title: How to create a numpy array of arbitrary length strings?
body: <p>I'm a complete rookie to Python, but it seems like a given string is able to be (effectively) arbitrary length.  i.e. you can take a <code>string str</code> and keeping adding to it: <code>str += "some stuff..."</code>.  Is there a way to make an array of such strings?</p>
  
  <p>When I try this, each element only stores a single character</p>
  
  <pre><code>strArr = numpy.empty(10, dtype='string')
  for i in range(0,10)
      strArr[i] = "test"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>On the other hand, I know I can initialize an array of certain length strings, i.e.</p>
  
  <pre><code>strArr = numpy.empty(10, dtype='s256')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which can store 10 strings of up to 256 characters.</p>