title: How to interpret Python output dtype='<U32'?
body: <p>I am taking an online course, and the following supposedly demonstrates that &quot;NumPy arrays: contain only one type&quot;:</p>
  <pre><code>In [19]: np.array([1.0, &quot;is&quot;, True])
  Out[19]:
  array(['1.0', 'is', 'True'],
  dtype='&lt;U32')
  </code></pre>
  <p>At first, I thought that the output was a form of error message, but this is not confirmed by a web search.  In fact, I haven't come across an explanation....can anyone explain how to interpret the output?</p>
  <p><strong>Afternote:</strong> After reviewing the answers, the <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/arrays.dtypes.html" rel="noreferrer"><code>dtype</code> page</a>, and the <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.array.html" rel="noreferrer"><code>numpy.array()</code> page</a>, it seems that <code>dtype='&lt;U32'</code> would be more accurately described as <code>dtype('&lt;U32')</code>. Is this correct?  I seems so to me, but I'm a newbie, and even the <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.array.html" rel="noreferrer"><code>numpy.array()</code> page</a> assigns a string to the <code>dtype</code> parameter rather than an actual <code>dtype</code> object.</p>
  <p>Also, why does <code>'&lt;U32'</code> specify a 32-character string when all of the elements are much shorter strings?</p>