Book Image

Scientific Computing with Python - Second Edition

By : Claus Führer, Jan Erik Solem, Olivier Verdier
Book Image

Scientific Computing with Python - Second Edition

By: Claus Führer, Jan Erik Solem, Olivier Verdier

Overview of this book

Python has tremendous potential within the scientific computing domain. This updated edition of Scientific Computing with Python features new chapters on graphical user interfaces, efficient data processing, and parallel computing to help you perform mathematical and scientific computing efficiently using Python. This book will help you to explore new Python syntax features and create different models using scientific computing principles. The book presents Python alongside mathematical applications and demonstrates how to apply Python concepts in computing with the help of examples involving Python 3.8. You'll use pandas for basic data analysis to understand the modern needs of scientific computing, and cover data module improvements and built-in features. You'll also explore numerical computation modules such as NumPy and SciPy, which enable fast access to highly efficient numerical algorithms. By learning to use the plotting module Matplotlib, you will be able to represent your computational results in talks and publications. A special chapter is devoted to SymPy, a tool for bridging symbolic and numerical computations. By the end of this Python book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of task automation and how to implement and test mathematical algorithms within the realm of scientific computing.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
20
About Packt
22
References

4.1.2 Indexing and slices

Indexing and slicing are similar to the corresponding operations for lists. The main difference is that there may be several indexes or slices when the array is a matrix. The subject will be covered in depth in Section 4.4.1: Basic array slicing; here, we just give some illustrative examples of indexing and slicing:

v = array([1., 2., 3])
M = array([[1., 2],[3., 4]])

v[0] # works as for lists
v[1:] # array([2., 3.])

M[0, 0] # 1.
M[1:] # returns the matrix array([[3., 4]])
M[1] # returns the vector array([3., 4.])

# access
v[0] # 1.
v[0] = 10

# slices
v[:2] # array([10., 2.])
v[:2] = [0, 1] # now v == array([0., 1., 3.])
v[:2] = [1, 2, 3] # error!

As arrays are the basic datatype for all tasks in computational linear algebra, we now present in this overview section some examples, the dot product and the solution of linear equation systems.