rollit

Rolling window statistics for numpy arrays. No pandas needed.

rollit is a lightweight Python library for calculating fast rolling-window statistics (like moving averages, standard deviations, and sums) on NumPy arrays. Instead of writing slow Python loops or importing a heavy 35 MB library like pandas, it uses memory-efficient NumPy stride tricks to calculate moving windows instantly with zero extra dependencies.

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The Problem

When working with raw numpy arrays (such as sensor data, stock prices, fitness metrics, or machine learning features), developers constantly need rolling window statistics. Since NumPy has no built-in function for this, developers typically resort to writing slow Python for-loops, converting arrays to pandas DataFrames (adding a 35 MB dependency), or copying complex stride_tricks snippets from the web.

Why not just write raw stride tricks?

While NumPy's as_strided is powerful, using it directly has significant drawbacks:

• Danger of Segfaults: A small mistake in calculating strides can point to invalid memory, causing segmentation faults and crashing the Python interpreter. rollit handles the memory layout safely and locks the returned views as read-only.
• No Out-of-the-Box Math: Stride tricks only group your data into windows. You still have to write the reduction math for functions like standard deviation, z-scores, or normalization. rollit provides these pre-optimized.
• No Input Validation: Passing invalid window sizes or bad dimensions raises cryptic errors or causes memory issues. rollit validates all array parameters and raises clear Python exceptions.
• No Support for Missing Data: rollit has built-in support for min_periods to handle and mask incomplete windows or missing data.

rollit solves this. Clean interface, fast execution, and zero dependencies beyond numpy.

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Installation

pip install rollit

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Quick Start

import numpy as np
import rollit

arr = np.array([1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0])

rollit.mean(arr, window=3)   # array([2., 3., 4.])
rollit.sum(arr, window=3)    # array([6., 9., 12.])
rollit.std(arr, window=3)    # array([1., 1., 1.])
rollit.min(arr, window=3)    # array([1., 2., 3.])
rollit.max(arr, window=3)    # array([3., 4., 5.])

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Before & After

Before (pandas: 35 MB dependency)

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

arr = np.random.randn(1_000_000)
df = pd.DataFrame(arr)
rolling_mean = df.rolling(window=30).mean().values.flatten()[29:]

Before (manual loop: ~500 ms)

import numpy as np

arr = np.random.randn(1_000_000)
rolling_mean = []
for i in range(len(arr) - 29):
    rolling_mean.append(np.mean(arr[i:i+30]))
rolling_mean = np.array(rolling_mean)

After (rollit: ~5 ms, zero extra dependencies)

import numpy as np
import rollit

arr = np.random.randn(1_000_000)
rolling_mean = rollit.mean(arr, window=30)

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Reference

All functions share a unified signature:

rollit.<function>(arr, window, min_periods=None)

Parameter	Type	Description
arr	np.ndarray	Input 1D numpy array of numeric values
window	int	Size of the moving window (positive integer)
min_periods	int, optional	Minimum number of non-NaN observations required to produce a value. Defaults to None

Core Functions

Function	Description	Example Output
rollit.mean(arr, 3)	Rolling average	array([2., 3., 4.])
rollit.std(arr, 3)	Rolling sample standard deviation (ddof=1)	array([1., 1., 1.])
rollit.sum(arr, 3)	Rolling sum	array([6., 9., 12.])
rollit.min(arr, 3)	Rolling minimum	array([1., 2., 3.])
rollit.max(arr, 3)	Rolling maximum	array([3., 4., 5.])

For arr = [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0]

Anomaly Detection: zscore()

Computes the z-score of the last value in each window: (last - mean) / std. Values above +2 or below -2 are statistical outliers.

# Flat signal with one spike
signal = np.ones(20)
signal[10] = 100.0

scores = rollit.zscore(signal, window=5)
# The window containing the spike will have a very high z-score

Note: Returns NaN when the standard deviation of a window is 0 (constant values).

Normalization: normalize()

Computes rolling min-max normalization of the last value in each window: (last - min) / (max - min). Scales each value to [0, 1] relative to its local window.

arr = np.array([1.0, 5.0, 2.0, 9.0, 1.0])
rollit.normalize(arr, window=3)
# array([0.25, 1.  , 0.  ])

Note: Returns NaN when all values in a window are equal (max == min).

Custom Function: apply()

Escape hatch for any function that cannot be vectorized. Runs a Python loop internally, so it is slower than the built-in functions.

# Rolling median
rollit.apply(arr, window=3, fn=np.median)
# array([2., 3., 4.])

# Rolling range
rollit.apply(arr, window=3, fn=lambda w: w.max() - w.min())
# array([2., 3., 3.])

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Output Length

rollit only returns values for complete windows with no NaN padding:

input length  = L
window size   = W
output length = L - W + 1

For an array of length 10 with window 3:

• Output length = 8
• Output index 0 corresponds to arr[0:3]
• Output index 7 corresponds to arr[7:10]

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Performance

All functions (except apply) use numpy.lib.stride_tricks.as_strided to create read-only memory views, meaning no data is copied.

Array Size	Window	Function	Time
10,000	7	mean	< 1 ms
1,000,000	30	mean	< 10 ms
1,000,000	30	apply (custom fn)	~800 ms

apply() uses a Python loop by design. Use vectorized functions whenever possible.

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Important Notes

• Input must be a 1D numpy array. Passing a Python list raises TypeError. Passing a 2D array raises ValueError.
• std() uses ddof=1 (sample standard deviation), matching the pandas default.
• Avoid from rollit import *: sum, min, and max will shadow Python's built-in functions. Use import rollit and call rollit.sum(), rollit.min(), and rollit.max() instead.
• min_periods in v1.0: Counts non-NaN values per window and masks positions below the threshold with NaN. Note that the underlying numpy operations (such as np.mean) are not NaN-aware; a window containing any NaN will produce NaN regardless of min_periods. Full NaN-aware support (nanmean, etc.) is planned for v2.0.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions, guidelines, and how to submit a PR.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

License

MIT: see LICENSE for details.