python - What is the difference between Numpy's array() and asarray() functions?

Question

What is the difference between Numpy's array() and asarray() functions? When should you use one rather than the other? They seem to generate identical output for all the inputs I can think of.

Answer 1

The definition of asarray is:

def asarray(a, dtype=None, order=None):
    return array(a, dtype, copy=False, order=order)

So it is like array, except it has fewer options, and copy=False. array has copy=True by default.

The main difference is that array (by default) will make a copy of the object, while asarray will not unless necessary.