Pages

Review of the book Numpy 1.5 - Beginner's Guide

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Hi all,

I'd like to share my review of the book Numpy 1.5 the Beginner's Guide by Ivan Idris, which is one of the latest books in a series of manuals covering scientific computing libraries written in Python.  This book covers the Numpy library for manipulating vectors and matrices and support for mathematical libraries.

Numpy 1.5  from Packt Publisher

Quick Review

The book is a great and useful resource for anyone who wants to explore further the Numpy scientific library since it covers almost all of the modules available at Numpy 1.5.  It comes with several examples, specially for finantial researchers and developers that work with finantial data. The author explored several modules using stocks and historical price data.  The authors explains each function or operation with code and the expected results, so the reader can follow precisely what's happening when he presents the modules. One of the values of the book is how it is organized: the step-by-step guide when he presents complex functions at Numpy, for example: add.reduceat, add.accumulate and add.reduce operators.
The part that I didn't like was about the exercises which was quite simple. I'd like to see deep exercises exploring the resources given at the book and I missed more information about NaN values. Also, I didn't  see information also about the functions squeeze, choose and about more complex structured arrays (arrays with tuples, etc.).

To sum up, I recommend this book for anyone whishing to learn about scientific computing with Python using the mathematical library Numpy which is a great alternative (and free !) for Matlab, Mathematica and other packages. I expect quite soon a book covering Scipy library also!  By the way, the finantial fans will love this book since it covers almost of the entire book with examples using finance data!

Review


The book starts with a step-by-step installation process of Numpy as also giving a litte introduction about what is Numpy, its history, etc.   I'd like to mention that even all the platforms covered at the book, Numpy is not so easy as mentioned to install at Mac OS.  The problem is that generally the developers don't use the built-in Python that comes with the Mac, since it is outdated (my Snow leopard comes with the Python 2.6.1). So when you install the new Python, that the problems come! Several compilation errors, messages that you can't understand, etc.  But if you go by using the MacPorts,  you will free of all these errors! ( After all the nightmare of the installation, I discovered the MacPorts :P).

The following chapters 2-4 presents the Numpy Fundamentals covering the array manipulations and most commonly used operations.  The books goes into a cyclic process, where each function that the author presents goes through an introduction about the problem to solve, the actions (how you with Numpy can solve), auxiliar numpy functions and operations and finally what just happened, that is, explain what he has done after showing the solution. The examples covered at book, most of them, are from finantial data and stock market values. An interesting choice since he used the same examples through the chapters in a progression and logical way.  Having each function and numpy featured described and explained made the book a good reference guide for someone using the library.  There were minor issues  related to the imports, he doesn't mention the imports in some examples,  for instance the numpy.loadtxt function when he uses the datetime module.  For a beginner that is studying Python for the first time, it may be harder to them to follow the examples, since he could not always tell where the functions or modules were coming from.

The second part of the book includes the matrices, universal functions, some scipy modules and the use of matplotlib and testing.  The chapter 5 covers the matrix module and universal functions such as add, divide, prod, sum and so on.  I missed some functions that weren't covered at this chapter such as numpy.choose or numpy.squeeze.  I believe the author didn't remember or didn't have space to mention these specific functions, but it does not prejudice at all the quality of the book. The chapter that I liked the most at the book was about testing. Several developers, special the scientific researchers are not used to test their code, so I believe it is a great chapter for anyone who wants to assure quality and avoid future bugs using Numpy testing modules.  The chapter should be more bigger and include more examples even creating test cases and tips for scientific developers.
Finally the last two chapters focus on plotting and Scipy integration. I think the plotting chapter should be at the beginning of the book, because he already uses lots of examples at the previous chapters with matplotlib and only at the end explain further about the library. The chapter is well-written and gives you sufficient content for beginning with Matplotlib. The last chapter covers the use of several scipy functions but it does not give deeper explanations about how it works as he did at the previous chapters with Numpy. However it gives several useful examples to work with integration, image processing and even optimization. Many developers will enjoy this extra-chapter covering the use of scipy+numpy.


Conclusions

 My overall impression of this book is that it could make a useful reference guide for Numpy. For finantial researchers and developers it will be a great book since it also covers lots of examples using finance data to present the numpy fundamentals.  There were minor issues related to Scipy and Matplotlib that should be more explained. For anyone who wants to start using Numpy it can a be an excellent book to begin, since it covers all the fundamentals steps with a cyclic progressive introduction of using the scientific packages in Python.

