# Determine whether an element is in an array

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/determine-whether-an-element-is-in-an-array/109659>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** array\
**Created:** [February 3, 2024, 4:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/determine-whether-an-element-is-in-an-array/109659 "2024-02-03T04:44:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jisutich](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jisutich/32/33342_2.png) [@jisutich](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jisutich)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 4:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/determine-whether-an-element-is-in-an-array/109659/1 "2024-02-03T04:44:26Z")

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Hi

I am thinking how to achieve similar thing to numpy’s `where` function in Julia. Suppose I have an array `A` and now I want to determine if there is any element of `A` belong to the regime `[a-1e-12,a+1e-12]`. If yes I want to also get the position. Thanks

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 4:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/determine-whether-an-element-is-in-an-array/109659/2 "2024-02-03T04:55:46Z")

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[`numpy.where`](https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.where.html)

> Return elements chosen from _x_ or _y_ depending on _condition_.

I am unclear if you want get all elements in the array meeting the condition or not. `filter` will do that.

If you just want to know if there is any element of `A` that meets the condition, then `any` is what you want.

If you want to get the position, then you `findfirst` or `findall`.

```julia-repl
julia> A = rand(100);

julia> a = A[50]
0.1703964738775896

julia> filter(x -> a-1e-12 <= x <= a+1e-12, A)
1-element Vector{Float64}:
 0.1703964738775896

julia> any(x -> a-1e-12 <= x <= a+1e-12, A)
true

julia> findfirst(x -> a-1e-12 <= x <= a+1e-12, A) # thanks abraemer
50

```

Also, you want to consider `isapprox` or `≈`.

```julia-repl
julia> findall(≈(A[50]), A)
1-element Vector{Int64}:
 50

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![abraemer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/abraemer/32/51403_2.png) [@abraemer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/abraemer)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 4:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/determine-whether-an-element-is-in-an-array/109659/3 "2024-02-03T04:56:10Z")

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I am not totally sure what the `a` is in your condition but you should be able to use something like `findfirst`. That function takes a function as first argument and an array/iterable as second and gives you the first index such that the function return true for the value in this position. E.g.

```julia
A = rand(100)
findfirst(x -> x>0.9, A)

```

Gives the index of the first element that is larger than 0.9.

There’s also `findall` if you want the locations of all elements fulfilling the condition.

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**Author:** ![bertschi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bertschi/32/33462_2.png) [@bertschi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/bertschi)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 9:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/determine-whether-an-element-is-in-an-array/109659/4 "2024-02-03T09:11:43Z")

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It looks like `numpy.where` is actually two functions, based on whether you use it with three arguments or a single one. From the docs:

> numpy.where(_condition_, [_x_, _y_,]_/_ )
> 
> Return elements chosen from _x_ or _y_ depending on _condition_.
> 
> Note: When only _condition_ is provided, this function is a shorthand for `np.asarray(condition).nonzero()`. …

In Julia the analog to the three argument version would be (broadcasted) `ifelse`, i.e.:

```julia
x = rand(10)
ifelse.(x .> 0.5, 2 .* x, - 0.5) # np.where(x > 0.5, 2 * x, - 0.5)

```

The one-argument version behaves like `findall` as explained already.

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**Author:** ![Benny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Benny](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Benny)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 5:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/determine-whether-an-element-is-in-an-array/109659/5 "2024-02-03T17:23:11Z")

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Your description actually covers multiple NumPy functions. Given scalar `a` and array `A`:

1. you would do 2 elementwise comparisons `b = (a-1e-12) <= A <= (a+1e-12)` (if `A` is not a NumPy array, you would need `numpy.less_equal` for automatic array conversion). The Julia equivalent is to broadcast the 2 scalar comparisons: `b = (a-1e-12) .<= A .<= (a+1e-12)`.
2. To find if any of the comparisons computed `true`, you do `numpy.any(b)` to reduce logical-or over all the elements. Julia equivalent is `any(b)`, though it instead stops on the first `true`. (If you want to replicate `numpy.any` along dimensions specified in the `axis` argument, I think you’ll need to use `mapslices(any, ...)` or `any.(eachslice(...))`, I haven’t tested examples).
3. To get the indices where comparisons computed `true`, you use the 1-argument `numpy.where(b)`. The Julia equivalent is the 1-argument `findall(b)`.

The 2-argument `findall` is for lazily testing elements of an array that isn’t necessarily containing `Bool`; this saves an allocation of a `Bool` container. The 3-argument `numpy.where` does something much different from the 1-argument version, and bertschi provided the right equivalent: broadcasted `ifelse`. The advantage of Julia’s broadcasting is that when you have a tree of dotted function calls like bertschi’s example, they fuse into one kernel function that is broadcasted once over the input containers, no intermediate allocating broadcasts. Compare that with NumPy where you need to allocate `x > 0.5` then `2*x` before input to `numpy.where`. You can check `Meta.@lower <insert broadcasting code here>` to see this fusion; there should be a series of `broadcasted` calls setting up the tree followed by only 1 `materialize` call performing the broadcast loop.

Bear in mind that NumPy’s automatic conversion of array-like inputs to NumPy arrays prior to the primary computation means there’s no full Julia equivalent because Julia instead is implemented to work on many input types and return appropriate output types. If you need to stick to a particular type like `Array`, then you have to be more careful about your input types, possibly even manually convert them; Julia’s `collect` would be the equivalent of NumPy’s `numpy.array`. I can’t recommend an equivalent function to `numpy.asarray` that avoids a copy when no conversion is needed for an input NumPy array; `convert(Array, x)` does not work on as many input types as `collect` does, so I’d probably go with `if x isa Array x else collect(x) end`.