[python] flatten vs ravel

import numpy as np
y = np.array(((1,2,3),(4,5,6),(7,8,9)))
OUTPUT:
print(y.flatten())
[1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9]
print(y.ravel())
[1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9]



As explained here a key difference is that flatten is a method of an ndarray object and hence can only be called for true numpy arrays. In contrast ravel() is a library-level function and hence can be called on any object that can successfully be parsed. For example ravel() will work on a list of ndarrays, while flatten is not available for that type of object.