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Find all n-dimensional lines and diagonals with NumPy


Using NumPy, I would like to produce a list of all lines and diagonals of an n-dimensional array with lengths of k.


Take the case of the following three-dimensional array with lengths of three.

array([[[ 0,  1,  2],
        [ 3,  4,  5],
        [ 6,  7,  8]],

       [[ 9, 10, 11],
        [12, 13, 14],
        [15, 16, 17]],

       [[18, 19, 20],
        [21, 22, 23],
        [24, 25, 26]]])

For this case, I would like to obtain all of the following types of sequences. For any given case, I would like to obtain all of the possible sequences of each type. Examples of desired sequences are given in parentheses below, for each case.

  • 1D lines
    • x axis (0, 1, 2)
    • y axis (0, 3, 6)
    • z axis (0, 9, 18)
  • 2D diagonals
    • x/y axes (0, 4, 8, 2, 4, 6)
    • x/z axes (0, 10, 20, 2, 10, 18)
    • y/z axes (0, 12, 24, 6, 12, 18)
  • 3D diagonals
    • x/y/z axes (0, 13, 26, 2, 13, 24)

The solution should be generalized, so that it will generate all lines and diagonals for an array, regardless of the array's number of dimensions or length (which is constant across all dimensions).


Solution

  • This solution generalized over n

    Lets rephrase this problem as "find the list of indices".

    We're looking for all of the 2d index arrays of the form

    array[i[0], i[1], i[2], ..., i[n-1]]
    

    Let n = arr.ndim

    Where i is an array of shape (n, k)

    Each of i[j] can be one of:

    • The same index repeated n times, ri[j] = [j, ..., j]
    • The forward sequence, fi = [0, 1, ..., k-1]
    • The backward sequence, bi = [k-1, ..., 1, 0]

    With the requirements that each sequence is of the form ^(ri)*(fi)(fi|bi|ri)*$ (using regex to summarize it). This is because:

    • there must be at least one fi so the "line" is not a point selected repeatedly
    • no bis come before fis, to avoid getting reversed lines

    def product_slices(n):
        for i in range(n):
            yield (
                np.index_exp[np.newaxis] * i +
                np.index_exp[:] +
                np.index_exp[np.newaxis] * (n - i - 1)
            )
    
    def get_lines(n, k):
        """
        Returns:
            index (tuple):   an object suitable for advanced indexing to get all possible lines
            mask (ndarray):  a boolean mask to apply to the result of the above
        """
        fi = np.arange(k)
        bi = fi[::-1]
        ri = fi[:,None].repeat(k, axis=1)
    
        all_i = np.concatenate((fi[None], bi[None], ri), axis=0)
    
        # inedx which look up every possible line, some of which are not valid
        index = tuple(all_i[s] for s in product_slices(n))
    
        # We incrementally allow lines that start with some number of `ri`s, and an `fi`
        #  [0]  here means we chose fi for that index
        #  [2:] here means we chose an ri for that index
        mask = np.zeros((all_i.shape[0],)*n, dtype=np.bool)
        sl = np.index_exp[0]
        for i in range(n):
            mask[sl] = True
            sl = np.index_exp[2:] + sl
    
        return index, mask
    

    Applied to your example:

    # construct your example array
    n = 3
    k = 3
    data = np.arange(k**n).reshape((k,)*n)
    
    # apply my index_creating function
    index, mask = get_lines(n, k)
    
    # apply the index to your array
    lines = data[index][mask]
    print(lines)
    
    array([[ 0, 13, 26],
           [ 2, 13, 24],
           [ 0, 12, 24],
           [ 1, 13, 25],
           [ 2, 14, 26],
           [ 6, 13, 20],
           [ 8, 13, 18],
           [ 6, 12, 18],
           [ 7, 13, 19],
           [ 8, 14, 20],
           [ 0, 10, 20],
           [ 2, 10, 18],
           [ 0,  9, 18],
           [ 1, 10, 19],
           [ 2, 11, 20],
           [ 3, 13, 23],
           [ 5, 13, 21],
           [ 3, 12, 21],
           [ 4, 13, 22],
           [ 5, 14, 23],
           [ 6, 16, 26],
           [ 8, 16, 24],
           [ 6, 15, 24],
           [ 7, 16, 25],
           [ 8, 17, 26],
           [ 0,  4,  8],
           [ 2,  4,  6],
           [ 0,  3,  6],
           [ 1,  4,  7],
           [ 2,  5,  8],
           [ 0,  1,  2],
           [ 3,  4,  5],
           [ 6,  7,  8],
           [ 9, 13, 17],
           [11, 13, 15],
           [ 9, 12, 15],
           [10, 13, 16],
           [11, 14, 17],
           [ 9, 10, 11],
           [12, 13, 14],
           [15, 16, 17],
           [18, 22, 26],
           [20, 22, 24],
           [18, 21, 24],
           [19, 22, 25],
           [20, 23, 26],
           [18, 19, 20],
           [21, 22, 23],
           [24, 25, 26]])
    

    Another good set of test data is np.moveaxis(np.indices((k,)*n), 0, -1), which gives an array where every value is its own index


    I've solved this problem before to implement a higher dimensional tic-tac-toe