Note

This page describes the numpy-specific API for accessing the contents ofa numpy array from other C extensions.PEP 3118 –TheRevisedBufferProtocol introducessimilar, standardized API to Python 2.6 and 3.0 for any extensionmodule to use.Cython’s buffer array supportuses thePEP 3118 API; see theCython numpytutorial. Cython provides a way to write code that supports the bufferprotocol with Python versions older than 2.6 because it has abackward-compatible implementation utilizing the array interfacedescribed here.

Python side¶

This approach to the interface consists of the object having an__array_interface__ attribute.

__array_interface__¶

A dictionary of items (3 required and 5 optional). The optionalkeys in the dictionary have implied defaults if they are notprovided.

The keys are:

shape (required)

Tuple whose elements are the array size in each dimension. Eachentry is an integer (a Python int or long). Note that theseintegers could be larger than the platform “int” or “long”could hold (a Python int is a C long). It is up to the codeusing this attribute to handle this appropriately; either byraising an error when overflow is possible, or by usingPy_LONG_LONG as the C type for the shapes.

typestr (required)

A string providing the basic type of the homogenous array Thebasic string format consists of 3 parts: a character describingthe byteorder of the data (<: little-endian,>:big-endian,|: not-relevant), a character code giving thebasic type of the array, and an integer providing the number ofbytes the type uses.

The basic type character codes are:

t	Bit field (following integer gives the number ofbits in the bit field).
b	Boolean (integer type where all values are only True or False)
i	Integer
u	Unsigned integer
f	Floating point
c	Complex floating point
m	Timedelta
M	Datetime
O	Object (i.e. the memory contains a pointer toPyObject)
S	String (fixed-length sequence of char)
U	Unicode (fixed-length sequence ofPy_UNICODE)
V	Other (void * – each item is a fixed-size chunk of memory)

descr (optional)

A list of tuples providing a more detailed description of thememory layout for each item in the homogeneous array. Eachtuple in the list has two or three elements. Normally, thisattribute would be used whentypestr isV[0-9]+, but this isnot a requirement. The only requirement is that the number ofbytes represented in thetypestr key is the same as the totalnumber of bytes represented here. The idea is to supportdescriptions of C-like structs that make up arrayelements. The elements of each tuple in the list are

1. A string providing a name associated with this portion ofthe datatype. This could also be a tuple of('fullname','basic_name') where basic name would be a valid Pythonvariable name representing the full name of the field.
2. Either a basic-type description string as intypestr oranother list (for nested structured types)
3. An optional shape tuple providing how many times this partof the structure should be repeated. No repeats are assumedif this is not given. Very complicated structures can bedescribed using this generic interface. Notice, however,that each element of the array is still of the samedata-type. Some examples of using this interface are givenbelow.

Default:[('',typestr)]

data (optional)

A 2-tuple whose first argument is an integer (a long integerif necessary) that points to the data-area storing the arraycontents. This pointer must point to the first element ofdata (in other words any offset is always ignored in thiscase). The second entry in the tuple is a read-only flag (truemeans the data area is read-only).

This attribute can also be an object exposing thebufferinterface whichwill be used to share the data. If this key is not present (orreturnsNone), then memory sharing will be donethrough the buffer interface of the object itself. In thiscase, the offset key can be used to indicate the start of thebuffer. A reference to the object exposing the array interfacemust be stored by the new object if the memory area is to besecured.

Default:None

strides (optional)

EitherNone to indicate a C-style contiguous array ora Tuple of strides which provides the number of bytes neededto jump to the next array element in the correspondingdimension. Each entry must be an integer (a Pythonint orlong). As with shape, the values maybe larger than can be represented by a C “int” or “long”; thecalling code should handle this appropriately, either byraising an error, or by usingPy_LONG_LONG in C. Thedefault isNone which implies a C-style contiguousmemory buffer. In this model, the last dimension of the arrayvaries the fastest. For example, the default strides tuplefor an object whose array entries are 8 bytes long and whoseshape is (10,20,30) would be (4800, 240, 8)

Default:None (C-style contiguous)

mask (optional)

None or an object exposing the array interface. Allelements of the mask array should be interpreted only as trueor not true indicating which elements of this array are valid.The shape of this object should be“broadcastable” to the shape of theoriginal array.

Default:None (All array values are valid)

offset (optional)

An integer offset into the array data region. This can only beused when data isNone or returns abufferobject.

