The pyublas Python module¶

Debugging Tools¶

pyublas.why_not(val[, dtype=float[, matrix=False[, row_major=True]]])¶

Issue a warning if the array val will not successfully convert to a numpy_vector or numpy_matrix. Return val unchanged.

When debugging an overload failure, simply insert a call to this function in the argument list of the failing call:

do_stuff(pyublas.why_not(myarray))

pyublas.set_trace(enable)¶

If set to true, prints diagnostic messages upon each failed vector conversion explaining what went wrong. (Note that each argument may go through a number of failed conversions before the correct one is found.)

Sparse Matrix wrappers¶

CAUTION: In PyUblas version 0.91 and later, the sparse wrappers are an optional feature that has to be enabled at configure time with the option --with-sparse-wrappers. You may check for their presence using this function:

pyublas.has_sparse_wrappers()¶

Return a bool indicating whether PyUblas was compiled with sparse matrix wrappers.

In addition to numpy_vector and numpy_matrix, PyUblas also wraps Ublas’s powerful sparse matrix machinery into Python objects. The interface to these functions is somewhat like numpy‘s own and is found in the pyublas name space.

Here’s a brief demo:

import numpy
import pyublas

a = pyublas.zeros((5,5), flavor=pyublas.SparseBuildMatrix, dtype=float)

a[4,2] = 19

b = numpy.random.randn(2,2)
a.add_block(2, 2, b)

a_fast = pyublas.asarray(a, flavor=pyublas.SparseExecuteMatrix)

vec = numpy.random.randn(5)

res = a_fast * vec

print a_fast
print res

This prints something like:

sparse({2: {2: 0.774217588463, 3: -1.5320702452},
        3: {2: 0.118048365647, 3: 1.05028340411},
        4: {2: 19.0}},
       shape=(5, 5), flavor=SparseExecuteMatrix)
[ 0.          0.         -0.60793048  0.13384055 -8.28513612]

The SparseBuildMatrix flavor is designed for fastest possible assembly of sparse matrices, while the SparseExecuteMatrix flavor is made for the fastest possible matrix-vector product. There’s much more functionality here–don’t be afraid to peek into the source code.