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Jake VanderPlas - Losing your Loops: Fast Numer...

Jake VanderPlas - Losing your Loops: Fast Numerical Computing with NumPy

NumPy, the core array computing library for Python, provides tools for flexible and powerful data analysis, and is the basis for most scientific code written in Python. Getting the most out of NumPy, though, might require slightly changing how you think about writing code: this talk will outline the basic strategies essential to performing fast numerical computations in Python with NumPy.

https://us.pycon.org/2015/schedule/presentation/373/

PyCon 2015

April 18, 2015
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  1. Python is Fast . . . because it is interpreted,

    dynamically typed, and high-level
  2. Python is Slow (%timeit is a useful magic command available

    in IPython) A simple function implemented in Python . . .
  3. Python is Slow Why is Python Slow? . . .

    for Repeated Execution of Low-level Tasks Python is a high-level, interpreted and dynamically-typed language. Each Python operation comes with a small type-checking overhead. With many repeated small operations (e.g. in a loop), this overhead becomes significant!
  4. what makes Python fast (for development) is what makes Python

    slow (for code execution) The paradox . . . * Though JIT compilers like PyPy, Numba, etc. may change this soon . . .
  5. NumPy is designed to help us get the best of

    both worlds . . . - Fast development time of Python - Fast execution time of C/Fortran . . . by pushing repeated operations into a statically-typed compiled layer. import numpy
  6. Four Strategies For Speeding-up Code with NumPy 1. Use NumPy’s

    ufuncs 2. Use NumPy’s aggregations 3. Use NumPy’s broadcasting 4. Use NumPy’s slicing, masking, and fancy indexing Overall goal: push repeated operations into compiled code and Get Rid of Slow Loops!
  7. Use NumPy’s ufuncs Strategy #1: Element-wise operations . . .

    . . . with Python lists: . . . with NumPy arrays:
  8. Use NumPy’s ufuncs Strategy #1: There are many ufuncs available:

    - Arithmetic Operators: + - * / // % ** - Bitwise Operators: & | ~ ^ >> << - Comparison Oper’s: < > <= >= == != - Trig Family: np.sin, np.cos, np.tan ... - Exponential Family: np.exp, np.log, np.log10 ... - Special Functions: scipy.special.* . . . and many, many more.
  9. Strategy #2: Use NumPy’s aggregations Aggregations are functions which summarize

    the values in an array (e.g. min, max, sum, mean, etc.)
  10. Strategy #2: Use NumPy’s aggregations NumPy aggregations are much faster

    than Python built-ins . . . ~70x speedup with NumPy!
  11. Strategy #2: Use NumPy’s aggregations Lots of aggregations available .

    . . np.min() np.max() np.sum() np.prod() np.mean() np.std() np.var() np.any() np.all() np.median() np.percentile() np.argmin() np.argmax() . . . np.nanmin() np.nanmax() np.nansum(). . . . . . and all have the same call signature. Use them often!
  12. Strategy #3: Use NumPy’s broadcasting Broadcasting is a set of

    rules by which ufuncs operate on arrays of different sizes and/or dimensions.
  13. Strategy #3: Use NumPy’s broadcasting Broadcasting rules . . .

    1. If array shapes differ, left-pad the smaller shape with 1s 2. If any dimension does not match, broadcast the dimension with size=1 3. If neither non-matching dimension is 1, raise an error.
  14. Strategy #3: Use NumPy’s broadcasting 1. If array shapes differ,

    left-pad the smaller shape with 1s 2. If any dimension does not match, broadcast the dimension with size=1 3. If neither non-matching dimension is 1, raise an error. shape=[3] shape=[] 1. shape=[3] shape=[1] 2. shape=[3] shape=[3] final shape = [3]
  15. Strategy #3: Use NumPy’s broadcasting 1. If array shapes differ,

    left-pad the smaller shape with 1s 2. If any dimension does not match, broadcast the dimension with size=1 3. If neither non-matching dimension is 1, raise an error. shape=[3,3] shape=[3] 1. shape=[3,3] shape=[1,3] 2. shape=[3,3] shape=[3,3] final shape = [3,3]
  16. Strategy #3: Use NumPy’s broadcasting 1. If array shapes differ,

    left-pad the smaller shape with 1s 2. If any dimension does not match, broadcast the dimension with size=1 3. If neither non-matching dimension is 1, raise an error. shape=[3,1] shape=[3] 1. shape=[3,1] shape=[1,3] 2. shape=[3,3] shape=[3,3] final shape = [3,3]
  17. Strategy #4: Use NumPy’s slicing, masking, and fancy indexing With

    Python lists, indexing accepts integers or slices . . .
  18. Strategy #4: Use NumPy’s slicing, masking, and fancy indexing .

    . . but NumPy offers other fast and convenient indexing options as well.
  19. Strategy #4: Use NumPy’s slicing, masking, and fancy indexing “Masking”:

    indexing with boolean masks A mask is a boolean array:
  20. Strategy #4: Use NumPy’s slicing, masking, and fancy indexing “Masking”:

    indexing with boolean masks Masks are often constructed using comparison operators and boolean logic, e.g.
  21. Strategy #4: Use NumPy’s slicing, masking, and fancy indexing “Fancy

    Indexing”: passing a list/array of indices . . .
  22. Strategy #4: Use NumPy’s slicing, masking, and fancy indexing All

    of these operations can be composed and combined in nearly limitless ways!
  23. Example: Computing Nearest Neighbors Let’s combine all these ideas to

    compute nearest neighbors of points without a single loop!
  24. Example: Computing Nearest Neighbors D i j 2 = (x

    i - x j )2 + (y i - y j )2 Naive approach requires three nested loops . . . . . . but we can do better.
  25. Summary . . . - Writing Python is fast; loops

    can be slow - NumPy pushes loops into its compiled layer: - fast development time of Python - fast execution time of compiled code Strategies: 1. ufuncs for element-wise operations 2. aggregations for array summarization 3. broadcasting for combining arrays 4. slicing, masking, and fancy indexing for selecting and operating on subsets of arrays
  26. ~ Thank You! ~ Email: [email protected] Twitter: @jakevdp Github: jakevdp

    Web: http://vanderplas.com/ Blog: http://jakevdp.github.io/