Weird behaviour initializing a numpy array of string data

Question

I am having some seemingly trivial trouble with numpy when the array contains string data. I have the following code:

my_array = numpy.empty([1, 2], dty         


        

Answer 1

The numpy string array is limited by its fixed length (length 1 by default). If you're unsure what length you'll need for your strings in advance, you can use dtype=object and get arbitrary length strings for your data elements:

my_array = numpy.empty([1, 2], dtype=object)

I understand there may be efficiency drawbacks to this approach, but I don't have a good reference to support that.