relax object encoding accepted inputs

Author: alimanfoo

numcodecs/msgpacks.py

@@ -6,13 +6,11 @@
 
 
 from numcodecs.abc import Codec
-from numcodecs.compat import ndarray_from_buffer, buffer_copy
 import msgpack
 
 
 class MsgPack(Codec):
-    """Codec to encode data as msgpacked bytes. Useful for encoding python
-    strings
+    """Codec to encode data as msgpacked bytes. Useful for encoding an array of Python strings
 
     Raises
     ------
@@ -27,14 +25,16 @@ class MsgPack(Codec):
     >>> f.decode(f.encode(x))
     array(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'], dtype=object)
 
+    See Also
+    --------
+    :class:`numcodecs.pickles.Pickle`
+
     """  # flake8: noqa
 
     codec_id = 'msgpack'
 
     def encode(self, buf):
-        if hasattr(buf, 'dtype') and buf.dtype != 'object':
-            raise ValueError("cannot encode non-object ndarrays, %s "
-                             "dtype was passed" % buf.dtype)
+        buf = np.asarray(buf, dtype='object')
         return msgpack.packb(buf.tolist(), encoding='utf-8')
 
     def decode(self, buf, out=None):

numcodecs/pickles.py

@@ -14,17 +14,16 @@
 
 
 class Pickle(Codec):
-    """Codec to encode data as as pickled bytes. Useful for encoding python
-    strings.
+    """Codec to encode data as as pickled bytes. Useful for encoding an array of Python strings.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     protocol : int, defaults to pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL
-        the protocol used to pickle data
+        The protocol used to pickle data.
 
     Raises
     ------
-    encoding a non-object dtyped ndarray will raise ValueError
+    Encoding a non-object dtyped ndarray will raise ValueError.
 
     Examples
     --------
@@ -35,6 +34,10 @@ class Pickle(Codec):
     >>> f.decode(f.encode(x))
     array(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'], dtype=object)
 
+    See Also
+    --------
+    :class:`numcodecs.msgpacks.MsgPack`
+
     """  # flake8: noqa
 
     codec_id = 'pickle'
@@ -43,9 +46,7 @@ def __init__(self, protocol=pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL):
         self.protocol = protocol
 
     def encode(self, buf):
-        if hasattr(buf, 'dtype') and buf.dtype != 'object':
-            raise ValueError("cannot encode non-object ndarrays, %s "
-                             "dtype was passed" % buf.dtype)
+        buf = np.asarray(buf, dtype='object')
         return pickle.dumps(buf, protocol=self.protocol)
 
     def decode(self, buf, out=None):

numcodecs/tests/common.py

@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def compare(res, arr=arr):
     dec = codec.decode(enc)
     compare(dec)
 
-    out = np.empty_like(arr)
+    out = np.empty_like(arr, dtype='object')
     codec.decode(enc, out=out)
     compare(out)
 

numcodecs/tests/test_msgpacks.py

@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import nose
-from numpy.testing import assert_raises
 
 try:
     from numcodecs.msgpacks import MsgPack
@@ -21,22 +20,11 @@
     np.array(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'] * 300, dtype=object),
     np.array([['foo', 'bar', np.nan]] * 300, dtype=object),
     np.array(['foo', 1.0, 2] * 300, dtype=object),
-]
-
-
-# non-object ndarrays
-arrays_incompat = [
     np.arange(1000, dtype='i4'),
     np.array(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'] * 300),
 ]
 
 
-def test_encode_errors():
-    for arr in arrays_incompat:
-        codec = MsgPack()
-        assert_raises(ValueError, codec.encode, arr)
-
-
 def test_encode_decode():
     for arr in arrays:
         codec = MsgPack()

numcodecs/tests/test_pickle.py renamed to numcodecs/tests/test_pickles.py

@@ -3,12 +3,10 @@
 
 
 import numpy as np
-from numpy.testing import assert_raises
 
 
 from numcodecs.pickles import Pickle
-from numcodecs.tests.common import (check_config, check_repr,
-                                    check_encode_decode_objects)
+from numcodecs.tests.common import check_config, check_repr, check_encode_decode_objects
 
 
 # object array with strings
@@ -18,24 +16,14 @@
     np.array(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'] * 300, dtype=object),
     np.array([['foo', 'bar', np.nan]] * 300, dtype=object),
     np.array(['foo', 1.0, 2] * 300, dtype=object),
-]
-
-# non-object ndarrays
-arrays_incompat = [
     np.arange(1000, dtype='i4'),
     np.array(['foo', 'bar', 'baz'] * 300),
 ]
 
 
-def test_encode_errors():
-    for arr in arrays_incompat:
-        codec = Pickle()
-        assert_raises(ValueError, codec.encode, arr)
-
-
 def test_encode_decode():
+    codec = Pickle()
     for arr in arrays:
-        codec = Pickle()
         check_encode_decode_objects(arr, codec)