What does "three dots" in Python mean when indexing what looks like a number?

Question

While the proposed duplicate What does the Python Ellipsis object do? answers the question in a general python context, its use in an nditer loop requires, I think, added information.

https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/arrays.nditer.html#modifying-array-values

Regular assignment in Python simply changes a reference in the local or global variable dictionary instead of modifying an existing variable in place. This means that simply assigning to x will not place the value into the element of the array, but rather switch x from being an array element reference to being a reference to the value you assigned. To actually modify the element of the array, x should be indexed with the ellipsis.

That section includes your code example.

So in my words, the x[...] = ... modifies x in-place; x = ... would have broken the link to the nditer variable, and not changed it. It's like x[:] = ... but works with arrays of any dimension (including 0d). In this context x isn't just a number, it's an array.

Perhaps the closest thing to this nditer iteration, without nditer is:

In [667]: for i, x in np.ndenumerate(a):
     ...:     print(i, x)
     ...:     a[i] = 2 * x
     ...:     
(0, 0) 0
(0, 1) 1
...
(1, 2) 5
In [668]: a
Out[668]: 
array([[ 0,  2,  4],
       [ 6,  8, 10]])

Notice that I had to index and modify a[i] directly. I could not have used, x = 2*x. In this iteration x is a scalar, and thus not mutable

In [669]: for i,x in np.ndenumerate(a):
     ...:     x[...] = 2 * x
  ...
TypeError: 'numpy.int32' object does not support item assignment

But in the nditer case x is a 0d array, and mutable.

In [671]: for x in np.nditer(a, op_flags=['readwrite']):
     ...:     print(x, type(x), x.shape)
     ...:     x[...] = 2 * x
     ...:     
0 <class 'numpy.ndarray'> ()
4 <class 'numpy.ndarray'> ()
...

And because it is 0d, x[:] cannot be used instead of x[...]

----> 3     x[:] = 2 * x
IndexError: too many indices for array

A simpler array iteration might also give insight:

In [675]: for x in a:
     ...:     print(x, x.shape)
     ...:     x[:] = 2 * x
     ...:     
[ 0  8 16] (3,)
[24 32 40] (3,)

this iterates on the rows (1st dim) of a. x is then a 1d array, and can be modified with either x[:]=... or x[...]=....

And if I add the external_loop flag from the next section, x is now a 1d array, and x[:] = would work. But x[...] = still works and is more general. x[...] is used all the other nditer examples.

In [677]: for x in np.nditer(a, op_flags=['readwrite'], flags=['external_loop']):
     ...:     print(x, type(x), x.shape)
     ...:     x[...] = 2 * x
[ 0 16 32 48 64 80] <class 'numpy.ndarray'> (6,)

Compare this simple row iteration (on a 2d array):

In [675]: for x in a:
     ...:     print(x, x.shape)
     ...:     x[:] = 2 * x
     ...:     
[ 0  8 16] (3,)
[24 32 40] (3,)

this iterates on the rows (1st dim) of a. x is then a 1d array, and can be modified with either x[:] = ... or x[...] = ....

Read and experiment with this nditer page all the way through to the end. By itself, nditer is not that useful in python. It does not speed up iteration - not until you port your code to cython.np.ndindex is one of the few non-compiled numpy functions that uses nditer.

The ellipsis ... means as many : as needed.

For people who don't have time, here is a simple example:

In [64]: X = np.reshape(np.arange(9), (3,3))

In [67]: Y = np.reshape(np.arange(2*3*4), (2,3,4))

In [70]: X
Out[70]:
array([[0, 1, 2],
       [3, 4, 5],
       [6, 7, 8]])

In [71]: X[:,0]
Out[71]: array([0, 3, 6])

In [72]: X[...,0]
Out[72]: array([0, 3, 6])

In [73]: Y
Out[73]:
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]]])

In [74]: Y[:,0]
Out[74]:
array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3],
       [12, 13, 14, 15]])

In [75]: Y[...,0]
Out[75]:
array([[ 0,  4,  8],
       [12, 16, 20]])

In [76]: X[0,...,0]
Out[76]: array(0)

In [77]: Y[0,...,0]
Out[77]: array([0, 4, 8])

This makes it easy to manipulate only one dimension at a time.

One thing - You can have only one ellipsis in any given indexing expression, or your expression would be ambiguous about how many : should be put in each.