How can I check if one two-dimensional NumPy array contains a specific pattern of values inside it?

Approach #1

This approach derives from a solution to Implement Matlab's im2col 'sliding' in python that was designed to rearrange sliding blocks from a 2D array into columns. Thus, to solve our case here, those sliding blocks from field_array could be stacked as columns and compared against column vector version of match_array.

Here’s a formal definition of the function for the rearrangement/stacking –

def im2col(A,BLKSZ):   

    # Parameters
    M,N = A.shape
    col_extent = N - BLKSZ[1] + 1
    row_extent = M - BLKSZ[0] + 1

    # Get Starting block indices
    start_idx = np.arange(BLKSZ[0])[:,None]*N + np.arange(BLKSZ[1])

    # Get offsetted indices across the height and width of input array
    offset_idx = np.arange(row_extent)[:,None]*N + np.arange(col_extent)

    # Get all actual indices & index into input array for final output
    return np.take (A,start_idx.ravel()[:,None] + offset_idx.ravel())

To solve our case, here’s the implementation based on im2col

# Get sliding blocks of shape same as match_array from field_array into columns
# Then, compare them with a column vector version of match array.
col_match = im2col(field_array,match_array.shape) == match_array.ravel()[:,None]

# Shape of output array that has field_array compared against a sliding match_array
out_shape = np.asarray(field_array.shape) - np.asarray(match_array.shape) + 1

# Now, see if all elements in a column are ONES and reshape to out_shape. 
# Finally, find the position of TRUE indices
R,C = np.where(col_match.all(0).reshape(out_shape))

The output for the given sample in the question would be –

In [151]: R,C
Out[151]: (array([6]), array([3]))

Approach #2

Given that opencv already has template matching function that does square of differences, you can employ that and look for zero differences, which would be your matching positions. So, if you have access to cv2 (opencv module), the implementation would look something like this –

import cv2
from cv2 import matchTemplate as cv2m

M = cv2m(field_array.astype('uint8'),match_array.astype('uint8'),cv2.TM_SQDIFF)
R,C = np.where(M==0)

giving us –

In [204]: R,C
Out[204]: (array([6]), array([3]))

Benchmarking

This section compares runtimes for all the approaches suggested to solve the question. The credit for the various methods listed in this section goes to their contributors.

Method definitions –

def seek_array(search_in, search_for, return_coords = False):
    si_x, si_y = search_in.shape
    sf_x, sf_y = search_for.shape
    for y in xrange(si_y-sf_y+1):
        for x in xrange(si_x-sf_x+1):
            if numpy.array_equal(search_for, search_in[x:x+sf_x, y:y+sf_y]):
                return (x,y) if return_coords else True
    return None if return_coords else False

def skimage_based(field_array,match_array):
    windows = view_as_windows(field_array, match_array.shape)
    return (windows == match_array).all(axis=(2,3)).nonzero()

def im2col_based(field_array,match_array):   
    col_match = im2col(field_array,match_array.shape)==match_array.ravel()[:,None]
    out_shape = np.asarray(field_array.shape) - np.asarray(match_array.shape) + 1  
    return np.where(col_match.all(0).reshape(out_shape))

def cv2_based(field_array,match_array):
    M = cv2m(field_array.astype('uint8'),match_array.astype('uint8'),cv2.TM_SQDIFF)
    return np.where(M==0)

Runtime tests –

Case # 1 (Sample data from question):

In [11]: field_array
Out[11]: 
array([[ 24,  25,  26,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31,  23],
       [ 33,  34,  35,  36,  37,  38,  39,  40,  32],
       [-39, -38, -37, -36, -35, -34, -33, -32, -40],
       [-30, -29, -28, -27, -26, -25, -24, -23, -31],
       [-21, -20, -19, -18, -17, -16, -15, -14, -22],
       [-12, -11, -10,  -9,  -8,  -7,  -6,  -5, -13],
       [ -3,  -2,  -1,   0,   1,   2,   3,   4,  -4],
       [  6,   7,   8,   4,   5,   6,   7,  13,   5],
       [ 15,  16,  17,   8,   9,  10,  11,  22,  14]])

In [12]: match_array
Out[12]: 
array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3],
       [ 4,  5,  6,  7],
       [ 8,  9, 10, 11]])

In [13]: %timeit seek_array(field_array, match_array, return_coords = False)
1000 loops, best of 3: 465 µs per loop

In [14]: %timeit skimage_based(field_array,match_array)
10000 loops, best of 3: 97.9 µs per loop

In [15]: %timeit im2col_based(field_array,match_array)
10000 loops, best of 3: 74.3 µs per loop

In [16]: %timeit cv2_based(field_array,match_array)
10000 loops, best of 3: 30 µs per loop

Case #2 (Bigger random data):

In [17]: field_array = np.random.randint(0,4,(256,256))

In [18]: match_array = field_array[100:116,100:116].copy()

In [19]: %timeit seek_array(field_array, match_array, return_coords = False)
1 loops, best of 3: 400 ms per loop

In [20]: %timeit skimage_based(field_array,match_array)
10 loops, best of 3: 54.3 ms per loop

In [21]: %timeit im2col_based(field_array,match_array)
10 loops, best of 3: 125 ms per loop

In [22]: %timeit cv2_based(field_array,match_array)
100 loops, best of 3: 4.08 ms per loop

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