Regards,

Marcel Caraciolo

32 comments:

  1. This regression is quite used in several scenarios such as prediction of customer's propensity to purchase a product or cease a subscription in marketing applications and many others. visit this linkmsbi training In Chennai

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Books give you the proper guide to do the same work and get some tips like I was searching for medical assignment help in Karachi and getting good points from the site and write in the books.

      Delete
  2. this site share more valuable mathematical regression fiting data in a easy format thanks for such post .oracle dba training In Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  3. here i also wanted share ..i gather knowledge of predicted from human in heart attack update new prdicted information more ..sybase training In Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  4. if can gain knowledge of several predicted function thanks for such post.and more pls visit spring training In Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hai if our training additional way as (IT) trained as individual,you will be able to understand other applications more quickly and continue to build your skll set
    which will assist you in getting hi-tech industry jobs as possible in future courese of action..visit this blog webMethods-training in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looking for real-time training institue.Get details now may if share this link visit
    oracle training in chennai
    oraclechennai.com:

    ReplyDelete
  7. hai If you are interested in hyperion training, our real time working. so visit this site and get more details....
    hyperion Training in Chennai.
    hyperion training in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  8. Haryana HSSC Steno Typist Recruitment 2016


    Well written and useful stuff you share with us. I want more this kind of information from you.............

    ReplyDelete
  9. Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam Tradesman Skilled Recruitment 2016

    Hi everyone, it’s my first visit at this site, and post is genuinely fruitful for me, keep up posting these types of articles.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wiztech Automation Solutions is that the best PLC SCADA Marketing Communication Management: A Holistic Approach for Increased Profitability Training institute in Chennai and it's generating variety of PLC Engineers through its robust pillars like quality education, effective coaching, intimate with staffs to guide each student, spacious laboratories, Un-limited sensible sessions to boost their data as per the conditions of Automation trade.

    PLC, SCADA training in chennai
    PLC training in chennai
    Automation training in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for sharing for your valuable information with us to learn more and more. Keep share more MSBI Online Training

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Enjoyed reading the article above, really explains everything in detail, the article is very interesting and effective. Thank you and good luck for the upcoming articles learn python training in Bangalore

    ReplyDelete
  14. top social media influencers in chennai - Devoted to publishing the most recent search news, the simplest guides and how-to's for the SEO and Online advertising community

    ReplyDelete
  15. nice post https://www.techsoftskillsource.com/

    ReplyDelete
  16. This professional hacker is absolutely reliable and I strongly recommend him for any type of hack you require. I know this because I have hired him severally for various hacks and he has never disappointed me nor any of my friends who have hired him too, he can help you with any of the following hacks:

    -Phone hacks (remotely)
    -Credit repair
    -Bitcoin recovery (any cryptocurrency)
    -Make money from home (USA only)
    -Social media hacks
    -Website hacks
    -Erase criminal records (USA & Canada only)
    -Grade change
    -funds recovery

    Email: onlineghosthacker247@ gmail .com

    ReplyDelete
  17. iot training in chennai - Best IOT Training in Chennai
    DevOps training in chennai - Best DeVops Training in Chennai
    blue prism training in Chennai - Blue Prism Training in Chennai
    uipath training in Chennai - Best Ui path Training in Chennai
    microsoft azure training in chennai - Best Microsoft azure training in Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  18. iot training in chennai - Best IOT Training in Chennai provides course and offer training for IOT Internet of things and various other technology.
    DevOps training in chennai - Best DeVops Training in Chennai offers course for DevOps technology.
    blue prism training in Chennai - Best Blue prism training in Chennai offering courses and technology on the latest course Blue prism.
    uipath training in Chennai - Ui path training and technology in Chennai offers a complete course for Ui path training in Chennai.
    microsoft azure training in chennai - Microsoft azure training in Chennai offering a better and complete course for Microsoft azure

    ReplyDelete

  19. Chennai IT Training Center
    Artificial Intelligence training in chennai - Basically AI Artificial Intelligence is a programming which is created for robots to think and work on there own without the help of humans.

    RPA Training Institute in Chennai - RPA is useful in making complex decision by collaborating with Artificial Intelligence. And it will also contribute to the market of Big data and IOT. Join the Best RPA Training Institute in Chennai now.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Studyprovider has experts team are giving the homework help, assignment help, report, thesis, research writing services and thesis writing service available 24/7 seven days a week contact now.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Extremely lovely and informative post Please share more article like this. DME of America: A Symphony of Innovation and Compassion, Orchestrating Healthier Lives Across the United States.

    ReplyDelete