Hi James,
This may be more generally useful:
http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/c-api.array.html#PyArray_DTYPE
The relevant fields of the returned PyArray_Descr seem to be kind, byteorder, and elsize.
thanks for digging that out. I can now envision how to compare the numpy array and the flex array element types. Lots of boring bookkeeping but definitively possible. However, we haven't address the important question: what behaviour do we really want? (i) the numpy array and the flex array must have the same element type, and an exception is thrown if this precondition is violated; (ii) we use a fast copy of the numpy array to the flex array if the element types are the same; otherwise we fall back to a slower conversion. Best wishes, Luc