I can see several columns (fields) at once in a numpy structured array by indexing with a list of the field names, for example

import numpy as np

a = np.array([(1.5, 2.5, (1.0,2.0)), (3.,4.,(4.,5.)), (1.,3.,(2.,6.))],
        dtype=[('x',float), ('y',float), ('value',float,(2,2))])

print a[['x','y']]
#[(1.5, 2.5) (3.0, 4.0) (1.0, 3.0)]

print a[['x','y']].dtype
#[('x', '<f4') ('y', '<f4')])

But the problem is that it seems to be a copy rather than a view:

b = a[['x','y']]
b[0] = (9.,9.)

print b
#[(9.0, 9.0) (3.0, 4.0) (1.0, 3.0)]

print a[['x','y']]
#[(1.5, 2.5) (3.0, 4.0) (1.0, 3.0)]

If I only select one column, it's a view:

c = x['y']
c[0] = 99.

print c
#[ 99.  4.   3. ]

print a['y']
#[ 99.  4.   3. ]

Is there any way I can get the view behavior for more than one column at once?

I have two workarounds, one is to just loop through the columns, the other is to create a hierarchical dtype, so that the one column actually returns a structured array with the two (or more) fields that I want. Unfortunately, zip also returns a copy, so I can't do:

x = a['x']; y = a['y']
z = zip(x,y)
z[0] = (9.,9.)
python arrays numpy
Edit
Report