Awkward Array

New features

• feat: improve merging of NumpyArrays and simplification of UnionArrays + fix ak.almost_equal for UnionArrays by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3773
• feat: Add ak.sort() for CUDA backend by @shwina in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3750
• feat: Make ak.combinations faster on GPU by using cp.searchsorted to compute output list indexes by @shwina in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3795
• feat: add argmax implementation using CCCL by @maxymnaumchyk in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3777
• feat: make ak.combinations faster on GPU by using cp.searchsorted to compute output list indexes by @ianna in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3798
• feat: add argmin implementation using CCCL by @maxymnaumchyk in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3811

Bug-fixes and performance

• fix: incorrect type passed down for the mergeastable argument by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3779
• fix: fix ak.validity_error for typetracer-backed layouts with unknown length by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3784
• fix: make ak.enforce_type work with typetracers by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3764
• fix: ArrayBuilder.show() formatter forwarding by @X0708a in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3796
• fix: fix and test Form.length_zero/one_array() by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3810
• fix: make named axis thread-safe and start testing using multiple threads in CI by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3805

Other

• ci: use codecov token by @ariostas in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3769
• chore(ci): use macOS to test ML dependencies by @ariostas in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3774
• chore(deps): bump the actions group across 1 directory with 5 updates by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3778
• ci: xfail failing cudf tests until fixed by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3781
• chore: update pre-commit hooks by @pre-commit-ci[bot] in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3785
• chore: request for tensorflow in requirements only if python < 3.14 by @ikrommyd in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3787
• chore: fix noxfile on Intel macOS by @henryiii in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3815
• docs: add X0708a as a contributor for code by @allcontributors[bot] in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3797
• docs: add a comparison of different argmax implementations (using unary_transform, segmented_reduce and cuda-kernels) by @maxymnaumchyk in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3800
• docs: Document GPU backend and cuDF compatibility limitations by @X0708a in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3813

New Contributors

• @X0708a made their first contribution in https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/pull/3796

Full Changelog: https://github.com/scikit-hep/awkward/compare/v2.8.11...v2.8.12