splinepy.utils.data.PhysicalSpaceArray.tolist

PhysicalSpaceArray.tolist()

Return the array as an a.ndim-levels deep nested list of Python scalars.

Return a copy of the array data as a (nested) Python list. Data items are converted to the nearest compatible builtin Python type, via the ~numpy.ndarray.item function.

If a.ndim is 0, then since the depth of the nested list is 0, it will not be a list at all, but a simple Python scalar.

Parameters:

none

Returns:

y – The possibly nested list of array elements.

Return type:

object, or list of object, or list of list of object, or …

Notes

The array may be recreated via a = np.array(a.tolist()), although this may sometimes lose precision.

Examples

For a 1D array, a.tolist() is almost the same as list(a), except that tolist changes numpy scalars to Python scalars:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> a = np.uint32([1, 2])
>>> a_list = list(a)
>>> a_list
[np.uint32(1), np.uint32(2)]
>>> type(a_list[0])
<class 'numpy.uint32'>
>>> a_tolist = a.tolist()
>>> a_tolist
[1, 2]
>>> type(a_tolist[0])
<class 'int'>

Additionally, for a 2D array, tolist applies recursively:

>>> a = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4]])
>>> list(a)
[array([1, 2]), array([3, 4])]
>>> a.tolist()
[[1, 2], [3, 4]]

The base case for this recursion is a 0D array:

>>> a = np.array(1)
>>> list(a)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
TypeError: iteration over a 0-d array
>>> a.tolist()
1