tf.compat.v1.Variable

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See the Variables Guide.

Inherits From: Variable

tf.compat.v1.Variable(
    initial_value=None, trainable=None, collections=None, validate_shape=True,
    caching_device=None, name=None, variable_def=None, dtype=None,
    expected_shape=None, import_scope=None, constraint=None, use_resource=None,
    synchronization=tf.VariableSynchronization.AUTO,
    aggregation=tf.compat.v1.VariableAggregation.NONE, shape=None
)

A variable maintains state in the graph across calls to run(). You add a variable to the graph by constructing an instance of the class Variable.

The Variable() constructor requires an initial value for the variable, which can be a Tensor of any type and shape. The initial value defines the type and shape of the variable. After construction, the type and shape of the variable are fixed. The value can be changed using one of the assign methods.

If you want to change the shape of a variable later you have to use an assign Op with validate_shape=False.

Just like any Tensor, variables created with Variable() can be used as inputs for other Ops in the graph. Additionally, all the operators overloaded for the Tensor class are carried over to variables, so you can also add nodes to the graph by just doing arithmetic on variables.

import tensorflow as tf

# Create a variable.
w = tf.Variable(<initial-value>, name=<optional-name>)

# Use the variable in the graph like any Tensor.
y = tf.matmul(w, ...another variable or tensor...)

# The overloaded operators are available too.
z = tf.sigmoid(w + y)

# Assign a new value to the variable with `assign()` or a related method.
w.assign(w + 1.0)
w.assign_add(1.0)

When you launch the graph, variables have to be explicitly initialized before you can run Ops that use their value. You can initialize a variable by running its initializer op, restoring the variable from a save file, or simply running an assign Op that assigns a value to the variable. In fact, the variable initializer op is just an assign Op that assigns the variable's initial value to the variable itself.

# Launch the graph in a session.
with tf.compat.v1.Session() as sess:
    # Run the variable initializer.
    sess.run(w.initializer)
    # ...you now can run ops that use the value of 'w'...

The most common initialization pattern is to use the convenience function global_variables_initializer() to add an Op to the graph that initializes all the variables. You then run that Op after launching the graph.

# Add an Op to initialize global variables.
init_op = tf.compat.v1.global_variables_initializer()

# Launch the graph in a session.
with tf.compat.v1.Session() as sess:
    # Run the Op that initializes global variables.
    sess.run(init_op)
    # ...you can now run any Op that uses variable values...

If you need to create a variable with an initial value dependent on another variable, use the other variable's initialized_value(). This ensures that variables are initialized in the right order.

All variables are automatically collected in the graph where they are created. By default, the constructor adds the new variable to the graph collection GraphKeys.GLOBAL_VARIABLES. The convenience function global_variables() returns the contents of that collection.

When building a machine learning model it is often convenient to distinguish between variables holding the trainable model parameters and other variables such as a global step variable used to count training steps. To make this easier, the variable constructor supports a trainable=<bool> parameter. If True, the new variable is also added to the graph collection GraphKeys.TRAINABLE_VARIABLES. The convenience function trainable_variables() returns the contents of this collection. The various Optimizer classes use this collection as the default list of variables to optimize.

v = tf.Variable(True)
tf.cond(v, lambda: v.assign(False), my_false_fn)  # Note: this is broken.

Here, adding use_resource=True when constructing the variable will fix any nondeterminism issues:

v = tf.Variable(True, use_resource=True)
tf.cond(v, lambda: v.assign(False), my_false_fn)

