Using numpy to build an array of all combinations of two arrays

Question

I\'m trying to run over the parameters space of a 6 parameter function to study it\'s numerical behavior before trying to do anything complex with it so I\'m searching for a

Answer 1

For a pure numpy implementation of Cartesian product of 1D arrays (or flat python lists), just use meshgrid(), roll the axes with transpose(), and reshape to the desired ouput:

 def cartprod(*arrays):
     N = len(arrays)
     return transpose(meshgrid(*arrays, indexing='ij'), 
                      roll(arange(N + 1), -1)).reshape(-1, N)

Note this has the convention of last axis changing fastest ("C style" or "row-major").

In [88]: cartprod([1,2,3], [4,8], [100, 200, 300, 400], [-5, -4])
Out[88]: 
array([[  1,   4, 100,  -5],
       [  1,   4, 100,  -4],
       [  1,   4, 200,  -5],
       [  1,   4, 200,  -4],
       [  1,   4, 300,  -5],
       [  1,   4, 300,  -4],
       [  1,   4, 400,  -5],
       [  1,   4, 400,  -4],
       [  1,   8, 100,  -5],
       [  1,   8, 100,  -4],
       [  1,   8, 200,  -5],
       [  1,   8, 200,  -4],
       [  1,   8, 300,  -5],
       [  1,   8, 300,  -4],
       [  1,   8, 400,  -5],
       [  1,   8, 400,  -4],
       [  2,   4, 100,  -5],
       [  2,   4, 100,  -4],
       [  2,   4, 200,  -5],
       [  2,   4, 200,  -4],
       [  2,   4, 300,  -5],
       [  2,   4, 300,  -4],
       [  2,   4, 400,  -5],
       [  2,   4, 400,  -4],
       [  2,   8, 100,  -5],
       [  2,   8, 100,  -4],
       [  2,   8, 200,  -5],
       [  2,   8, 200,  -4],
       [  2,   8, 300,  -5],
       [  2,   8, 300,  -4],
       [  2,   8, 400,  -5],
       [  2,   8, 400,  -4],
       [  3,   4, 100,  -5],
       [  3,   4, 100,  -4],
       [  3,   4, 200,  -5],
       [  3,   4, 200,  -4],
       [  3,   4, 300,  -5],
       [  3,   4, 300,  -4],
       [  3,   4, 400,  -5],
       [  3,   4, 400,  -4],
       [  3,   8, 100,  -5],
       [  3,   8, 100,  -4],
       [  3,   8, 200,  -5],
       [  3,   8, 200,  -4],
       [  3,   8, 300,  -5],
       [  3,   8, 300,  -4],
       [  3,   8, 400,  -5],
       [  3,   8, 400,  -4]])

If you want to change the first axis fastest ("FORTRAN style" or "column-major"), just change the order parameter of reshape() like this: reshape((-1, N), order='F')