On 4/4/20, Warren Weckesser <warren.weckes...@gmail.com> wrote: > It would be handy if in scipy we can use the function > `numpy.lib.shape_base.normalize_axis_index` as a consistent method for > validating an `axis` argument. Is this function considered part of > the public API? > > There are modules in numpy that do not have leading underscores but > are still usually considered private. I'm not sure if > `numpy.lib.shape_base` is one of those. `normalize_axis_index` is not > in the top-level `numpy` namespace, and it is not included in the API > reference > (https://numpy.org/devdocs/search.html?q=normalize_axis_index&check_keywords=yes&area=default), > so I'm not sure if we can safely consider this function to be public. > > Warren >
Answering my own question: "shape_base.py" is not where `normalize_axis_index` is originally defined, so that module can be ignored. The function is actually defined in `numpy.core.multiarray`. The pull request in which the function was created is https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/8584. Whether or not the function was to be public is discussed starting here: https://github.com/numpy/numpy/pull/8584#issuecomment-281179399. A leading underscore was discussed and intentionally not added to the function. On the other hand, it was not added to the top-level namespace, and Eric Wieser wrote "Right now, it is only accessible via np.core.multiarray.normalize_axis_index, so yes, an internal function". There is another potentially useful function, `normalize_axis_tuple`, defined in `numpy.core.numeric`. This function is also not in the top-level numpy namespace. So it looks like neither of these functions is currently intended to be public. For the moment, I think we'll create our own utility functions in scipy. We can switch to using the numpy functions if those functions are ever intentionally made public. Warren _______________________________________________ NumPy-Discussion mailing list NumPy-Discussion@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
