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There is this How do you split a list into evenly sized chunks? for splitting an array into chunks. Is there anyway to do this more efficiently for giant arrays using Numpy?

kntgu
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Eiyrioü von Kauyf
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  • sorry i'm still looking for an efficient answer ;). right now i'm thinking ctypes is the only efficient way. – Eiyrioü von Kauyf Dec 30 '13 at 22:10
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    Define efficient. Give some sample data, your current method, how fast it is, and how fast you need it to be. – Prashant Kumar Dec 31 '13 at 18:19
  • Are we supposed to interpret the input to this question as a [native Python array](https://docs.python.org/3/library/array.html), or a [numpy ndarray](https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html)? The first sentence seems to imply the former. The second sentence implies it's asking for a comparison between the former and the latter. 2-dimensional only, presumably. And when we say "efficiently... for giant arrays" are we more concerned with scaleability for asymptotically large N, regardless if it's slower for small N? – smci Nov 09 '20 at 23:24

6 Answers6

134

Try numpy.array_split.

From the documentation:

>>> x = np.arange(8.0)
>>> np.array_split(x, 3)
    [array([ 0.,  1.,  2.]), array([ 3.,  4.,  5.]), array([ 6.,  7.])]

Identical to numpy.split, but won't raise an exception if the groups aren't equal length.

If number of chunks > len(array) you get blank arrays nested inside, to address that - if your split array is saved in a, then you can remove empty arrays by:

[x for x in a if x.size > 0]

Just save that back in a if you wish.

Shubham Chaudhary
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Prashant Kumar
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24

Just some examples on usage of array_split, split, hsplit and vsplit:

n [9]: a = np.random.randint(0,10,[4,4])

In [10]: a
Out[10]: 
array([[2, 2, 7, 1],
       [5, 0, 3, 1],
       [2, 9, 8, 8],
       [5, 7, 7, 6]])

Some examples on using array_split:
If you give an array or list as second argument you basically give the indices (before) which to 'cut'

# split rows into 0|1 2|3
In [4]: np.array_split(a, [1,3])
Out[4]:                                                                                                                       
[array([[2, 2, 7, 1]]),                                                                                                       
 array([[5, 0, 3, 1],                                                                                                         
       [2, 9, 8, 8]]),                                                                                                        
 array([[5, 7, 7, 6]])]

# split columns into 0| 1 2 3
In [5]: np.array_split(a, [1], axis=1)                                                                                           
Out[5]:                                                                                                                       
[array([[2],                                                                                                                  
       [5],                                                                                                                   
       [2],                                                                                                                   
       [5]]),                                                                                                                 
 array([[2, 7, 1],                                                                                                            
       [0, 3, 1],
       [9, 8, 8],
       [7, 7, 6]])]

An integer as second arg. specifies the number of equal chunks:

In [6]: np.array_split(a, 2, axis=1)
Out[6]: 
[array([[2, 2],
       [5, 0],
       [2, 9],
       [5, 7]]),
 array([[7, 1],
       [3, 1],
       [8, 8],
       [7, 6]])]

split works the same but raises an exception if an equal split is not possible

In addition to array_split you can use shortcuts vsplit and hsplit.
vsplit and hsplit are pretty much self-explanatry:

In [11]: np.vsplit(a, 2)
Out[11]: 
[array([[2, 2, 7, 1],
       [5, 0, 3, 1]]),
 array([[2, 9, 8, 8],
       [5, 7, 7, 6]])]

In [12]: np.hsplit(a, 2)
Out[12]: 
[array([[2, 2],
       [5, 0],
       [2, 9],
       [5, 7]]),
 array([[7, 1],
       [3, 1],
       [8, 8],
       [7, 6]])]
Vukašin Manojlović
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tzelleke
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    my problem with this is that if chunks > len(array) then you get blank nested arrays ... how do you get rid of that? – Eiyrioü von Kauyf Jan 29 '13 at 07:48
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    Good examples, thank you. In your `np.array_split(a, [1], axis=1)` example, do you know how to prevent the first array from having every single element nested? – timgeb Jan 04 '16 at 08:11
10

I believe that you're looking for numpy.split or possibly numpy.array_split if the number of sections doesn't need to divide the size of the array properly.

mgilson
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9

Not quite an answer, but a long comment with nice formatting of code to the other (correct) answers. If you try the following, you will see that what you are getting are views of the original array, not copies, and that was not the case for the accepted answer in the question you link. Be aware of the possible side effects!

>>> x = np.arange(9.0)
>>> a,b,c = np.split(x, 3)
>>> a
array([ 0.,  1.,  2.])
>>> a[1] = 8
>>> a
array([ 0.,  8.,  2.])
>>> x
array([ 0.,  8.,  2.,  3.,  4.,  5.,  6.,  7.,  8.])
>>> def chunks(l, n):
...     """ Yield successive n-sized chunks from l.
...     """
...     for i in xrange(0, len(l), n):
...         yield l[i:i+n]
... 
>>> l = range(9)
>>> a,b,c = chunks(l, 3)
>>> a
[0, 1, 2]
>>> a[1] = 8
>>> a
[0, 8, 2]
>>> l
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Jaime
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  • +1) that's a good point to consider, you could extend your solution further to handle certain multidim. cases – tzelleke Jan 18 '13 at 20:55
  • yes at the moment I use that. I was wondering of a nicer way to do that using numpy. esp. with multi-dim :( – Eiyrioü von Kauyf Jan 29 '13 at 07:49
  • This is relevant for larger data. I am using `numpy.array_split` which appears to make copies of the data. Passing that to your multiprocessing pool will make yet another copy of the data... – Stefan Falk Jan 11 '18 at 18:19
0

How about this? Here you split the array using the length you want to have.

a = np.random.randint(0,10,[4,4])

a
Out[27]: 
array([[1, 5, 8, 7],
       [3, 2, 4, 0],
       [7, 7, 6, 2],
       [7, 4, 3, 0]])

a[0:2,:]
Out[28]: 
array([[1, 5, 8, 7],
       [3, 2, 4, 0]])

a[2:4,:]
Out[29]: 
array([[7, 7, 6, 2],
       [7, 4, 3, 0]])
Nilani Algiriyage
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0

This can be achieved using as_strided of numpy. I have put a spin to answer by assuming that if chunk size is not a factor of total number of rows, then rest of the rows in the last batch will be filled with zeros.

from numpy.lib.stride_tricks import as_strided
def batch_data(test, chunk_count):
  m,n = test.shape
  S = test.itemsize
  if not chunk_count:
    chunk_count = 1
  batch_size = m//chunk_count
# Batches which can be covered fully
  test_batches = as_strided(test, shape=(chunk_count, batch_size, n), strides=(batch_size*n*S,n*S,S)).copy()
  covered = chunk_count*batch_size
  if covered < m:
    rest = test[covered:,:]
    rm, rn = rest.shape
    mismatch = batch_size - rm
    last_batch = np.vstack((rest,np.zeros((mismatch,rn)))).reshape(1,-1,n)
    return np.vstack((test_batches,last_batch))
  return test_batches

This is based on my answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/68238815/5462372.

MSS
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