PyTorch example of a custom collate function that uses shared memory when appropriate

collate.py

import functools

def my_collate(batch, use_shared_memory=False):
    r"""Puts each data field into a tensor with outer dimension batch size"""

    error_msg = "batch must contain tensors, numbers, dicts or lists; found {}"
    elem_type = type(batch[0])
    if isinstance(batch[0], torch.Tensor):
        out = None
        if use_shared_memory:
            # If we're in a background process, concatenate directly into a
            # shared memory tensor to avoid an extra copy
            numel = sum([x.numel() for x in batch])
            storage = batch[0].storage()._new_shared(numel)
            out = batch[0].new(storage)
        return torch.stack(batch, 0, out=out)
    elif elem_type.__module__ == 'numpy' and elem_type.__name__ != 'str_' \
            and elem_type.__name__ != 'string_':
        elem = batch[0]
        if elem_type.__name__ == 'ndarray':
            # array of string classes and object
            if re.search('[SaUO]', elem.dtype.str) is not None:
                raise TypeError(error_msg.format(elem.dtype))

            return torch.stack([torch.from_numpy(b) for b in batch], 0)
        if elem.shape == ():  # scalars
            py_type = float if elem.dtype.name.startswith('float') else int
            return numpy_type_map[elem.dtype.name](list(map(py_type, batch)))
    elif isinstance(batch[0], int_classes):
        return torch.LongTensor(batch)
    elif isinstance(batch[0], float):
        return torch.DoubleTensor(batch)
    elif isinstance(batch[0], string_classes):
        return batch
    elif isinstance(batch[0], container_abcs.Mapping):
        return {key: default_collate([d[key] for d in batch]) for key in batch[0]}
    elif isinstance(batch[0], container_abcs.Sequence):
        transposed = zip(*batch)
        return [default_collate(samples) for samples in transposed]
    elif ... # your custom condition:
        # handle data frames

    raise TypeError((error_msg.format(type(batch[0]))))


def main(args):
    collate_fn = functools.partial(my_collate, use_shared_memory=args.num_workers > 0)
    dataloader = DataLoader(..., num_workers=args.num_workers, collate_fn=collate_fn)
    ...