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# numpy.ma.MaskedArray.filled

`MaskedArray.``filled`(fill_value=None)

  Return a copy of self, with masked values filled with a given value. However, if there are no masked values to fill, self will be returned instead as an ndarray.

  Parameters: | fill_value : scalar, optional The value to use for invalid entries (None by default). If None, the `fill_value` attribute of the array is used instead.
  Returns: | filled_array : ndarray A copy of `self` with invalid entries replaced by fill_value (be it the function argument or the attribute of `self`), or `self` itself as an ndarray if there are no invalid entries to be replaced.

  Notes

  The result is not a MaskedArray!

  Examples

      >>> x = np.ma.array([1,2,3,4,5], mask=[0,0,1,0,1], fill_value=-999)
      >>> x.filled()
      array([1, 2, -999, 4, -999])
      >>> type(x.filled())
      <type 'numpy.ndarray'>

  Subclassing is preserved. This means that if the data part of the masked array is a matrix, `filled` returns a matrix:

      >>> x = np.ma.array(np.matrix([[1, 2], [3, 4]]), mask=[[0, 1], [1, 0]])
      >>> x.filled()
      matrix([[     1, 999999],
              [999999,      4]])