Tensorflow while loop : dealing with lists - python-2.7

Question

import tensorflow as tf
array = tf.Variable(tf.random_normal([10]))
i = tf.constant(0)
l = []
def cond(i,l):
return i < 10
def body(i,l):
temp = tf.gather(array,i)
l.append(temp)
return i+1,l
index,list_vals = tf.while_loop(cond, body, [i,l])
I want to process a tensor array in the similar way as described in the above code. In the body of the while loop I want to process the array by element by element basis to apply some function. For demonstration, I have given a small code snippet. However, it is giving an error message as follows.
ValueError: Number of inputs and outputs of body must match loop_vars: 1, 2
Any help in resolving this is appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

Citing the documentation:
loop_vars is a (possibly nested) tuple, namedtuple or list
of tensors that is passed to both cond and body
You cannot pass regular python array as a tensor. What you can do, is:
i = tf.constant(0)
l = tf.Variable([])
def body(i, l):
temp = tf.gather(array,i)
l = tf.concat([l, [temp]], 0)
return i+1, l
index, list_vals = tf.while_loop(cond, body, [i, l],
shape_invariants=[i.get_shape(),
tf.TensorShape([None])])
The shape invariants are there, because normally tf.while_loop expects the shapes of tensors inside while loop won't change.
sess = tf.Session()
sess.run(tf.global_variables_initializer())
sess.run(list_vals)
Out: array([-0.38367489, -1.76104736, 0.26266089, -2.74720812, 1.48196387,
-0.23357525, -1.07429159, -1.79547787, -0.74316853, 0.15982138],
dtype=float32)

Answer 2

TF offers a TensorArray to deal with such cases. From the doc,
Class wrapping dynamic-sized, per-time-step, write-once Tensor arrays.
This class is meant to be used with dynamic iteration primitives such as while_loop and map_fn. It supports gradient back-propagation via special "flow" control flow dependencies.
Here is an example,
import tensorflow as tf
array = tf.Variable(tf.random_normal([10]))
step = tf.constant(0)
output = tf.TensorArray(dtype=tf.float32, size=0, dynamic_size=True)
def cond(step, output):
return step < 10
def body(step, output):
output = output.write(step, tf.gather(array, step))
return step + 1, output
_, final_output = tf.while_loop(cond, body, loop_vars=[step, output])
final_output = final_output.stack()
with tf.Session() as sess:
sess.run(tf.global_variables_initializer())
print(sess.run(final_output))