# Creating Derived Fields¶

One of the more powerful means of extending yt is through the usage of derived fields. These are fields that describe a value at each cell in a simulation.

## Defining a New Field¶

Once a new field has been conceived of, the best way to create it is to construct a function that performs an array operation – operating on a collection of data, neutral to its size, shape, and type.

A simple example of this is the pressure field, which demonstrates the ease of this approach.

import yt

def _pressure(field, data):
return (data.ds.gamma - 1.0) * \
data["density"] * data["thermal_energy"]


Note that we do a couple different things here. We access the gamma parameter from the dataset, we access the density field and we access the thermal_energy field. thermal_energy is, in fact, another derived field! We don’t do any loops, we don’t do any type-checking, we can simply multiply the three items together.

In this example, the density field will return data with units of g/cm**3 and the thermal_energy field will return data units of erg/g, so the result will automatically have units of pressure, erg/cm**3. This assumes the unit system is set to the default, which is CGS: if a different unit system is selected, the result will be in the same dimensions of pressure but different units. See Unit Systems for more information.

Once we’ve defined our function, we need to notify yt that the field is available. The add_field() function is the means of doing this; it has a number of fairly specific parameters that can be passed in, but here we’ll only look at the most basic ones needed for a simple scalar baryon field.

Note

There are two different add_field() functions. For the differences, see What is the difference between yt.add_field() and ds.add_field()?.

yt.add_field(("gas", "pressure"), function=_pressure, units="dyne/cm**2")


We feed it the name of the field, the name of the function, and the units. Note that the units parameter is a “raw” string, in the format that yt uses in its symbolic units implementation (e.g., employing only unit names, numbers, and mathematical operators in the string, and using "**" for exponentiation). For cosmological datasets and fields, see Units for Cosmological Datasets. We suggest that you name the function that creates a derived field with the intended field name prefixed by a single underscore, as in the _pressure example above.

Field definitions return array data with units. If the field function returns data in a dimensionally equivalent unit (e.g. a "dyne" versus a "N"), the field data will be converted to the units specified in add_field before being returned in a data object selection. If the field function returns data with dimensions that are incompatible with units specified in add_field, you will see an error. To clear this error, you must ensure that your field function returns data in the correct units. Often, this means applying units to a dimensionless float or array.

If your field definition includes physical constants rather than defining a constant as a float, you can import it from yt.units to get a predefined version of the constant with the correct units. If you know the units your data is supposed to have ahead of time, you can also import unit symbols like g or cm from the yt.units namespace and multiply the return value of your field function by the appropriate combination of unit symbols for your field’s units. You can also convert floats or NumPy arrays into YTArray or YTQuantity instances by making use of the arr() and quan() convenience functions.

Lastly, if you do not know the units of your field ahead of time, you can specify units='auto' in the call to add_field for your field. This will automatically determine the appropriate units based on the units of the data returned by the field function. This is also a good way to let your derived fields be automatically converted to the units of the unit system in your dataset.

If units='auto' is set, it is also required to set the dimensions keyword argument so that error-checking can be done on the derived field to make sure that the dimensionality of the returned array and the field are the same:

import yt
from yt.units import dimensions

def _pressure(field, data):
return (data.ds.gamma - 1.0) * \
data["density"] * data["thermal_energy"]

dimensions=dimensions.pressure)


If dimensions is not set, an error will be thrown. The dimensions keyword can be a SymPy symbol object imported from yt.units.dimensions, a compound dimension of these, or a string corresponding to one of these objects.

add_field() can be invoked in two other ways. The first is by the function decorator derived_field(). The following code is equivalent to the previous example:

from yt import derived_field

@derived_field(name="pressure", units="dyne/cm**2")
def _pressure(field, data):
return (data.ds.gamma - 1.0) * \
data["density"] * data["thermal_energy"]


The derived_field() decorator takes the same arguments as add_field(), and is often a more convenient shorthand in cases where you want to quickly set up a new field.

Defining derived fields in the above fashion must be done before a dataset is loaded, in order for the dataset to recognize it. If you want to set up a derived field after you have loaded a dataset, or if you only want to set up a derived field for a particular dataset, there is an add_field() method that hangs off dataset objects. The calling syntax is the same:

ds = yt.load("GasSloshing/sloshing_nomag2_hdf5_plt_cnt_0100")


If you specify fields in this way, you can take advantage of the dataset’s unit system to define the units for you, so that the units will be returned in the units of that system:

ds.add_field(("gas", "pressure"), function=_pressure, units=ds.unit_system["pressure"])


Since the yt.units.unit_systems.UnitSystem object returns a yt.units.unit_object.Unit object when queried, you’re not limited to specifying units in terms of those already available. You can specify units for fields using basic arithmetic if necessary:

ds.add_field(("gas", "my_acceleration"), function=_my_acceleration,
units=ds.unit_system["length"]/ds.unit_system["time"]**2)


If you find yourself using the same custom-defined fields over and over, you should put them in your plugins file as described in The Plugin File.

