Added Tensor.dataToString()

[cowwoc]

Fixes#268

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[cowwoc]

@googlebot I signed it!

[cowwoc]

@rnett Please review.

Apologies in advance. The implementation got hairy once I added maxWidth support. Please refactor this as you see fit to improve readability.

[cowwoc]

The build failure doesn't seem to be related to my changes. Please confirm.

[Craigacp]

The quick build failing in javadoc generation is a known issue we're working on in other PRs.

[rnett]

Looks good, I have a few documentation requests and a request for float formatting. Did you consider adding an Operand.dataToString() default method that calls asTensor().dataToString() (or similar)?

[cowwoc]

Looks good, I have a few documentation requests and a request for float formatting. Did you consider adding an Operand.dataToString() default method that calls asTensor().dataToString() (or similar)?

Yes, I could do that. Are you saying that you would leave the main implementation on Tensor and simply add a convenience method on Operand that redirects to it?

[cowwoc]

FYI, I decided to remove trailing commas after closing brackets. I think it looks better this way and I think that tf.print does the same. In order words:

[
[1, 2],
[3, 4],
[5, 6]
]

Will now show up as:

[
[1, 2]
[3, 4]
[5, 6]
]

[rnett]

Looks good, I have a few documentation requests and a request for float formatting. Did you consider adding an Operand.dataToString() default method that calls asTensor().dataToString() (or similar)?

Yes, I could do that. Are you saying that you would leave the main implementation on Tensor and simply add a convenience method on Operand that redirects to it?

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.

[rnett]

Other than the small comments, I made a PR (cowwoc#1) against your branch with additional data type tests, and (because of said tests) wrapping string elements in quotes. Use the PR if you want, but regardless, both of those would be good to have.

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[cowwoc]

Other than the small comments, I made a PR (cowwoc#1) against your branch with additional data type tests, and (because of said tests) wrapping string elements in quotes. Use the PR if you want, but regardless, both of those would be good to have.

Merged. Thank you.

Let me know if there is anything else. Otherwise, how do we fix the quick-build so I can merge this PR?

[Craigacp]

The test failure will be fixed in #276. The Javadoc failures we're still working on. Once #276 is merged in then I'll rerun the action and check that the tests complete.

[rnett]

@googlebot I consent.

[rnett]

LGTM

[karllessard]

Thanks a lot @cowwoc , I'm not done with the review but I'll wait to see you have to say about my comments so far.

[karllessard]

There is a lot of (undesirable?) format change in this PR, can you please revert those and only preserve changes related to the dataToString feature?

[karllessard]

I'm not sure this method is in the right place. Maybe move it in ToStringOptions? Also you need to describe the returned value in the javadoc or the checks might complain.

[JimClarke5]

I do it similar to this:
Layers.Options.create().inputShape(Shape.of(2,2))
without the ellipsis in the CTORs.

[karllessard]

I don't think the use of a vararg to handle the optional presence of options is a good idea. Having a second method accepting no parameter would be better.

We use vararg options in the op wrappers because we want to limit the number of methods that ending up in the *Ops classes, which is already more than a thousand. But here it's fine "duplicating" it.

[JimClarke5]

I agree with @karllessard

[karllessard]

I'm not sure about having that many ways to print a tensors (if we can call tensor.toString, why having Tensors.toString(tensor)?) It's a bit confusing and I find that that feature maybe spreads out a bit in multiple parts of the code.

I have a new design to propose, let me know what you think. But what about having this toString logic in another called, let say, TensorPrinter, which can be returned or directly invoked in the Tensor class? i.e.

classTensorPrinter {
TensorPrinter(Tensortensor, intmaxWidth) { ... }
TensorPrinterwithMaxWidth(intmaxWidth) {
returnnewTensorPrinter(this.tensor, maxWidth);
}
Stringprint() {
return .... (thislogichere)
}
}
interfaceTensor {
Stringprint() {
returnnewTensorPrinter(this, null).print();
}
TensorPrinterprinter() {
returnnewTensorPrinter(this, null);
}
}
Tensort = TFloat32.scalarOf(10.0f);
t.print();
t.printer().maxWidth(10).anotherOption(234).print();

[cowwoc]

I prefer your proposal. It is exactly what I was hoping to implement in the long term but I ended up pushing what you see above as a stepping stone in the right direction.

Also, consider the relationship (if any) between Ops.print() and this functionality. I may be wrong, but I believe the C++ implementation of tf.print() returns roughly what we're trying to implement in this PR. Does it make sense to have Ops.print() invoke this new code?

[JimClarke5]

Do we want to call it print() and not toString()?

[cowwoc]

If we do that, then I would then expect it to work the same as Ops.print() since the two share the same name. Are we planning to merge the two?

[karllessard]

I think Ops.print() simply writes a given string to an output stream, like the console, when the graph is being executed.

I picked the "print" expression in this example just to show the logic but it can for sure be named otherwise to avoid the confusion. Maybe TensorStringifier, tensor.stringify() and tensor.stringifier()? Or the methods could remain dataToString() as well.

[karllessard]

Since you only accept typed tensors for this method, the endpoint should probably be added to TType instead of Tensor.

[cowwoc]

@karllessard Is there a way for me to handle all tensors (not just TType)? It's okay if not. I'm just asking.

[JimClarke5]

@karllessard How do you create a RawTensor that doesn't inherit from NdArray? Or more precisely how do you create a plain Tensor object that doesn't inherit from NdArray without using one of the org.tensorflow.types classes?

