* Arrays
*** Outline
***** Introduction
******* Why do we want to do that?
******* We shall use arrays (introduced before) for matrices
******* Arsenal Required
********* working knowledge of lists
***** Initializing matrices
******* Entering element-wise
******* using special functions
***** Accessing and Changing elements
******* Slicing
******* Striding
***** {{Simple operations??}}
*** Script
    Welcome to the Tutorial on arrays. 

    As mentioned in [the previous tutorial] arrays are much faster and
    more efficient. In this tutorial we shall look at creating arrays,
    accessing elements and changing them. 

    ---

    Let's start with creating simple arrays. We've already seen how to
    convert lists to arrays. Entering an array is similar to that. 

    a = array([5, 8, 10, 13])
    
    We enter a multi-dimensional array this way -
    
    In []: c = array([[11,12,13],
                      [21,22,23],
                      [31,32,33]])

    To see what c is, we just type c in the prompt. 
		      
    In []: c

    To see the dimensions of the array c, we use c.shape
    In []: c.shape 

    Now let us look at some special methods of creating an
    array. There are various functions that allow us to create special
    arrays. 

    The first one we shall look at is, arange. arange is similar to
    the range command, except that it returns an array and accepts
    float arguments. [is range covered?]
    
    In []: a = arange(10)
    
    In []: a
    This is the array we just created. 
    
    In []: a.shape
    Note that a is one dimensional and has 10 elements, as expected. 

    We could also use a.shape to change the shape of the array a. 
    In []: a.shape = 2,5
    Note that the total size of new array must be unchanged. 

    We type a, to see what it looks like
    In []: a

    ones command can be used to get an array with all the entries as
    1s. We pass it the shape of the array that we require. 
    
    In []: b = ones((3, 4))

    Look at b, by printing it out. 
    In []: b 

    To create an array with all entries as ones, with a shape similar to
    an already existing array, we use the ones_like command. 
    In []: b = ones_like(a)

    zeros and zeros_like are similar commands that can give you arrays
    with all zeros. empty and empty_like give you empty arrays (arrays
    with no initialization done.)

    {Do an up arrow and quickly show them a couple of examples?}

    The identity command can be used to obtain a square array with
    ones on the main diagonal. 
    
    In []: identity(3)

    To obtain a 2-D array, that is not necessarily square, eye command
    can be used. Look at the documentation of eye (using eye?) for
    more info. 

    ---
    
    Now that we have learnt how to create arrays, let move on to
    accessing elements and changing them. 
    
    Let's work with the c, array which we had already created. 

    In []: c 

    Let's say we want to access the element 23 in c, we say

    In []: c[1][2]
    Note that this is similar to accessing an element inside a list of
    lists. Also, note that counting again starts from 0. 
    
    But arrays provide a more convenient way to access the elements. 
    In []: c[1, 2]
    
    Now, we can also change the element using a simple assignment. 
    In []: c[1, 2] = -23

    Let's look at accessing more than one elements at a time. We begin
    with accessing rows. 
    In []: c[1] gives us the second row. (counting starts from 0)

    To get a column, we use a syntax that is similar to the one used
    to access a single element. 
    In []: c[:,1], gives us the first column. 
    
    The colon is a way to tell python to get all elements in that
    dimension from the array. 

    So, we could use a more explicit way to access a row of a
    In []: c[1,:]
    
    We could use the colon to access specific portions of an array. 
    In []: c[1,1:2]
    In []: c[1:2,1]
    In []: c[1:2,1:2]
    ...
    [Oh, by the way this is termed as slicing. :)]
    {How many examples should we show here?}

    --- 
    
    You may have observed the similarity of the semi-colon notation to
    the range command. As expected, the semi-colon notation also
    provides a way to specify a jump. This {concept/idea} is termed as
    Striding. 

    To get every alternate row of c, starting from the first one, we say
    In []: c[::2,:]

    To get every alternate row of c, starting from the second one, we
    say
    In []: c[1::2,:]


    In []: c[:,::2]
    In []: c[::2,::2]
    {How many examples should we show here?}

    ---

    We come to the end of this tutorial on arrays. In this tutorial,
    you've learnt how to create arrays and access, change elements. 

    Thank you. 

*** Notes