Re: [Numpy-discussion] Defining custom types

[Jonathan W. <jon...@gm...>]

On 10/26/06, Travis Oliphant <oli...@ee...> wrote:
>
> > Okay, is my understanding here correct? I am defining two type
> > descriptors:
> > PyArray_Descr mxNumpyType - describes the Numpy array type.
> > PyTypeObject mxNumpyDataType - describes the data type of the contents
> > of the array (i.e. mxNumpyType->typeobj points to this), inherits from
> > PyDoubleArrType_Type and overrides some fields as mentioned above.
> >
> The nomenclature is that mxNumPyType is the data-type of the array and
> your PyTypeObject is the "type" of the elements of the array.   So, you
> have the names a bit backward.
>
> So, to correspond with the way I use the words "type" and "data-type", I
> would name them:
>
> PyArray_Descr mxNumpyDataType
> PyTypeObject mxNumpyType


Okay, I will use this convention going forwards.

> And the getitem and setitem functions are designed to only give/take
> > PyObject* of type mxDateTime.
> >
> These are in the 'f' member of the PyArray_Descr structure, so
> presumably you have also filled in your PyArray_Descr structure with
> items from PyArray_DOUBLE?


That's correct. I have all members of the 'f' member identical to that from
PyArray_DOUBLE, except:

    mxNumpyType->f->dotfunc = NULL;
    mxNumpyType->f->getitem = date_getitem;
    mxNumpyType->f->setitem = date_setitem;
    mxNumpyType->f->cast[PyArray_DOUBLE] = (PyArray_VectorUnaryFunc*)
dateToDouble;
    mxNumpyType->f->cast[PyArray_OBJECT] = (PyArray_VectorUnaryFunc*)
dateToObject;

All other cast functions are NULL.

If I redefine the string function, I encounter another, perhaps more serious
problem leading to a segfault. I've defined my string function to be
extremely simple:
>>> def printer(arr):
...   return str(arr[0])

Now, if I try to print an element of the array:
>>> mxArr[0]

I get to this stack trace:
#0  scalar_value (scalar=0x814be10, descr=0x5079e0) at scalartypes.inc.src
:68
#1  0x0079936a in PyArray_Scalar (data=0x814cf98, descr=0x5079e0,
base=0x814e7a8) at arrayobject.c:1419
#2  0x007d259f in array_subscript_nice (self=0x814e7a8, op=0x804eb8c) at
arrayobject.c:1985
#3  0x00d17dde in PyObject_GetItem (o=0x814e7a8, key=0x804eb8c) at
Objects/abstract.c:94

(Note: for some reason gdb claims that arrayobject.c:1985 is
array_subscript_nice, but looking at my source this line is actually in
array_item_nice. *boggle*)

But scalar_value returns NULL for all non-native types. So, destptr in
PyArray_Scalar is set to NULL, and the call the copyswap segfaults.

Perhaps scalar_value should be checking the scalarkind field of
PyArray_Descr, or using the elsize and alignment fields to figure out the
pointer to return if scalarkind isn't set?