Create 3D array using Python
arrays, multidimensional-array, python, python-2.7
Solution
You should use a list comprehension:
>>> import pprint
>>> n = 3
>>> distance = [[[0 for k in xrange(n)] for j in xrange(n)] for i in xrange(n)]
>>> pprint.pprint(distance)
[[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]],
[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]],
[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]]
>>> distance[0][1]
[0, 0, 0]
>>> distance[0][1][2]
0
You could have produced a data structure with a statement that looked like the one you tried, but it would have had side effects since the inner lists are copy-by-reference:
>>> distance=[[[0]*n]*n]*n
>>> pprint.pprint(distance)
[[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]],
[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]],
[[0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0], [0, 0, 0]]]
>>> distance[0][0][0] = 1
>>> pprint.pprint(distance)
[[[1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0]],
[[1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0]],
[[1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0]]]
Problem
I would like to create a 3D array in Python (2.7) to use like this: ``` distance[i][j][k] ``` And the sizes of the array should be the size of a variable I have. (nnn) I tried using: ``` distance = [[[]*n]*n] ``` but that didn't seem to work. I can only use the default libraries, and the method of multiplying (i.e.,`[[0]*n]*n`) wont work because they are linked to the same pointer and I need all of the values to be individual