About castTo() method

[Charele]

@OverRide
public INDArray castTo(DataType dataType) {
if(isEmpty()){
if(dataType == dataType())
return this;
return Nd4j.empty(dataType);
}
val result = Nd4j.createUninitialized(dataType, this.shape(), this.ordering());
result.assign(this);
return result;
}

If this data type is equal with the target's, must we create other instance?
I mean:

@OverRide
public INDArray castTo(DataType dataType) {
if(dataType == dataType())
return this;
... ...

[AlexDBlack]

What's the question here?

The code is right there, you can see what it does.
Empty arrays are immutable (no data) so we can return the same object.

And in future, just link the code directly, don't copy/paste with bad formatting.

deeplearning4j/nd4j/nd4j-backends/nd4j-api-parent/nd4j-api/src/main/java/org/nd4j/linalg/api/ndarray/BaseNDArray.java

Lines 6496 to 6506 in 64a17b5

	@Override
	public INDArray castTo(DataType dataType) {
	if(isEmpty()){
	if(dataType == dataType())
	return this;
	return Nd4j.empty(dataType);
	}
	val result = Nd4j.createUninitialized(dataType, this.shape(), this.ordering());
	result.assign(this);
	return result;
	}

[Charele]

(Force on no-empty),
I mean if their data type are equal, can return "this" directly,
we don't must create another object,"val result...; return result"

[AlexDBlack]

Yes, that's the way it is supposed to work - and (until now) the way I thought it already did.
That was (incorrectly) changed at some point.
#7754