This is an archived version of the course. Please find the latest version of the course on the main webpage.

Chapter 1: Introduction

NumPy

face Josiah Wang

NumPy is a Python numerical and scientific computing package.

NumPy allows you to perform large-scale multi-dimensional array operations easily and efficiently.

It also provides many Mathematical and Scientific functions/utilities to help you perform scientific computations easily.

If you are an experienced MATLAB user…

For the MATLAB/Octave users among you, everything will seem familiar.

NumPy tries to emulate the features in MATLAB, but in a Pythonic way.

The two main things you have to remember as MATLAB users are:

  • indices start at 0 in NumPy, not 1 as in MATLAB
  • use square brackets [] to access elements instead of parenthesis ().

You can refer to this quick tutorial that gives you a summary of how to do MATLAB-y things in NumPy. Then feel free to just get cracking and experimenting!