Re: [Numpy-discussion] questions regarding assignement and copy

[Charles R H. <cha...@gm...>]

On 10/18/06, David Cournapeau <da...@ar...> wrote:
>
> Sven Schreiber wrote:
> >
> > Yes it's intended; as far as I understand the python/numpy syntax, <+>
> > is an operator, and that triggers assignment by copy (even if you do
> > something trivial as bar = +foo, you get a copy, if I'm not mistaken),
> >
> So basically, whenever you have
>
> foo = expr
>
> with expr is a numpy expression containing foo, you trigger a copy ?


Yes. Numpy generates a temporary where the expression results are kept, the
temporary is then assigned to foo. This can be inefficient, but knowing when
you may overwrite data can be complicated. For instance:

foo = dot(foo,foo)

Can't be done in place because values needed later on in the dot evaluation
would be overwritten.

Chuck