Potential answer for SO question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49453942/how-to-reshape-numpy-array-in-this-way

array-swap-axes.ipynb

{
 "cells": [
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": 133,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [
    {
     "name": "stdout",
     "output_type": "stream",
     "text": [
      "[[['r1_v1_t1' 'r1_v2_t1']\n",
      "  ['r2_v1_t1' 'r2_v2_t1']\n",
      "  ['r3_v1_t1' 'r3_v2_t1']]\n",
      "\n",
      " [['r1_v1_t2' 'r1_v2_t2']\n",
      "  ['r2_v1_t2' 'r2_v2_t2']\n",
      "  ['r3_v1_t2' 'r3_v2_t2']]\n",
      "\n",
      " [['r1_v1_t3' 'r1_v2_t3']\n",
      "  ['r2_v1_t3' 'r2_v2_t3']\n",
      "  ['r3_v1_t3' 'r3_v2_t3']]\n",
      "\n",
      " [['r1_v1_t4' 'r1_v2_t4']\n",
      "  ['r2_v1_t4' 'r2_v2_t4']\n",
      "  ['r3_v1_t4' 'r3_v2_t4']]]\n"
     ]
    }
   ],
   "source": [
    "import numpy as np\n",
    "\n",
    "\n",
    "a=np.array([[['r1_v1_t1','r1_v1_t2','r1_v1_t3','r1_v1_t4'],\n",
    "            ['r1_v2_t1','r1_v2_t2','r1_v2_t3','r1_v2_t4']],\n",
    "\n",
    "[['r2_v1_t1','r2_v1_t2','r2_v1_t3','r2_v1_t4'],\n",
    "            ['r2_v2_t1','r2_v2_t2','r2_v2_t3','r2_v2_t4']],\n",
    "\n",
    "[['r3_v1_t1','r3_v1_t2','r3_v1_t3','r3_v1_t4'],\n",
    "            ['r3_v2_t1','r3_v2_t2','r3_v2_t3','r3_v2_t4']]\n",
    "            ])\n",
    "\n",
    "# 4 times, each has 3 repeats, each has 2 variables\n",
    "b=np.array([[['r1_v1_t1','r1_v2_t1'],['r2_v1_t1','r2_v2_t1'],['r3_v1_t1','r3_v2_t1']],\n",
    "[['r1_v1_t2','r1_v2_t2'],['r2_v1_t2','r2_v2_t2'],['r3_v1_t2','r3_v2_t2']],\n",
    "[['r1_v1_t3','r1_v2_t3'],['r2_v1_t3','r2_v2_t3'],['r3_v1_t3','r3_v2_t3']],\n",
    "[['r1_v1_t4','r1_v2_t4'],['r2_v1_t4','r2_v2_t4'],['r3_v1_t4','r3_v2_t4']]])\n",
    "\n",
    "\n",
    "new_a = np.swapaxes( np.swapaxes(a,0,2) ,1,2)\n",
    "\n",
    "print new_a"
   ]
  },
  {
   "cell_type": "code",
   "execution_count": 128,
   "metadata": {},
   "outputs": [
    {
     "name": "stdout",
     "output_type": "stream",
     "text": [
      "True\n"
     ]
    }
   ],
   "source": [
    "print (new_a == b).all()  # test all elems are same between new_a and original b"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "metadata": {
  "kernelspec": {
   "display_name": "Python 2",
   "language": "python",
   "name": "python2"
  },
  "language_info": {
   "codemirror_mode": {
    "name": "ipython",
    "version": 2
   },
   "file_extension": ".py",
   "mimetype": "text/x-python",
   "name": "python",
   "nbconvert_exporter": "python",
   "pygments_lexer": "ipython2",
   "version": "2.7.14"
  }
 },
 "nbformat": 4,
 "nbformat_minor": 1
}