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# NumPy’s module structure

NumPy has a large number of submodules. Most regular usage of NumPy requires only the main namespace and a smaller set of submodules. The rest either have special-purpose or niche namespaces.

## Main namespaces

Regular/recommended user-facing namespaces for general use:

- numpy

- numpy.exceptions

- numpy.fft

- numpy.linalg

- numpy.polynomial

- numpy.random

- numpy.strings

- numpy.testing

- numpy.typing

## Special-purpose namespaces

- numpy.ctypeslib - interacting with NumPy objects with `ctypes`

- numpy.dtypes - dtype classes (typically not used directly by end users)

- numpy.emath - mathematical functions with automatic domain

- numpy.lib - utilities & functionality which do not fit the main namespace

- numpy.rec - record arrays (largely superseded by dataframe libraries)

- numpy.version - small module with more detailed version info

## Legacy namespaces

Prefer not to use these namespaces for new code. There are better alternatives and/or this code is deprecated or isn’t reliable.

- numpy.char - legacy string functionality, only for fixed-width strings

- numpy.distutils (deprecated) - build system support

- numpy.f2py - Fortran binding generation (usually used from the command line only)

- numpy.ma - masked arrays (not very reliable, needs an overhaul)

- numpy.matlib (pending deprecation) - functions supporting `matrix` instances