Sort N-D numpy array by column with a smaller N-D array

Question

I understand that through Sort N-D numpy array by another 1-D array the use of fancy indexing, I can do the following c = a[:, :, b] with b defining the order to which I want to sort by column

>>> a = np.array([[[ 0,  1], [ 2,  3]],
                  [[ 4,  5], [ 6,  7]],
                  [[ 8,  9], [10, 11]]])
>>> b = np.array([1, 0])
>>> c = a[:, :, b]
>>> c
array([[[ 1,  0],
        [ 3,  2]],

       [[ 5,  4],
        [ 7,  6]],

       [[ 9,  8],
        [11, 10]]])

Now I increase b with 2 more inputs to b2 corresponding to how I want to sort each set of 2x2 in a

>>> b2 = np.array([[1, 0], [0, 1], [1, 0]])
>>> c2 = ?
>>> c2
array([[[ 1,  0],
        [ 3,  2]],

       [[ 4,  5],
        [ 6,  7]],

       [[ 9,  8],
        [11, 10]]])

I have a larger set of inputs and I have a function that returns an array similar to 'b2' which provides me the info to which I should obtain. Hence may I know what should I filling into the c2 = ? in order to get the desired result?

Answer 1

Here's one approach with fancy-indexing -

(a[np.arange(a.shape[0])[:,None],:,b2]).transpose(0,2,1)

Sample run -

In [191]: a
Out[191]: 
array([[[7, 8, 5, 2, 0],
        [6, 7, 0, 7, 1],
        [7, 6, 5, 4, 0]],

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

       [[3, 2, 7, 3, 7],
        [4, 3, 0, 1, 5],
        [4, 3, 7, 8, 7]]])

In [192]: b2
Out[192]: 
array([[1, 2, 4, 3, 0],
       [4, 2, 0, 1, 3],
       [1, 3, 4, 0, 2]])

In [193]: (a[np.arange(a.shape[0])[:,None],:,b2]).transpose(0,2,1)
Out[193]: 
array([[[8, 5, 0, 2, 7],
        [7, 0, 1, 7, 6],
        [6, 5, 0, 4, 7]],

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

       [[2, 3, 7, 3, 7],
        [3, 1, 5, 4, 0],
        [3, 8, 7, 4, 7]]])