6

I want to shuffle the ordering of only some rows in a numpy array. These rows will always be continuous (e.g. shuffling rows 23-80). The number of elements in each row can vary from 1 (such that the array is actually 1D) to 100.

Below is example code to demonstrate how I see the method shuffle_rows() could work. How would I design such a method to do this shuffling efficiently?

import numpy as np
>>> a = np.arange(20).reshape(4, 5)
>>> a
array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3,  4],
       [ 5,  6,  7,  8,  9],
       [10, 11, 12, 13, 14],
       [15, 16, 17, 18, 19]])

>>> shuffle_rows(a, [1, 3]) # including rows 1, 2 and 3 in the shuffling
array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3,  4],
       [15, 16, 17, 18, 19],
       [ 5,  6,  7,  8,  9],
       [10, 11, 12, 13, 14]])

1 Answer 1

5

You can use np.random.shuffle. This shuffles the rows themselves, not the elements within the rows.

From the docs:

This function only shuffles the array along the first index of a multi-dimensional array

As an example:

import numpy as np


def shuffle_rows(arr,rows):
    np.random.shuffle(arr[rows[0]:rows[1]+1])

a = np.arange(20).reshape(4, 5)

print(a)
# array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3,  4],
#        [ 5,  6,  7,  8,  9],
#        [10, 11, 12, 13, 14],
#        [15, 16, 17, 18, 19]])

shuffle_rows(a,[1,3])

print(a)
#array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3,  4],
#       [10, 11, 12, 13, 14],
#       [15, 16, 17, 18, 19],
#       [ 5,  6,  7,  8,  9]])

shuffle_rows(a,[1,3])

print(a)
#array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3,  4],
#       [10, 11, 12, 13, 14],
#       [ 5,  6,  7,  8,  9],
#       [15, 16, 17, 18, 19]])
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

If I try print(shuffle_rows(a,[1,3])) in Python 3 I get "None" in the output?
the shuffle is done in place. print(a) and you will see the shuffled rows
Ah, makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.