Using Python tuples as vectors
I need to represent immutable vectors in Python ("vectors" as in linear al开发者_JAVA百科gebra, not as in programming). The tuple seems like an obvious choice.
The trouble is when I need to implement things like addition and scalar multiplication. If a
and b
are vectors, and c
is a number, the best I can think of is this:
tuple(map(lambda x,y: x + y, a, b)) # add vectors 'a' and 'b'
tuple(map(lambda x: x * c, a)) # multiply vector 'a' by scalar 'c'
which seems inelegant; there should be a clearer, simpler way to get this done -- not to mention avoiding the call to tuple
, since map
returns a list.
Is there a better option?
Immutable types are pretty rare in Python and third-party extensions thereof; the OP rightly claims "there are enough uses for linear algebra that it doesn't seem likely I have to roll my own" -- but all the existing types I know that do linear algebra are mutable! So, as the OP is adamant on immutability, there is nothing for it but the roll-your-own route.
Not that there's all that much rolling involved, e.g. if you specifically need 2-d vectors:
import math
class ImmutableVector(object):
__slots__ = ('_d',)
def __init__(self, x, y):
object.__setattr__(self, _d, (x, y))
def __setattr__(self, n, v):
raise ValueError("Can't alter instance of %s" % type(self))
@property
def x(self):
return self._d[0]
@property
def y(self):
return self._d[1]
def __eq__(self, other):
return self._d == other._d
def __ne__(self, other):
return self._d != other._d
def __hash__(self):
return hash(self._d)
def __add__(self, other):
return type(self)(self.x+other.x, self.y+other.y)
def __mul__(self, scalar):
return type(self)(self.x*scalar, self.y*scalar)
def __repr__(self):
return '%s(%s, %s)' % (type(self).__name__, self.x, self.y)
def __abs__(self):
return math.hypot(self.x, self.y)
I "threw in for free" a few extras such as .x
and .y
R/O properties, nice string representation, usability in sets or as keys in dicts (why else would one want immutability?-), low memory footprint, abs(v)
to give v
's vector-length -- I'm sure you can think of other "wouldn't-it-be-cool-if" methods and operators, depending on your application field, and they'll be just as easy. If you need other dimensionalities it won't be much harder, though a tad less readable since the .x
, .y
notation doesn't apply any more;-) (but I'd use genexps, not map
).
NumPy supports various algebraic operations with its arrays.
By inheriting from tuple, you can make a nice Vector class pretty easily. Here's enough code to provide addition of vectors, and multiplication of a vector by a scalar. It gives you arbitrary length vectors, and can work with complex numbers, ints, or floats.
class Vector(tuple):
def __add__(self, a):
# TODO: check lengths are compatable.
return Vector(x + y for x, y in zip(self, a))
def __mul__(self, c):
return Vector(x * c for x in self)
def __rmul__(self, c):
return Vector(c * x for x in self)
a = Vector((1, 2, 3))
b = Vector((2, 3, 4))
print a + b
print 3 * a
print a * 3
Although using a library like NumPy seems to be the resolution for the OP, I think there is still some value in a simple solution which does not require additional libraries and which you can stay immutable, with iterables.
Using the itertools
and operators
modules:
imap(add, a, b) # returns iterable to sum of a and b vectors
This implementation is simple. It does not use lambda neither any list-tuple conversion as it is iterator based.
from itertools import imap
from operator import add
vec1 = (1, 2, 3)
vec2 = (10, 20, 30)
result = imap(add, vec1, vec2)
print(tuple(result))
Yields:
(11, 22, 33)
Why not create your own class, making use of 2 Cartesian point member variables? (sorry if the syntax is a little off, my python is rusty)
class point:
def __init__(self,x,y):
self.x=x
self.y=y
#etc
def add(self,p):
return point(self.x + p.x, self.y + p.y)
class vector:
def __init__(self,a,b):
self.pointA=a
self.pointB=b
#etc
def add(self,v):
return vector(self.pointA + v.pointA, self.pointB + v.pointB)
For occasional use, a Python 3 solution without repeating lambdas is possible via using the standard operator package:
from operator import add, mul
a = (1, 2, 3)
b = (4, 5, 6)
print(tuple(map(add, a , b)))
print(tuple(map(mul, a , b)))
which prints:
(5, 7, 9)
(4, 10, 18)
For serious linear algebra computations using numpy vectors is the canonical solution:
import numpy as np
a = np.array([1, 2, 3])
b = np.array([4, 5, 6])
print(a+b)
print(a*b)
which prints:
[5 7 9]
[ 4 10 18]
Since pretty much all of the sequence manipulation functions return lists, that's pretty much what you're going to have to do.
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