The desired data-type for the array.
import numpy as np
# (row, col) or [row, col] to be fed as shape
zeros_array = np.zeros(shape=[2, 3], dtype=np.int8)
print(zeros_array.dtype) # int8
np.int8: 8-bit signed integer (range: -128 to 127).
np.int16: 16-bit signed integer (range: -32,768 to 32,767).
np.int32: 32-bit signed integer (range: -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647).
np.int64: 64-bit signed integer (large integer range).
np.uint8: 8-bit unsigned integer (range: 0 to 255).
np.uint16: 16-bit unsigned integer (range: 0 to 65,535).
np.uint32: 32-bit unsigned integer (range: 0 to 4,294,967,295).
np.uint64: 64-bit unsigned integer (large positive integer range).
np.float16: Half precision floating-point (16-bit, for low-precision computations).
np.float32: Single precision floating-point (32-bit).
np.float64: Double precision floating-point (64-bit, the default float in NumPy).
np.float128: Extended precision floating-point (128-bit, availability depends on system).
np.complex64: Complex number represented by two 32-bit floats (for real and imaginary parts).
np.complex128: Complex number represented by two 64-bit floats (default complex dtype).
np.complex256: Complex number represented by two 128-bit floats (system-dependent).
np.bool_: Boolean type, can be either True or False (stored as 1-bit but takes up a full byte).
np.str_: Fixed-length Unicode string, specified by S + length (e.g., S10 for a 10-character string).
np.unicode_: Fixed-length Unicode string with support for multiple characters (uses U).
np.object_: Allows storing any Python object, including mixed types, strings, or other arrays. Useful for heterogeneous data but slower than native NumPy types.
np.datetime64: Stores dates and times with varying precisions (e.g., Y, M, D, h, m, s, ms, us, ns, ps, fs, as). Example: np.datetime64('2003-10-02')
np.timedelta64: Represents time durations with units (same units as datetime64).
By passing the dtype, you are implicitly converting the values to the passed dtype.
Specifies the memory layout order for multi-dimensional arrays.
Refer to np.array() for better explanation & examples for order.
.ravel() is a NumPy function used to flatten a multi-dimensional array into a 1D array.
The like parameter in np.zeros() was introduced to make array creation more flexible, particularly for compatibility with libraries that extend NumPy, like Dask, CuPy, or other libraries that create arrays compatible with np.ndarray but optimized for different backends (e.g., parallel processing or GPU-based arrays).