Numpy Surprise: "Non-string object detected for the array ordering. Please pass in 'C', 'F', 'A', or 'K' instead"

You've got to hand it to the numpy contributors, it's a pretty forthright error message.
If you are working with some old python and encounter:

ValueError: Non-string object detected for the array ordering. Please pass in 'C', 'F', 'A', or 'K' instead

... then this might be helpful: Numpy's ndarray order is an enum in the C API, and prior to v1.4.0 (!!!) python clients passed the corresponding value constants as arguments to methods like flatten (for example) directly.

In v1.4.0 there's an argument parser introduced that maps the strings from the error messages to the enum values. It's pretty straightforward to do the mapping if you know what changed and look up the enum, but for convenience's sake:

pre-1.4.0 argument	Order Enum	post-v1.4.0 argument
-1	NPY_ANYORDER	"A"
0	NPY_CORDER	"C"
1	NPY_FORTRANORDER	"F"
2	NPY_KEEPORDER	"K"

I'm sure no one else out there is looking at decade-old python, but just in case.