</html>