RawTensor rawTensor = RawTensor.allocate(TFloat32.class, Shape.of(2, 2), -1);
Still inherits from NdArray.

[rnett]

You can't user-side, but all of the Tensor.fromHandle methods don't inherit, afaik. And in places where that's used (Session, somewhere in Operand.asTensor()) if a asTypedTensor() is missed somewhere it's nice to not crash when printing. However, afaik, that's covered by the tensor = ((RawTensor) tensor).asTypedTensor(); line, so the method should support all Tensors not just TType.

[JimClarke5]

I have quite a bit of Tensor print helper classes that I use in test/java/org.tensorflow.framework.utils.TestSession, EagerTestSession, and GraphTestSession.

I would like to use this PR in those classes to make sure nothing is missed.
I'll test that and let you know how it goes.

[cowwoc]

@JimClarke5 Any chance you could pick up the torch (apply the changes that Karl asked for) on my behalf? I won't have time to pick this up for another week or two.

[JimClarke5]

@cowwoc OK, one problem I have is I need to work with my latest version of the xxxSession classes that I am using for Models and Layers, I assume you could cherry pick the Tensor related changes.

[cowwoc]

@cowwoc OK, one problem I have is I need to work with my latest version of the xxxSession classes that I am using for Models and Layers, I assume you could cherry pick the Tensor related changes.

@JimClarke5 You should be able to fork my PR, merge in your changes and push a new PR. I will approve it which should merge the changes back into this initial PR.

[JimClarke5]

I understand that, but I need to test with my latest code first.

[JimClarke5]

Will Operand.dataToString() work in Graph mode with out first doing a try catch?

try (Tensor tensor = session.runner().fetch(input).run().get(0)) {
tensor.dataToString()
}

[JimClarke5]

Would we want the printed values enclosed in braces ( {} ) rather than square brackets( []}. Braces make it easier to copy and past into Java code.

[JimClarke5]

I think we should pattern the output after java.util.Arrays.deepToString(), which takes us back to brackets with commas.

float[][][] f = new float[][][] {
{{1,2}, {3,4}},
{{5, 6}, {7, 8}},
{{9, 10}, {11, 12}}
}; System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(f));
// [[[1.0, 2.0], [3.0, 4.0]], [[5.0, 6.0], [7.0, 8.0]], [[9.0, 10.0], [11.0, 12.0]]]

[cowwoc]

Will Operand.dataToString() work in Graph mode with out first doing a try catch?

try (Tensor tensor = session.runner().fetch(input).run().get(0)) {
tensor.dataToString()
}

Per #268 (comment) I was asked to only support eager mode. I suggest discussing this part with @rnett.

I think we should pattern the output after java.util.Arrays.deepToString(), which takes us back to brackets with commas.

float[][][] f = new float[][][] {
{{1,2}, {3,4}},
{{5, 6}, {7, 8}},
{{9, 10}, {11, 12}}
}; System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(f));
// [[[1.0, 2.0], [3.0, 4.0]], [[5.0, 6.0], [7.0, 8.0]], [[9.0, 10.0], [11.0, 12.0]]]

My 2 cents: Make the default output human-friendly (i.e. square brackets as TF.print() and others do) and provide a Builder option that will request Java-style output. I find the indentation I provided above easier to read (for humans) than Java code, but I agree that the latter is useful functionality.

[rnett]

Per #268 (comment) I was asked to only support eager mode. I suggest discussing this part with @rnett.

That's for Operands, Tensors should work fine regardless (which is what was in Jim's example).

My 2 cents: Make the default output human-friendly (i.e. square brackets as TF.print() and others do) and provide a Builder option that will request Java-style output. I find the indentation I provided above easier to read (for humans) than Java code, but I agree that the latter is useful functionality.

I'd agree with this: default to tf.print style but have options. I don't find the default Java style to be very readable for large tensors.

[JimClarke5]

@rnett@cowwoc FYI, in Graph mode, accessing Operand.asTensor() will fail without calling the session fetch first.

[rnett]

@rnett@cowwoc FYI, in Graph mode, accessing Operand.asTensor() will fail without calling the session fetch first.

Yeah, that's why we didn't have dataToString() do anything in Graph mode. It just calls asTensor().dataToString(), so it will do the same thing as asTensor().

[JimClarke5]

@cowwoc Your branch is behind master and that is causing me build issues.

[cowwoc]

@JimClarke5 One sec, I'll merge master into it.

[cowwoc]

@JimClarke5 Try now.

[JimClarke5]

Actually the print code is keying on inheriting from NDArray. It has nothing to do specifically with TType. That is why @karllessard ’s comment is throwing me off.

[karllessard]

@JimClarke5 yeah maybe my comment wasn't clear. I was just pointing out that the dataToString() method could be added in TType instead of Tensor since only typed tensors are supported anyway. The dataToString() version for raw tensors is converting to a typed tensor before printing it, something the user could do directly if needed.

But I'm also fine leaving it there, in Tensor, if that makes things easier or if you think it make more sense.

[ajs1998]

Any updates on this? I am very new to Tensorflow and I have no idea how to visualize simple output. This seems perfect but it's been a year an a half since the last comment.

[karllessard]

@ajs1998 you can print the value of any operand (Operand) using TF debug operations, such as tf.print(tf.strings.stringFormat(tensors...)) for example.

But if you want to print the values of a Tensor object itself without iterating through it, then that is still lacking afaik and should probably be added to the ndarray module instead. Could be an interesting and easy first PR for anyone interested to contribute to the project!

[ajs1998]

@karllessard Excellent! Didn't know I could print an operand like that, thank you.