Updated on 07/06/2022

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numpy array split and search

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Splitting NumPy Arrays

Splitting is reverse operation of Joining.

Joining merges multiple arrays into one and Splitting breaks one array into multiple.

We use array_split() for splitting arrays, we pass it the array we want to split and the number of splits.

Example

Split the array in 3 parts:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])

newarr = np.array_split(arr, 3)

print(newarr)

If the array has less elements than required, it will adjust from the end accordingly.

Example

Split the array in 4 parts:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])

newarr = np.array_split(arr, 4)

print(newarr)

Split Into Arrays

The return value of the array_split() method is an array containing each of the split as an array.

If you split an array into 3 arrays, you can access them from the result just like any array element:

Example

Access the splitted arrays:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])

newarr = np.array_split(arr, 3)

print(newarr[0])
print(newarr[1])
print(newarr[2])

Splitting 2-D Arrays

Use the same syntax when splitting 2-D arrays.

Use the array_split() method, pass in the array you want to split and the number of splits you want to do.

Example

Split the 2-D array into three 2-D arrays.

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6], [7, 8], [9, 10], [11, 12]])

newarr = np.array_split(arr, 3)

print(newarr)

The example above returns three 2-D arrays.

Let’s look at another example, this time each element in the 2-D arrays contains 3 elements.

Example

Split the 2-D array into three 2-D arrays.

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9], [10, 11, 12], [13, 14, 15], [16, 17, 18]])

newarr = np.array_split(arr, 3)

print(newarr)

The example above returns three 2-D arrays.

In addition, you can specify which axis you want to do the split around.

The example below also returns three 2-D arrays, but they are split along the row (axis=1).

Example

Split the 2-D array into three 2-D arrays along rows.

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9], [10, 11, 12], [13, 14, 15], [16, 17, 18]])

newarr = np.array_split(arr, 3, axis=1)

print(newarr)

An alternate solution is using hsplit() opposite of hstack()

Example

Use the hsplit() method to split the 2-D array into three 2-D arrays along rows.

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9], [10, 11, 12], [13, 14, 15], [16, 17, 18]])

newarr = np.hsplit(arr, 3)

print(newarr)

Searching Arrays

You can search an array for a certain value, and return the indexes that get a match.

To search an array, use the where() method.

Example

Find the indexes where the value is 4:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 4])

x = np.where(arr == 4)

print(x)

The example above will return a tuple: (array([3, 5, 6],)

Which means that the value 4 is present at index 3, 5, and 6.

Example

Find the indexes where the values are even:

 
				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])

x = np.where(arr%2 == 0)

print(x)

Example

Find the indexes where the values are odd:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])

x = np.where(arr%2 == 1)

print(x)

Search Sorted

There is a method called searchsorted() which performs a binary search in the array, and returns the index where the specified value would be inserted to maintain the search order.

The searchsorted() method is assumed to be used on sorted arrays.

Example

Find the indexes where the value 7 should be inserted:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([6, 7, 8, 9])

x = np.searchsorted(arr, 7)

print(x)

Example explained: The number 7 should be inserted on index 1 to remain the sort order.

The method starts the search from the left and returns the first index where the number 7 is no longer larger than the next value.

Search From the Right Side

By default the left most index is returned, but we can give side='right' to return the right most index instead.

Example

Find the indexes where the value 7 should be inserted, starting from the right:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([6, 7, 8, 9])

x = np.searchsorted(arr, 7)

print(x)

Example explained: The number 7 should be inserted on index 2 to remain the sort order.

The method starts the search from the right and returns the first index where the number 7 is no longer less than the next value.

Multiple Values

To search for more than one value, use an array with the specified values.

Example

Find the indexes where the values 2, 4, and 6 should be inserted:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 3, 5, 7])

x = np.searchsorted(arr, [2, 4, 6])

print(x)

The return value is an array: [1 2 3] containing the three indexes where 2, 4, 6 would be inserted in the original array to maintain the order.

Filtering Arrays

Getting some elements out of an existing array and creating a new array out of them is called filtering.

In NumPy, you filter an array using a boolean index list.

A boolean index list is a list of booleans corresponding to indexes in the array.

If the value at an index is True that element is contained in the filtered array, if the value at that index is False that element is excluded from the filtered array.

Example

Create an array from the elements on index 0 and 2:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([41, 42, 43, 44])

x = [True, False, True, False]

newarr = arr[x]

print(newarr)

The example above will return [41, 43], why?

Because the new filter contains only the values where the filter array had the value True, in this case, index 0 and 2.

Creating the Filter Array

In the example above we hard-coded the True and False values, but the common use is to create a filter array based on conditions.

Example

Create a filter array that will return only values higher than 42:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([41, 42, 43, 44])

# Create an empty list
filter_arr = []

# go through each element in arr
for element in arr:
  # if the element is higher than 42, set the value to True, otherwise False:
  if element > 42:
    filter_arr.append(True)
  else:
    filter_arr.append(False)

newarr = arr[filter_arr]

print(filter_arr)
print(newarr)

Example

Create a filter array that will return only even elements from the original array:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7])

# Create an empty list
filter_arr = []

# go through each element in arr
for element in arr:
  # if the element is completely divisble by 2, set the value to True, otherwise False
  if element % 2 == 0:
    filter_arr.append(True)
  else:
    filter_arr.append(False)

newarr = arr[filter_arr]

print(filter_arr)
print(newarr)

Creating Filter Directly From Array

The above example is quite a common task in NumPy and NumPy provides a nice way to tackle it.

We can directly substitute the array instead of the iterable variable in our condition and it will work just as we expect it to.

Example

Create a filter array that will return only values higher than 42:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([41, 42, 43, 44])

filter_arr = arr > 42

newarr = arr[filter_arr]

print(filter_arr)
print(newarr)

Example

Create a filter array that will return only even elements from the original array:

				
					import numpy as np

arr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7])

filter_arr = arr % 2 == 0

newarr = arr[filter_arr]

print(filter_arr)
print(newarr)

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