Find unique rows in numpy.array

Question

I need to find unique rows in a numpy.array.

For example:

>>> a # I have
array([[1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
       [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
         


        

Answer 1

If you want to avoid the memory expense of converting to a series of tuples or another similar data structure, you can exploit numpy's structured arrays.

The trick is to view your original array as a structured array where each item corresponds to a row of the original array. This doesn't make a copy, and is quite efficient.

As a quick example:

import numpy as np

data = np.array([[1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                 [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
                 [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
                 [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                 [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0]])

ncols = data.shape[1]
dtype = data.dtype.descr * ncols
struct = data.view(dtype)

uniq = np.unique(struct)
uniq = uniq.view(data.dtype).reshape(-1, ncols)
print uniq

---

To understand what's going on, have a look at the intermediary results.

Once we view things as a structured array, each element in the array is a row in your original array. (Basically, it's a similar data structure to a list of tuples.)

In [71]: struct
Out[71]:
array([[(1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0)],
       [(0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0)],
       [(0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0)],
       [(1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0)],
       [(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0)]],
      dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<i8'), ('f2', '<i8'), ('f3', '<i8'), ('f4', '<i8'), ('f5', '<i8')])

In [72]: struct[0]
Out[72]:
array([(1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0)],
      dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<i8'), ('f2', '<i8'), ('f3', '<i8'), ('f4', '<i8'), ('f5', '<i8')])

Once we run numpy.unique, we'll get a structured array back:

In [73]: np.unique(struct)
Out[73]:
array([(0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0), (1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0), (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0)],
      dtype=[('f0', '<i8'), ('f1', '<i8'), ('f2', '<i8'), ('f3', '<i8'), ('f4', '<i8'), ('f5', '<i8')])

That we then need to view as a "normal" array (_ stores the result of the last calculation in ipython, which is why you're seeing _.view...):

In [74]: _.view(data.dtype)
Out[74]: array([0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0])

And then reshape back into a 2D array (-1 is a placeholder that tells numpy to calculate the correct number of rows, give the number of columns):

In [75]: _.reshape(-1, ncols)
Out[75]:
array([[0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
       [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0]])

---

Obviously, if you wanted to be more concise, you could write it as:

import numpy as np

def unique_rows(data):
    uniq = np.unique(data.view(data.dtype.descr * data.shape[1]))
    return uniq.view(data.dtype).reshape(-1, data.shape[1])

data = np.array([[1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                 [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
                 [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
                 [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                 [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0]])
print unique_rows(data)

Which results in:

[[0 1 1 1 0 0]
 [1 1 1 0 0 0]
 [1 1 1 1 1 0]]

Answer 2

We can actually turn m x n numeric numpy array into m x 1 numpy string array, please try using the following function, it provides count, inverse_idx and etc, just like numpy.unique:

import numpy as np

def uniqueRow(a):
    #This function turn m x n numpy array into m x 1 numpy array storing 
    #string, and so the np.unique can be used

    #Input: an m x n numpy array (a)
    #Output unique m' x n numpy array (unique), inverse_indx, and counts 

    s = np.chararray((a.shape[0],1))
    s[:] = '-'

    b = (a).astype(np.str)

    s2 = np.expand_dims(b[:,0],axis=1) + s + np.expand_dims(b[:,1],axis=1)

    n = a.shape[1] - 2    

    for i in range(0,n):
         s2 = s2 + s + np.expand_dims(b[:,i+2],axis=1)

    s3, idx, inv_, c = np.unique(s2,return_index = True,  return_inverse = True, return_counts = True)

    return a[idx], inv_, c

Example:

A = np.array([[ 3.17   9.502  3.291],
  [ 9.984  2.773  6.852],
  [ 1.172  8.885  4.258],
  [ 9.73   7.518  3.227],
  [ 8.113  9.563  9.117],
  [ 9.984  2.773  6.852],
  [ 9.73   7.518  3.227]])

