Tensorflow: How does tf.get_variable work?

user_6687875 0
Viewed 27724

I have read about tf.get_variable from this question and also a bit from the documentation available at the tensorflow website. However, I am still not clear and was unable to find an answer online.

How does tf.get_variable work? For example:

var1 = tf.Variable(3.,dtype=float64)
var2 = tf.get_variable("var1",[],dtype=tf.float64)

Does it mean that var2 is another variable with initialization similar to var1? Or is var2 an alias for var1 (I tried and it doesn't seem to)?

How are var1 and var2 related?

How is a variable constructed when the variable we are getting doesn't really exist?

tensorflow
2 Answers

If you define a variable with a name that has been defined before, then TensorFlow throws an exception. Hence, it is convenient to use the tf.get_variable() function instead of tf.Variable(). The function tf.get_variable() returns the existing variable with the same name if it exists, and creates the variable with the specified shape and initializer if it does not exist.

user_82119850
Related