[Numpy-discussion] array from list of lists

[Erin S. <eri...@gm...>]

Hi all-

I want to take the result from a database query,
and create a numpy array with field names and types 
corresponding to the returned columns.

The DBI 2.0 compliant interfaces return lists
of lists. E.g.


[[94137100072000193L, 94, 345.57215100000002, -0.83673208099999996],
 [94137100072000368L, 94, 345.60217299999999, -0.83766954299999996],
 ....
 [94137100083000157L, 94, 347.21668099999999, -0.83572582399999995],
 [94137100084000045L, 94, 347.45524799999998, -0.829750074]]


But the only examples I have found for creating an inhomogeneous
array with fields involves lists of tuples.  e.g.

>>> mydescriptor = {'names': ('gender','age','weight'), 'formats':('S1',
>>> 'f4', 'f4')}
>>> a = array([('M',64.0,75.0),('F',25.0,60.0)], dtype=mydescriptor)

Trying something like this with a list of lists results in
the following error:

TypeError: expected a readable buffer object

Now I could create the array and run a loop, copying
in, but this would be less efficient.  Is there a way
to do this in one step?

Thanks,
Erin