Question

Believe it or not, after profiling my current code, the repetitive operation of numpy array reversion ate a giant chunk of the running time. What I have right now is the common view-based method:

reversed_arr = arr[::-1]

Is there any other way to do it more efficiently, or is it just an illusion from my obsession with unrealistic numpy performance?

Answer 1

reversed_arr = arr[::-1]

gives a reversed view into the original array arr. Any changes made to the original array arr will also be immediately visible in reversed_arr. The underlying data buffers for arr and reversed_arr are shared, so creating this view is always instantaneous, and does not require any additional memory allocation or copying for the array contents.

See also, this discussion on NumPy views: How do I create a view onto a NumPy array?

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Possible solutions to performance problems regarding views

Are you re-creating the view more often than you need to? You should be able to do something like this:

arr = np.array(some_sequence)
reversed_arr = arr[::-1]

do_something(arr)
look_at(reversed_arr)
do_something_else(arr)
look_at(reversed_arr)

I’m not a numpy expert, but this seems like it would be the fastest way to do things in numpy. If this is what you are already doing, I don’t think you can improve on it.