How to save and load numpy.array() data properly?

The most reliable way I have found to do this is to use np.savetxt with np.loadtxt and not np.fromfile which is better suited to binary files written with tofile. The np.fromfile and np.tofile methods write and read binary files whereas np.savetxt writes a text file. So, for example:

a = np.array([1, 2, 3, 4])
np.savetxt('test1.txt', a, fmt='%d')
b = np.loadtxt('test1.txt', dtype=int)
a == b
# array([ True,  True,  True,  True], dtype=bool)

Or:

a.tofile('test2.dat')
c = np.fromfile('test2.dat', dtype=int)
c == a
# array([ True,  True,  True,  True], dtype=bool)

I use the former method even if it is slower and creates bigger files (sometimes): the binary format can be platform dependent (for example, the file format depends on the endianness of your system).

There is a platform independent format for NumPy arrays, which can be saved and read with np.save and np.load:

np.save('test3.npy', a)    # .npy extension is added if not given
d = np.load('test3.npy')
a == d
# array([ True,  True,  True,  True], dtype=bool)

np.save('data.npy', num_arr) # save
new_num_arr = np.load('data.npy') # load