B, inv_, c = uniqueRow(A)

Results:

B:
[[ 1.172  8.885  4.258]
[ 3.17   9.502  3.291]
[ 8.113  9.563  9.117]
[ 9.73   7.518  3.227]
[ 9.984  2.773  6.852]]

inv_:
[3 4 1 0 2 4 0]

c:
[2 1 1 1 2]

Answer 3

For general purpose like 3D or higher multidimensional nested arrays, try this:

import numpy as np

def unique_nested_arrays(ar):
    origin_shape = ar.shape
    origin_dtype = ar.dtype
    ar = ar.reshape(origin_shape[0], np.prod(origin_shape[1:]))
    ar = np.ascontiguousarray(ar)
    unique_ar = np.unique(ar.view([('', origin_dtype)]*np.prod(origin_shape[1:])))
    return unique_ar.view(origin_dtype).reshape((unique_ar.shape[0], ) + origin_shape[1:])

which satisfies your 2D dataset:

a = np.array([[1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
       [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
       [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
       [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0]])
unique_nested_arrays(a)

gives:

array([[0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
   [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
   [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0]])

But also 3D arrays like:

b = np.array([[[1, 1, 1], [0, 1, 1]],
              [[0, 1, 1], [1, 1, 1]],
              [[1, 1, 1], [0, 1, 1]],
              [[1, 1, 1], [1, 1, 1]]])
unique_nested_arrays(b)

gives:

array([[[0, 1, 1], [1, 1, 1]],
   [[1, 1, 1], [0, 1, 1]],
   [[1, 1, 1], [1, 1, 1]]])

Answer 4

np.unique when I run it on np.random.random(100).reshape(10,10) returns all the unique individual elements, but you want the unique rows, so first you need to put them into tuples:

array = #your numpy array of lists
new_array = [tuple(row) for row in array]
uniques = np.unique(new_array)

That is the only way I see you changing the types to do what you want, and I am not sure if the list iteration to change to tuples is okay with your "not looping through"

Answer 5

Another option to the use of structured arrays is using a view of a void type that joins the whole row into a single item:

a = np.array([[1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
              [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
              [0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
              [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
              [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0]])

b = np.ascontiguousarray(a).view(np.dtype((np.void, a.dtype.itemsize * a.shape[1])))
_, idx = np.unique(b, return_index=True)

unique_a = a[idx]

>>> unique_a
array([[0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0],
       [1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0],
       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0]])

EDIT Added np.ascontiguousarray following @seberg's recommendation. This will slow the method down if the array is not already contiguous.

EDIT The above can be slightly sped up, perhaps at the cost of clarity, by doing:

unique_a = np.unique(b).view(a.dtype).reshape(-1, a.shape[1])

Also, at least on my system, performance wise it is on par, or even better, than the lexsort method:

a = np.random.randint(2, size=(10000, 6))

%timeit np.unique(a.view(np.dtype((np.void, a.dtype.itemsize*a.shape[1])))).view(a.dtype).reshape(-1, a.shape[1])
100 loops, best of 3: 3.17 ms per loop

%timeit ind = np.lexsort(a.T); a[np.concatenate(([True],np.any(a[ind[1:]]!=a[ind[:-1]],axis=1)))]
100 loops, best of 3: 5.93 ms per loop

a = np.random.randint(2, size=(10000, 100))

%timeit np.unique(a.view(np.dtype((np.void, a.dtype.itemsize*a.shape[1])))).view(a.dtype).reshape(-1, a.shape[1])
10 loops, best of 3: 29.9 ms per loop

%timeit ind = np.lexsort(a.T); a[np.concatenate(([True],np.any(a[ind[1:]]!=a[ind[:-1]],axis=1)))]
10 loops, best of 3: 116 ms per loop

Answer 6

Here is another variation for @Greg pythonic answer

np.vstack(set(map(tuple, a)))