You can use the following methods to get the index of the max value in a NumPy array:

Method 1: Get Index of Max Value in One-Dimensional Array

x.argmax()

Method 2: Get Index of Max Value in Each Row of Multi-Dimensional Array

x.argmax(axis=1)

Method 3: Get Index of Max Value in Each Column of Multi-Dimensional Array

x.argmax(axis=0)

The following examples show how to use each method in practice.

Example 1: Get Index of Max Value in One-Dimensional Array

The following code shows how to get the index of the max value in a one-dimensional NumPy array:

import numpy as np

#create NumPy array of values
x = np.array([2, 7, 9, 4, 4, 6, 3])

#find index that contains max value
x.argmax()

2

The argmax() function returns a value of 2.

This tells us that the value in index position 2 of the array contains the maximum value.

If we look at the original array, we can see that the value in index position 2 is 9, which is indeed the maximum value in the array.

Example 2: Get Index of Max Value in Each Row of Multi-Dimensional Array

The following code shows how to get the index of the max value in each row of a multi-dimensional NumPy array:

import numpy as np

#create multi-dimentsional NumPy array
x = np.array([[4, 2, 1, 5], [7, 9, 2, 0]])

#view NumPy array
print(x)

[[4 2 1 5]
 [7 9 2 0]]

#find index that contains max value in each row
x.argmax(axis=1)

array([3, 1], dtype=int32)

• The max value in the first row is located in index position 3.
• The max value in the second row is located in index position 1.

Example 3: Get Index of Max Value in Each Column of Multi-Dimensional Array

The following code shows how to get the index of the max value in each column of a multi-dimensional NumPy array:

import numpy as np

#create multi-dimentsional NumPy array
x = np.array([[4, 2, 1, 5], [7, 9, 2, 0]])

#view NumPy array
print(x)

[[4 2 1 5]
 [7 9 2 0]]

#find index that contains max value in each column
x.argmax(axis=0)

array([1, 1, 1, 0], dtype=int32)

From the results we can see:

• The max value in the first column is located in index position 1.
• The max value in the second column is located in index position 1.
• The max value in the third column is located in index position 1.
• The max value in the fourth column is located in index position 0.

Related:

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Python: