title: Converting numpy string array to float: Bizarre?
body: <p>So, this <em>should</em> be a really straightforward thing but for whatever reason, nothing I'm doing to convert an array of strings to an array of floats is working.</p>
  
  <p>I have a two column array, like so:</p>
  
  <pre class="lang-none prettyprint-override"><code>Name    Value
  Bob     4.56
  Sam     5.22
  Amy     1.22
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I try this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>for row in myarray[1:,]:
       row[1]=float(row[1])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>for row in myarray[1:,]:
      row[1]=row[1].astype(1)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>myarray[1:,1] = map(float, myarray[1:,1])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And they all seem to do something, but when I double check:</p>
  
  <pre><code>type(myarray[9,1])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;type&gt; 'numpy.string_'&gt;
  </code></pre>