Compare neighbors in array

Question

I have a a python function for taking in a 2D numpy array and checking if each element is the same as its neighbor elements. I feel like there's a more efficient way to do this but I'm not sure. Here is the code:

import numpy as np def compare_neighbors(arr): ''' Checks if element (i,j) is different than (i-1,j),(i+1,j),(i,j-1), or (i,j+1). --Input-- arr: (2D np.array) array to compare all elements of --Returns-- comp_arr: (2D bool np.array) bool array with the resulting comparisons. True means the original element is the same as its neighbors, False means it was different than at least neighbor ''' comp_arr = np.full(arr.shape, False, dtype=bool) #initialize arr_height = arr.shape[0] arr_width = arr.shape[1] for i in range(arr_height): #Row for j in range(arr_width): #column center = arr[i,j] #Check edges if i == 0: #left side left = arr[i,j] else: left = arr[i-1, j] if i == arr_height - 1: #right side right = arr[i,j] else: right = arr[i+1,j] if j == 0: #up up = arr[i,j] else: up = arr[i, j-1] if j == arr_width - 1: #down down = arr[i,j] else: down = arr[i, j+1] comp_arr[i,j] = len(set([left, right, up, down, center])) == 1 return comp_arr 

If it is helpful, here are the tests I used for testing it:

A = np.array([[1,1], [1,1]]) comp_arr_A = compare_neighbors(A) B = np.array([[2,2], [2,2]]) comp_arr_B = compare_neighbors(B) C = np.array([[1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], [1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1], [1,2,2,1,1,1,2,2,1], [1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1], [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1]]) comp_arr_C = compare_neighbors(C) D = np.array([[1,1,1], [1,2,1], [1,1,1]]) comp_arr_D = compare_neighbors(D) print(A) print() print(comp_arr_A) print() print(B) print() print(comp_arr_B) print() print(C) print() print(comp_arr_C) print() print(D) print() print(comp_arr_D) 

which returns

[[1 1] [1 1]] [[ True True] [ True True]] [[2 2] [2 2]] [[ True True] [ True True]] [[1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1] [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1] [1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1] [1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1] [1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1] [1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1]] [[ True True True True True True True True True] [ True False False False False False False False True] [False False False False False False False False False] [False False False False False False False False False] [False False False False False False False False False] [ True False False False False False False False True]] [[1 1 1] [1 2 1] [1 1 1]] [[ True False True] [False False False] [ True False True]] 

as expected. All I need the function to do is check each element and compare it to its left, right, above, and bellow neighbors. If it is the same as them then the compare_array in that index is True and if it is different than any of its neighbors then False.

Answer 1

You can improve iterating over the array by using np.ndenumerate to get the current coordinates and current item. From the coordinates you can derive the neighbouring elements.
You can also use inverse checking to only set the respective field to False if a neighbor does not match:

from contextlib import suppress def compare_neighbors(arr): comp_arr = np.full(arr.shape, True, dtype=bool) for (x, y), item in np.ndenumerate(arr): # Check left. if x >= 0: if arr[x-1, y] != item: comp_arr[x, y] = False continue # Check right. with suppress(IndexError): if arr[x+1, y] != item: comp_arr[x, y] = False continue # Check top. with suppress(IndexError): if arr[x, y+1] != item: comp_arr[x, y] = False continue # Check bottom. if y >= 0: if arr[x, y-1] != item: comp_arr[x, y] = False continue return comp_arr 

Answer 2

You can also use the np.roll function if you have a bigger array like in a post by doing:

import numpy as np def shift_helper(array, shift=0, axis=0): # Roll the array by n unity along one axis _array = np.roll(_array, shift=shift, axis=axis) # Cancel the last/first slice rolled to the first/last slice if axis == 0: if shift >= 0: _array[:1, :, :] = False else: _array[-1:, :, :] = False return _array elif axis == 1: if shift >= 0: _array[:, :1, :] = False else: _array[:, -1:, :] = False return _array #Uncomment it for 3D array #elif axis == 2: #if shift >= 0: #_array[:, :, :1] = False #else: #_array[:, :, -1:] = False #return _array def compare(array, that_value): bool_array = np.zeros(array.shape, dtype=bool) bool_array[np.where((array == that_value) & (shift_helper(array!=that_value, shift=1, axis=0)#up | shift_helper(array!=that_value, shift=-1, axis=0)#down | shift_helper(array!=that_value, shift=1, axis=1)#left | shift_helper(array!=that_value, shift=-1, axis=1)#right #Uncomment below for 3D array #| shift_helper(array!=that_value, shift=1, axis=2)#front #| shift_helper(array!=that_value, shift=-1, axis=2)#back ))] = True return bool_array # Main C = np.array([[1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1], [1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1], [1,2,2,1,1,1,2,2,1], [1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1], [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1]]) print(compare(C, 1)) print(compare(C, 2)) 

You can choose the value that you want to compare and extend to 3D with this.