Numpy quirk: Apply function to all pairs of two 1D arrays, to get one 2D array

Question

Let\'s say I have 2 one-dimensional (1D) numpy arrays, a and b, with lengths n1 and n2 respectively. I also have a functi

Answer 1

You can use numpy broadcasting to do calculation on the two arrays, turning a into a vertical 2D array using newaxis:

In [11]: a = np.array([1, 2, 3]) # n1 = 3
    ...: b = np.array([4, 5]) # n2 = 2
    ...: #if function is c(i, j) = a(i) + b(j)*2:
    ...: c = a[:, None] + b*2

In [12]: c
Out[12]: 
array([[ 9, 11],
       [10, 12],
       [11, 13]])

To benchmark:

In [28]: a = arange(100)

In [29]: b = arange(222)

In [30]: timeit r = np.array([[f(i, j) for j in b] for i in a])
10 loops, best of 3: 29.9 ms per loop

In [31]: timeit c = a[:, None] + b*2
10000 loops, best of 3: 71.6 us per loop