What is the numpy.ravel() function from NumPy in Python?

Overview

Python’s ravel() function is used to return a contiguous array. This function returns a 1D array that contains the input elements.

Syntax

The syntax for this function is as follows:

numpy.ravel(a, order='C')

Parameter value

The ravel() function takes the following parameter values:

  • a: This represents the input array.
  • order: This represents the type of order for the memory layout. This parameter value is optional. It can take a "C", "F", "A", or "K' order.

Return value

The ravel() function returns an array of the same subtype and shape as that of the input array a that is passed to it.

Code example

import numpy as np
# creating an array
myarray1 = np.array([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]])
# calling the ravel() function 
myarray2 = np.ravel(myarray1, order = "K")
print(myarray2)
# checking the size of the imput and output arrays
print(myarray1.size)
print(myarray2.size)

Code explanation

  • Line 1: We import the numpy module.
  • Line 3: We create a 2D array called myarray1, using the array() function.
  • Line 6: We implement the ravel() function on the variable myarray1, using an order style K. We assign the result to another variable called myarray2.
  • Line 8: We print the array myarray2.
  • Lines 11–12: To confirm if both the input and output array are of the same size, we obtain and print their sizes with the array.size() function.

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