tf.constant

Creates a constant tensor from a tensor-like object.

tf.constant(
    value, dtype=None, shape=None, name='Const'
)

If the argument dtype is not specified, then the type is inferred from the type of value.

# Constant 1-D Tensor from a python list.
tf.constant([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
<tf.Tensor: shape=(6,), dtype=int32,
    numpy=array([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], dtype=int32)>
# Or a numpy array
a = np.array([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]])
tf.constant(a)
<tf.Tensor: shape=(2, 3), dtype=int64, numpy=
  array([[1, 2, 3],
         [4, 5, 6]])>

If dtype is specified, the resulting tensor values are cast to the requested dtype.

tf.constant([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], dtype=tf.float64)
<tf.Tensor: shape=(6,), dtype=float64,
    numpy=array([1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6.])>

If shape is set, the value is reshaped to match. Scalars are expanded to fill the shape:

tf.constant(0, shape=(2, 3))
  <tf.Tensor: shape=(2, 3), dtype=int32, numpy=
  array([[0, 0, 0],
         [0, 0, 0]], dtype=int32)>
tf.constant([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], shape=[2, 3])
<tf.Tensor: shape=(2, 3), dtype=int32, numpy=
  array([[1, 2, 3],
         [4, 5, 6]], dtype=int32)>

tf.constant has no effect if an eager Tensor is passed as the value, it even transmits gradients:

v = tf.Variable([0.0])
with tf.GradientTape() as g:
    loss = tf.constant(v + v)
g.gradient(loss, v).numpy()
array([2.], dtype=float32)

But, since tf.constant embeds the value in the tf.Graph this fails for symbolic tensors:

with tf.compat.v1.Graph().as_default():
  i = tf.compat.v1.placeholder(shape=[None, None], dtype=tf.float32)
  t = tf.constant(i)
Traceback (most recent call last):

TypeError: ...

tf.constant will create tensors on the current device. Inputs which are already tensors maintain their placements unchanged.

  • tf.convert_to_tensor is similar but:

    • It has no shape argument.
    • Symbolic tensors are allowed to pass through.
    with tf.compat.v1.Graph().as_default():
  i = tf.compat.v1.placeholder(shape=[None, None], dtype=tf.float32)
  t = tf.convert_to_tensor(i)

  • tf.fill: differs in a few ways:

    • tf.constant supports arbitrary constants, not just uniform scalar Tensors like tf.fill.
    • tf.fill creates an Op in the graph that is expanded at runtime, so it can efficiently represent large tensors.
    • Since tf.fill does not embed the value, it can produce dynamically sized outputs.

value A constant value (or list) of output type dtype.
dtype The type of the elements of the resulting tensor.
shape Optional dimensions of resulting tensor.
name Optional name for the tensor.

A Constant Tensor.

TypeError if shape is incorrectly specified or unsupported.
ValueError if called on a symbolic tensor.