Arrays and tensors

xtensor-python provides two container types wrapping numpy arrays: pyarray and pytensor. They are the counterparts to xarray and xtensor containers.

pyarray

Like xarray, pyarray has a dynamic shape. This means that you can reshape the numpy array on the C++ side and see this change reflected on the python side. pyarray doesn’t make a copy of the shape or the strides, but reads them each time it is needed. Therefore, if a reference on a pyarray is kept in the C++ code and the corresponding numpy array is then reshaped in the python code, this modification will reflect in the pyarray.

pytensor

Like xtensor, pytensor has a static stack-allocated shape. This means that the shape of the numpy array is copied into the shape of the pytensor upon creation. As a consequence, reshapes are not reflected across languages. However, this drawback is offset by a more effective computation of shape and broadcast.