To use the replacement for variables which does not have these issues:

initial_value A Tensor, or Python object convertible to a Tensor, which is the initial value for the Variable. The initial value must have a shape specified unless validate_shape is set to False. Can also be a callable with no argument that returns the initial value when called. In that case, dtype must be specified. (Note that initializer functions from init_ops.py must first be bound to a shape before being used here.)
trainable If True, also adds the variable to the graph collection GraphKeys.TRAINABLE_VARIABLES. This collection is used as the default list of variables to use by the Optimizer classes. Defaults to True, unless synchronization is set to ON_READ, in which case it defaults to False.
collections List of graph collections keys. The new variable is added to these collections. Defaults to [GraphKeys.GLOBAL_VARIABLES].
validate_shape If False, allows the variable to be initialized with a value of unknown shape. If True, the default, the shape of initial_value must be known.
caching_device Optional device string describing where the Variable should be cached for reading. Defaults to the Variable's device. If not None, caches on another device. Typical use is to cache on the device where the Ops using the Variable reside, to deduplicate copying through Switch and other conditional statements.
name Optional name for the variable. Defaults to 'Variable' and gets uniquified automatically.
variable_def VariableDef protocol buffer. If not None, recreates the Variable object with its contents, referencing the variable's nodes in the graph, which must already exist. The graph is not changed. variable_def and the other arguments are mutually exclusive.
dtype If set, initial_value will be converted to the given type. If None, either the datatype will be kept (if initial_value is a Tensor), or convert_to_tensor will decide.
expected_shape A TensorShape. If set, initial_value is expected to have this shape.
import_scope Optional string. Name scope to add to the Variable. Only used when initializing from protocol buffer.
constraint An optional projection function to be applied to the variable after being updated by an Optimizer (e.g. used to implement norm constraints or value constraints for layer weights). The function must take as input the unprojected Tensor representing the value of the variable and return the Tensor for the projected value (which must have the same shape). Constraints are not safe to use when doing asynchronous distributed training.
use_resource whether to use resource variables.
synchronization Indicates when a distributed a variable will be aggregated. Accepted values are constants defined in the class tf.VariableSynchronization. By default the synchronization is set to AUTO and the current DistributionStrategy chooses when to synchronize.
aggregation Indicates how a distributed variable will be aggregated. Accepted values are constants defined in the class tf.VariableAggregation.
shape (optional) The shape of this variable. If None, the shape of initial_value will be used. When setting this argument to tf.TensorShape(None) (representing an unspecified shape), the variable can be assigned with values of different shapes.

ValueError If both variable_def and initial_value are specified.
ValueError If the initial value is not specified, or does not have a shape and validate_shape is True.
RuntimeError If eager execution is enabled.

aggregation

constraint Returns the constraint function associated with this variable.
device The device of this variable.
dtype The DType of this variable.
graph The Graph of this variable.
initial_value Returns the Tensor used as the initial value for the variable.

Note that this is different from initialized_value() which runs the op that initializes the variable before returning its value. This method returns the tensor that is used by the op that initializes the variable.

initializer The initializer operation for this variable.
name The name of this variable.
op The Operation of this variable.
shape The TensorShape of this variable.
synchronization

trainable

Child Classes

class SaveSliceInfo

Methods

assign

View source

assign(
    value, use_locking=False, name=None, read_value=True
)

Assigns a new value to the variable.

This is essentially a shortcut for assign(self, value).

Args
value A Tensor. The new value for this variable.
use_locking If True, use locking during the assignment.
name The name of the operation to be created
read_value if True, will return something which evaluates to the new value of the variable; if False will return the assign op.

Returns
The updated variable. If read_value is false, instead returns None in Eager mode and the assign op in graph mode.

assign_add

View source

assign_add(
    delta, use_locking=False, name=None, read_value=True
)

Adds a value to this variable.

This is essentially a shortcut for assign_add(self, delta).

Args
delta A Tensor. The value to add to this variable.
use_locking If True, use locking during the operation.
name The name of the operation to be created
read_value if True, will return something which evaluates to the new value of the variable; if False will return the assign op.

Returns
The updated variable. If read_value is false, instead returns None in Eager mode and the assign op in graph mode.

assign_sub

View source

assign_sub(
    delta, use_locking=False, name=None, read_value=True
)

Subtracts a value from this variable.

This is essentially a shortcut for assign_sub(self, delta).

Args
delta A