## A More Complicated Example¶

But what if we want to do something a bit more fancy? Here’s an example of getting parameters from the data object and using those to define the field; specifically, here we obtain the center and bulk_velocity parameters and use those to define a field for radial velocity (there is already a radial_velocity field in yt, but we create this one here just as a transparent and simple example).

from yt.fields.api import ValidateParameter
import numpy as np

if data.has_field_parameter("bulk_velocity"):
bv = data.get_field_parameter("bulk_velocity").in_units("cm/s")
else:
bv = data.ds.arr(np.zeros(3), "cm/s")
xv = data["gas","velocity_x"] - bv[0]
yv = data["gas","velocity_y"] - bv[1]
zv = data["gas","velocity_z"] - bv[2]
center = data.get_field_parameter('center')
x_hat = data["x"] - center[0]
y_hat = data["y"] - center[1]
z_hat = data["z"] - center[2]
r = np.sqrt(x_hat*x_hat+y_hat*y_hat+z_hat*z_hat)
x_hat /= r
y_hat /= r
z_hat /= r
return xv*x_hat + yv*y_hat + zv*z_hat
units="cm/s",
take_log=False,
validators=[ValidateParameter(['center', 'bulk_velocity'])])


Note that we have added a few optional arguments to yt.add_field; we specify that we do not wish to display this field as logged, that we require both the bulk_velocity and center field parameters to be present in a given data object we wish to calculate this for, and we say that it should not be displayed in a drop-down box of fields to display. This is done through the parameter validators, which accepts a list of FieldValidator objects. These objects define the way in which the field is generated, and when it is able to be created. In this case, we mandate that parameters center and bulk_velocity are set before creating the field. These are set via set_field_parameter(), which can be called on any object that has fields:

ds = yt.load("GasSloshing/sloshing_nomag2_hdf5_plt_cnt_0100")
sp = ds.sphere("max", (200.,"kpc"))
sp.set_field_parameter("bulk_velocity", yt.YTArray([-100.,200.,300.], "km/s"))


In this case, we already know what the center of the sphere is, so we do not set it. Also, note that center and bulk_velocity need to be YTArray objects with units.

If you are writing a derived field that uses a field parameter that changes the behavior of the field depending on the value of the field parameter, you can make yt test to make sure the field handles all possible values for the field parameter using a special form of the ValidateParameter field validator. In particular, ValidateParameter supports an optional second argument, which takes a dictionary mapping from parameter names to parameter values that you would like yt to test. This is useful when a field will select different fields to access based on the value of a field parameter. This option allows you to force yt to select all needed dependent fields for your derived field definition at field detection time. This can avoid errors related to missing fields.

For example, let’s write a field that depends on a field parameter named 'axis':

def my_axis_field(field, data):
axis = data.get_field_parameter('axis')
if axis == 0:
return data['x-velocity']
elif axis == 1:
return data['y-velocity']
elif axis == 2:
return data['z-velocity']
else:
raise ValueError

validators=[ValidateParameter("axis", {"axis": [0, 1, 2]})])


In this example, we’ve told yt’s field system that the data object we are querying my_axis_field must have the axis field parameter set. In addition, it forces yt to recognize that this field might depend on any one of x-velocity, y-velocity, or z-velocity. By specifying that axis might be 0, 1, or 2 in the ValidataParameter call, this ensures that this field will only be valid and available for datasets that have all three fields available.

Other examples for creating derived fields can be found in the cookbook recipe Simple Derived Fields.

## Field Options¶

The arguments to add_field() are passed on to the constructor of DerivedField. There are a number of options available, but the only mandatory ones are name, units, and function.

name

This is the name of the field – how you refer to it. For instance, pressure or magnetic_field_strength.

function

This is a function handle that defines the field

units

This is a string that describes the units, or a query to a UnitSystem object, e.g. ds.unit_system["energy"]. Powers must be in Python syntax (** instead of ^). Alternatively, it may be set to "auto" to have the units determined automatically. In this case, the dimensions keyword must be set to the correct dimensions of the field.

display_name

This is a name used in the plots, for instance "Divergence of Velocity". If not supplied, the name value is used.

take_log

This is True or False and describes whether the field should be logged when plotted.

particle_type

Is this field a particle field?

validators

(Advanced) This is a list of FieldValidator objects, for instance to mandate spatial data.

display_field

(Advanced) Should this field appear in the dropdown box in Reason?

not_in_all

(Advanced) If this is True, the field may not be in all the grids.

output_units

(Advanced) For fields that exist on disk, which we may want to convert to other fields or that get aliased to themselves, we can specify a different desired output unit than the unit found on disk.

force_override

(Advanced) Overrides the definition of an old field if a field with the same name has already been defined.

dimensions

Set this if units="auto". Can be either a string or a dimension object from yt.units.dimensions.

## Debugging a Derived Field¶

If your derived field is not behaving as you would like, you can insert a call to data._debug() to spawn an interactive interpreter whenever that line is reached. Note that this is slightly different from calling pdb.set_trace(), as it will only trigger when the derived field is being called on an actual data object, rather than during the field detection phase. The starting position will be one function lower in the stack than you are likely interested in, but you can either step through back to the derived field function, or simply type u to go up a level in the stack.

For instance, if you had defined this derived field:

@yt.derived_field(name = ("gas","funthings"))
def funthings(field, data):
return data["sillythings"] + data["humorousthings"]**2.0


And you wanted to debug it, you could do:

@yt.derived_field(name = ("gas","funthings"))
def funthings(field, data):
data._debug()
return data["sillythings"] + data["humorousthings"]**2.0


And now, when that derived field is actually used, you will be placed into a debugger.