Default: 0.

version (required)

An integer showing the version of the interface (i.e. 3 forthis version). Be careful not to use this to invalidateobjects exposing future versions of the interface.

C-struct access¶

This approach to the array interface allows for faster access to anarray using only one attribute lookup and a well-defined C-structure.

__array_struct__¶

A :c:type:PyCObject whosevoidptr member contains apointer to a filledPyArrayInterface structure. Memoryfor the structure is dynamically created and thePyCObjectis also created with an appropriate destructor so the retriever ofthis attribute simply has to applyPy_DECREF to theobject returned by this attribute when it is finished. Also,either the data needs to be copied out, or a reference to theobject exposing this attribute must be held to ensure the data isnot freed. Objects exposing the__array_struct__ interfacemust also not reallocate their memory if other objects arereferencing them.

The PyArrayInterface structure is defined innumpy/ndarrayobject.has:

typedefstruct{inttwo;/*containstheinteger2--simplesanitycheck*/intnd;/*numberofdimensions*/chartypekind;/*kindinarray---charactercodeoftypestr*/intitemsize;/*sizeofeachelement*/intflags;/*flagsindicatinghowthedatashouldbeinterpreted*//*mustsetARR_HAS_DESCRbittovalidatedescr*/Py_intptr_t*shape;/*Alength-ndarrayofshapeinformation*/Py_intptr_t*strides;/*Alength-ndarrayofstrideinformation*/void*data;/*Apointertothefirstelementofthearray*/PyObject*descr;/*NULLordata-description(sameasdescrkeyof__array_interface__)--mustsetARR_HAS_DESCRflagorthiswillbeignored.*/}PyArrayInterface;

The flags member may consist of 5 bits showing how the data should beinterpreted and one bit showing how the Interface should beinterpreted. The data-bits areCONTIGUOUS (0x1),FORTRAN (0x2),ALIGNED (0x100),NOTSWAPPED(0x200), andWRITEABLE (0x400). A final flagARR_HAS_DESCR (0x800) indicates whether or not this structurehas the arrdescr field. The field should not be accessed unless thisflag is present.

Type description examples¶

For clarity it is useful to provide some examples of the typedescription and corresponding__array_interface__ ‘descr’entries. Thanks to Scott Gilbert for these examples:

In every case, the ‘descr’ key is optional, but of course providesmore information which may be important for various applications:

*Floatdatatypestr=='>f4'descr==[('','>f4')]*Complexdoubletypestr=='>c8'descr==[('real','>f4'),('imag','>f4')]*RGBPixeldatatypestr=='|V3'descr==[('r','|u1'),('g','|u1'),('b','|u1')]*Mixedendian(weirdbutcouldhappen).typestr=='|V8'(or'>u8')descr==[('big','>i4'),('little','<i4')]*Nestedstructurestruct{intival;struct{unsignedshortsval;unsignedcharbval;unsignedcharcval;}sub;}typestr=='|V8'(or'<u8'ifyouwant)descr==[('ival','<i4'),('sub',[('sval','<u2'),('bval','|u1'),('cval','|u1')])]*Nestedarraystruct{intival;doubledata[16*4];}typestr=='|V516'descr==[('ival','>i4'),('data','>f8',(16,4))]*Paddedstructurestruct{intival;doubledval;}typestr=='|V16'descr==[('ival','>i4'),('','|V4'),('dval','>f8')]

It should be clear that any structured type could be described using thisinterface.

Differences with Array interface (Version 2)¶

The version 2 interface was very similar. The differences werelargely aesthetic. In particular:

1. The PyArrayInterface structure had no descr member at the end(and therefore no flag ARR_HAS_DESCR)
2. The desc member of the PyCObject returned from __array_struct__ wasnot specified. Usually, it was the object exposing the array (sothat a reference to it could be kept and destroyed when theC-object was destroyed). Now it must be a tuple whose firstelement is a string with “PyArrayInterface Version #” and whosesecond element is the object exposing the array.
3. The tuple returned from __array_interface__[‘data’] used to be ahex-string (now it is an integer or a long integer).
4. There was no __array_interface__ attribute instead all of the keys(except for version) in the __array_interface__ dictionary weretheir own attribute: Thus to obtain the Python-side information youhad to access separately the attributes:
   • __array_data__
   • __array_shape__
   • __array_strides__
   • __array_typestr__
   • __array_descr__
   • __array_offset__
   • __array_mask__