How to Create a Sparse Matrix in Python

Last Updated : 18 Aug, 2020

If most of the elements of the matrix have 0 value, then it is called a sparse matrix. The two major benefits of using sparse matrix instead of a simple matrix are:

Storage: There are lesser non-zero elements than zeros and thus lesser memory can be used to store only those elements.
Computing time: Computing time can be saved by logically designing a data structure traversing only non-zero elements.

Sparse matrices are generally utilized in applied machine learning such as in data containing data-encodings that map categories to count and also in entire subfields of machine learning such as natural language processing (NLP).

Example:

0 0 3 0 4              0 0 5 7 0  0 0 0 0 0  0 2 6 0 0

Representing a sparse matrix by a 2D array leads to wastage of lots of memory as zeroes in the matrix are of no use in most of the cases. So, instead of storing zeroes with non-zero elements, we only store non-zero elements. This means storing non-zero elements with triples- (Row, Column, value).

Create a Sparse Matrix in Python

Python’s SciPy gives tools for creating sparse matrices using multiple data structures, as well as tools for converting a dense matrix to a sparse matrix. The function csr_matrix() is used to create a sparse matrix of compressed sparse row format whereas csc_matrix() is used to create a sparse matrix of compressed sparse column format.

# Using csr_matrix()

Syntax:

scipy.sparse.csr_matrix(shape=None, dtype=None)

Parameters:

shape: Get shape of a matrix

dtype: Data type of the matrix

Example 1:

Python

   # Python program to create 
# sparse matrix using csr_matrix() 
  
# Import required package 
import numpy as np 
from scipy.sparse import csr_matrix 
  
# Creating a 3 * 4 sparse matrix 
sparseMatrix = csr_matrix((3, 4),  
                          dtype = np.int8).toarray() 
  
# Print the sparse matrix 
print(sparseMatrix)
 
  

Output:

[[0 0 0 0]   [0 0 0 0]   [0 0 0 0]]

Example 2:

Python

   # Python program to create 
# sparse matrix using csr_matrix() 
  
# Import required package 
import numpy as np 
from scipy.sparse import csr_matrix 
  
row = np.array([0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 1]) 
col = np.array([0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 2]) 
  
# taking data 
data = np.array([1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 6]) 
  
# creating sparse matrix 
sparseMatrix = csr_matrix((data, (row, col)),  
                          shape = (3, 3)).toarray() 
  
# print the sparse matrix 
print(sparseMatrix)
 
  

Output:

[[ 1  4  0]   [ 8  0 11]   [ 0  0  9]]

# Using csc_matrix()

Syntax:

scipy.sparse.csc_matrix(shape=None, dtype=None)

Parameters:

shape: Get shape of a matrix

dtype: Data type of the matrix

Example 1:

Python

   # Python program to create 
# sparse matrix using csc_matrix() 
  
# Import required package 
import numpy as np 
from scipy.sparse import csc_matrix 
  
# Creating a 3 * 4 sparse matrix 
sparseMatrix = csc_matrix((3, 4),  
                          dtype = np.int8).toarray() 
  
# Print the sparse matrix 
print(sparseMatrix)
 
  

Output:

[[0 0 0 0]   [0 0 0 0]   [0 0 0 0]]

Example 2:

Python

   # Python program to create 
# sparse matrix using csc_matrix() 
  
# Import required package 
import numpy as np 
from scipy.sparse import csc_matrix 
  
row = np.array([0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 1]) 
col = np.array([0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 2]) 
  
# taking data 
data = np.array([1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 6]) 
  
# creating sparse matrix 
sparseMatrix = csc_matrix((data, (row, col)), 
                          shape = (3, 3)).toarray() 
  
# print the sparse matrix 
print(sparseMatrix)
 
  

Output:

[[ 1  4  0]   [ 8  0 11]   [ 0  0  9]]

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How to Create a Sparse Matrix in Python

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# Using csr_matrix()

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# Using csc_matrix()

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