distance

# quote from 'introduction to computation and programming     
# using Python, revised, MIT press 
import pylab

def minkowskiDist(v1, v2, p):
    """Assumes v1 and v2 are equal-length arrays of numbers
       Returns Minkowski distance of order p between v1 and v2"""
    dist = 0.0
    for i in range(len(v1)):
        dist += abs(v1[i] - v2[i])**p
    return dist**(1.0/p)
    
class Animal(object):
    def __init__(self, name, features):
        """Assumes name a string; features a list of numbers"""
        self.name = name
        self.features = pylab.array(features)
        
    def getName(self):
        return self.name
        
    def getFeatures(self):
        return self.features
        
    def distance(self, other):
        """Assumes other an animal
           Returns the Euclidean distance between feature vectors
                of self and other"""
        return minkowskiDist(self.getFeatures(),
                              other.getFeatures(), 2)
                              
def compareAnimals(animals, precision):
    """Assumes animals is a list of animals, precision an int >= 0
       Builds a table of Euclidean distance between each animal"""
    #Get labels for columns and rows
    columnLabels = []
    for a in animals:
        columnLabels.append(a.getName())
    rowLabels = columnLabels[:]
    tableVals = []
    #Get distances between pairs of animals
    #For each row
    for a1 in animals:
        row = []
        #For each column
        for a2 in animals:
            if a1 == a2:
                row.append('--')
            else:
                distance = a1.distance(a2)
                row.append(str(round(distance, precision)))
        tableVals.append(row)
    #Produce table
    table = pylab.table(rowLabels = rowLabels,
                        colLabels = columnLabels,
                        cellText = tableVals,
                        cellLoc = 'center',
                        loc = 'center',
                        colWidths = [0.2]*len(animals))
    table.scale(1, 2.5)
    pylab.axis('off') #Don't display x and y-axes
    pylab.savefig('distances')

rattlesnake = Animal('rattlesnake', [1,1,1,1,0])
boa = Animal('boa\nconstrictor', [0,1,0,1,0])
dartFrog = Animal('dart frog', [1,0,1,0,5])
alligator = Animal('alligator', [1,1,0,1,4])
animals = [rattlesnake, boa, dartFrog, alligator]
compareAnimals(animals, 3)