<SYSTEM_TASK:>
Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
<END_TASK>
<USER_TASK:>
Description:
 def _get_continuous_and_ordinal_array(x):
 """Convert array from continuous and ordered categorical columns"""

    nominal_columns = x.select_dtypes(include=['object', 'category']).columns
    ordinal_columns = pandas.Index([v for v in nominal_columns if x[v].cat.ordered])
    continuous_columns = x.select_dtypes(include=[numpy.number]).columns

    x_num = x.loc[:, continuous_columns].astype(numpy.float64).values
    if len(ordinal_columns) > 0:
        x = _ordinal_as_numeric(x, ordinal_columns)

        nominal_columns = nominal_columns.difference(ordinal_columns)
        x_out = numpy.column_stack((x_num, x))
    else:
        x_out = x_num

    return x_out, nominal_columns