What would be the computationally faster way to implement this 2D numerical integration?

Question

I am interested in doing a 2D numerical integration. Right now I am using the scipy.integrate.dblquad but it is very slow. Please see the code below. My need is to evaluate this integral 100s of times with completely different parameters. Hence I want to make the processing as fast and efficient as possible. The code is:

import numpy as np
from scipy import integrate
from scipy.special import erf
from scipy.special import j0
import time

q = np.linspace(0.03, 1.0, 1000)

start = time.time()

def f(q, z, t):
    return t * 0.5 * (erf((t - z) / 3) - 1) * j0(q * t) * (1 / (np.sqrt(2 * np.pi) * 2)) * np.exp(
        -0.5 * ((z - 40) / 2) ** 2)


y = np.empty([len(q)])
for n in range(len(q)):
    y[n] = integrate.dblquad(lambda t, z: f(q[n], z, t), 0, 50, lambda z: 10, lambda z: 60)[0]

end = time.time()
print(end - start)

Time taken is

212.96751403808594

This is too much. Please suggest a better way to achieve what I want to do. I tried to do some search before coming here, but didn't find any solution. I have read quadpy can do this job better and very faster but I have no idea how to implement the same. Please help.

Answer 1

You could use Numba or a low-level-callable

Almost your example

I simply pass function directly to scipy.integrate.dblquad instead of your method using lambdas to generate functions.

import numpy as np
from scipy import integrate
from scipy.special import erf
from scipy.special import j0
import time

q = np.linspace(0.03, 1.0, 1000)

start = time.time()

def f(t, z, q):
    return t * 0.5 * (erf((t - z) / 3) - 1) * j0(q * t) * (1 / (np.sqrt(2 * np.pi) * 2)) * np.exp(
        -0.5 * ((z - 40) / 2) ** 2)

def lower_inner(z):
    return 10.

def upper_inner(z):
    return 60.


y = np.empty(len(q))
for n in range(len(q)):
    y[n] = integrate.dblquad(f, 0, 50, lower_inner, upper_inner,args=(q[n],))[0]

end = time.time()
print(end - start)
#143.73969149589539

This is already a tiny bit faster (143 vs. 151s) but the only use is to have a simple example to optimize.

Simply compiling the functions using Numba

To get this to run you need additionally Numba and numba-scipy. The purpose of numba-scipy is to provide wrapped functions from scipy.special.

import numpy as np
from scipy import integrate
from scipy.special import erf
from scipy.special import j0
import time
import numba as nb

q = np.linspace(0.03, 1.0, 1000)

start = time.time()

#error_model="numpy" -> Don't check for division by zero
@nb.njit(error_model="numpy",fastmath=True)
def f(t, z, q):
    return t * 0.5 * (erf((t - z) / 3) - 1) * j0(q * t) * (1 / (np.sqrt(2 * np.pi) * 2)) * np.exp(
        -0.5 * ((z - 40) / 2) ** 2)

def lower_inner(z):
    return 10.

def upper_inner(z):
    return 60.


y = np.empty(len(q))
for n in range(len(q)):
    y[n] = integrate.dblquad(f, 0, 50, lower_inner, upper_inner,args=(q[n],))[0]

end = time.time()
print(end - start)
#8.636585235595703

Using a low level callable

The scipy.integrate functions also provide the possibility to pass C-callback function instead of a Python function. These functions can be written for example in C, Cython or Numba, which I use in this example. The main advantage is, that no Python interpreter interaction is necessary on function call.

An excellent answer of @Jacques Gaudin shows an easy way to do this including additional arguments.

import numpy as np
from scipy import integrate
from scipy.special import erf
from scipy.special import j0
import time
import numba as nb
from numba import cfunc
from numba.types import intc, CPointer, float64
from scipy import LowLevelCallable

q = np.linspace(0.03, 1.0, 1000)

start = time.time()

def jit_integrand_function(integrand_function):
    jitted_function = nb.njit(integrand_function, nopython=True)

    #error_model="numpy" -> Don't check for division by zero
    @cfunc(float64(intc, CPointer(float64)),error_model="numpy",fastmath=True)
    def wrapped(n, xx):
        ar = nb.carray(xx, n)
        return jitted_function(ar[0], ar[1], ar[2])
    return LowLevelCallable(wrapped.ctypes)

@jit_integrand_function
def f(t, z, q):
    return t * 0.5 * (erf((t - z) / 3) - 1) * j0(q * t) * (1 / (np.sqrt(2 * np.pi) * 2)) * np.exp(
        -0.5 * ((z - 40) / 2) ** 2)

def lower_inner(z):
    return 10.

def upper_inner(z):
    return 60.


y = np.empty(len(q))
for n in range(len(q)):
    y[n] = integrate.dblquad(f, 0, 50, lower_inner, upper_inner,args=(q[n],))[0]

end = time.time()
print(end - start)
#3.2645838260650635