fast-histogram 0.2

Fast simple 1D and 2D histograms

|Build Status|

About
-----

Sometimes you just want to compute simple 1D or 2D histograms. Fast. No
nonsense. `Numpy's <http://www.numpy.org>`__ histogram functions are
versatile, and can handle for example non-regular binning, but this
versatility comes at the expense of performance.

The **fast-histogram** mini-package aims to provide simple and fast
histogram functions that don't compromise on performance. It doesn't do
anything complicated - it just implements a simple histogram algorithm
in C and keeps it simple. The aim is to have functions that are fast but
also robust and reliable.

To install:

::

pip install fast-histogram

The ``fast_histogram`` module then provides two functions:
``histogram1d`` and ``histogram2d``:

.. code:: python

from fast_histogram import histogram1d, histogram2d

Example
-------

Here's an example of binning 10 million points into a regular 2D
histogram:

.. code:: python

In [1]: import numpy as np

In [2]: x = np.random.random(10_000_000)

In [3]: y = np.random.random(10_000_000)

In [4]: %timeit _ = np.histogram2d(x, y, range=[[-1, 2], [-2, 4]], bins=30)
935 ms ± 58.4 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)

In [5]: from fast_histogram import histogram2d

In [6]: %timeit _ = histogram2d(x, y, range=[[-1, 2], [-2, 4]], bins=30)
40.2 ms ± 624 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10 loops each)

The version here is over 20 times faster! The following plot shows the
speedup as a function of array size for the bin parameters shown above:

.. figure:: https://github.com/astrofrog/fast-histogram/raw/master/speedup_compared.png
:alt: Comparison of performance between Numpy and fast-histogram

as well as results for the 1D case, also with 30 bins. The speedup for
the 2D case is consistently between 20-25x, and for the 1D case goes
from 15x for small arrays to around 7x for large arrays.

Q&A
---

Doesn't package X already do this, but better?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This may very well be the case! If this duplicates another package, or
if it is possible to use Numpy in a smarter way to get the same
performance gains, please open an issue and I'll consider deprecating
this package :)

Are the 2D histograms not transposed compared to what they should be?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is technically no 'right' and 'wrong' orientation - here we adopt
the convention which gives results consistent with Numpy, so:

.. code:: python

numpy.histogram2d(x, y, range=[[xmin, xmax], [ymin, ymax]], bins=[nx, ny])

should give the same result as:

.. code:: python

fast_histogram.histogram2d(x, y, range=[[xmin, xmax], [ymin, ymax]], bins=[nx, ny])

Why not use Cython?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I originally implemented this in Cython, but found that I could get a
50% performance improvement by going straight to a C extension.

What about using Numba?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I specifically want to keep this package as easy as possible to install,
and while `Numba <https://numba.pydata.org>`__ is a great package, it is
not trivial to install outside of Anaconda.

Could this be parallelized?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This may benefit from parallelization under certain circumstances. The
easiest solution might be to use OpenMP, but this won't work on all
platforms, so it would need to be made optional.

Couldn't you make it faster by using the GPU?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost certainly, though the aim here is to have an easily installable
and portable package, and introducing GPUs is going to affect both of
these.

Why make a package specifically for this? This is a tiny amount of functionality
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Packages that need this could simply bundle their own C extension or
Cython code to do this, but the main motivation for releasing this as a
mini-package is to avoid making pure-Python packages into packages that
require compilation just because of the need to compute fast histograms.

Can I contribute?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes please! This is not meant to be a finished package, and I welcome
pull request to improve things.

.. |Build Status| image:: https://travis-ci.org/astrofrog/fast-histogram.svg?branch=master
:target: https://travis-ci.org/astrofrog/fast-histogram