# CUDA partial copy from device to host
**URL:** https://numba.discourse.group/t/cuda-partial-copy-from-device-to-host/1372
**Category:** Support: How do I do ...?
**Created:** [June 10, 2022, 8:50am UTC](https://numba.discourse.group/t/cuda-partial-copy-from-device-to-host/1372 "2022-06-10T08:50:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@noeliarico](https://numba.discourse.group/u/noeliarico)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2022, 8:50am UTC](https://numba.discourse.group/t/cuda-partial-copy-from-device-to-host/1372/1 "2022-06-10T08:50:00Z")
When using Numba for developing CUDA code: Is it possible to copy only a part from a device array to the host?
I have a bidimensional array on the device. I need the complete matrix for doing some computations but I’m only interested in the value resulting in the first column of all the rows. So I wonder whether it is possible to copy only this column back to the host, as the dimension of the array is huge, so copy only this part would be a great improvement in memory terms.
---
### Author:  [@gmarkall](https://numba.discourse.group/u/gmarkall)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://numba.discourse.group/t/cuda-partial-copy-from-device-to-host/1372/2 "2022-06-12T15:15:44Z")
You can copy slices of arrays, but be aware that if your slice is non-contiguous then you might still be copying a lot more than you want. This can be demonstrated with the following code:
```python
from numba import cuda
arr = cuda.device_array((128, 128))
row = arr[1, :]
col = arr[:, 1]
print("Copying whole array")
arr.copy_to_host()
print("Copying row")
row.copy_to_host()
print("Copying column")
col.copy_to_host()
```
When run with API and argument logging, I see (note I’ve copied only the relevant lines - irrelevant API calls are omitted here):
```auto
$ NUMBA_CUDA_LOG_API_ARGS=1 NUMBA_CUDA_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python repro.py
Copying whole array
== CUDA [219] DEBUG -- call driver api: cuMemcpyDtoH_v2(94779505341152, 140629260632064, 131072)
Copying row
== CUDA [219] DEBUG -- call driver api: cuMemcpyDtoH_v2(94779505340112, 140629260633088, 1024)
Copying column
== CUDA [219] DEBUG -- call driver api: cuMemcpyDtoH_v2(94779505341152, 140629260632072, 130056)
```
We see from the above that the amount of data transferred by copying is in each case:
- Whole matrix: 131072 bytes, (128 rows \* 128 columns of 8 byte values)
- Whole row: 1024 bytes (128 values of 8 bytes)
- Whole column: 130056 bytes ((128 rows \* 127 columns) + 1 entry) of 8 byte values)
So copying the first column still needs to copy most of the matrix - if you really want to only copy the first column then you will need to gather the column into a contiguous array on the device then copy that.