python - Create numpy matrix filled with NaNs

Question

I have the following code:

r = numpy.zeros(shape = (width, height, 9))

It creates a width x height x 9 matrix filled with zeros. Instead, I'd like to know if there's a function or way to initialize them instead to NaNs in an easy way.

Answer 1

You rarely need loops for vector operations in numpy. You can create an uninitialized array and assign to all entries at once:

>>> a = numpy.empty((3,3,))
>>> a[:] = numpy.nan
>>> a
array([[ NaN,  NaN,  NaN],
       [ NaN,  NaN,  NaN],
       [ NaN,  NaN,  NaN]])

---

I have timed the alternatives a[:] = numpy.nan here and a.fill(numpy.nan) as posted by Blaenk:

$ python -mtimeit "import numpy as np; a = np.empty((100,100));" "a.fill(np.nan)"
10000 loops, best of 3: 54.3 usec per loop
$ python -mtimeit "import numpy as np; a = np.empty((100,100));" "a[:] = np.nan" 
10000 loops, best of 3: 88.8 usec per loop

The timings show a preference for ndarray.fill(..) as the faster alternative. OTOH, I like numpy's convenience implementation where you can assign values to whole slices at the time, the code's intention is very clear.

Note that ndarray.fill performs its operation in-place, so numpy.empty((3,3,)).fill(numpy.nan) will instead return None.