NumPy linspace() function

In this tutorial, we will cover numpy.linspace() function of the Numpy library.

This function is used to return evenly spaced numbers over a specified interval.

• This function is similar to Numpy arange() function with the only difference being, instead of step size, the number of evenly spaced values between the interval is specified using the num argument.

• With the help of this function, the step size is calculated implicitly.

• In this function, the endpoint of the interval can optionally be excluded.

• In the newest versions of NumPy, the non-scalar values of start and stop parameters(used to define the interval) are supported by this function.

Syntax of numpy.linspace():

The required syntax to use this function is as follows:

numpy.linspace(start, stop, num, endpoint, retstep, dtype)   

Parameters:

The parameters of the above-mentioned function are as follows:

• start
  This parameter is used to represents the starting value of the interval.

• stop
  This parameter is used to represents the stopping value of the interval.

• num
  This parameter indicates the amount of evenly spaced samples over the interval to be generated. The default value of this parameter is 50.

• endpoint
  This parameter's true value is used to indicate that the stopping value is included in the interval.

• retstep
  The value of this parameter is a boolean value and it is used to represent the steps and samples between the consecutive numbers.

• dtype
  This parameter is used to represent the data type of the array items.

Returned Values:

This function will return the array within the range specified.

This function will return the value of step in the case if retstep parameter is True which usually indicates the size of the spacing between the samples.

Now it's time to take a look at the examples using this function.

Example 1:

Below we have the code snippet explaining how to use this function:

import numpy as np  

a = np.linspace(20, 40, 8, endpoint = True)  
print("The array over the given range is ")
print(a) 

The array over the given range is
[20. 22.85714286 25.71428571 28.57142857 31.42857143 34.28571429
37.14285714 40. ]

Example 2:

Below we have the code snippet for the graphical illustration of this function, using Matplotlib library:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

N = 10
y = np.zeros(N)
x1 = np.linspace(0, 20, N, endpoint=True)
x2 = np.linspace(0, 20, N, endpoint=False)
plt.plot(x1, y, '*')
plt.plot(x2, y + 0.8, 'o')
plt.show()

Summary

In this tutorial, we covered the numpy.linspace() function of the Numpy library. We covered its syntax, parameters as well as the value returned by this function along with multiple code examples.