A memoryview object exposes the C level buffer interface as a Python object which can then be passed around like any other object.

PyObject *PyMemoryView_FromObject(PyObject *obj)

Create a memoryview object from an object that provides the buffer interface. If obj supports writable buffer exports, the memoryview object will be read/write, otherwise it may be either read-only or read/write at the discretion of the exporter.

PyObject *PyMemoryView_FromMemory(char *mem, Py_ssize_t size, int flags)

Create a memoryview object using mem as the underlying buffer. flags can be one of PyBUF_READ or PyBUF_WRITE.

New in version 3.3.

PyObject *PyMemoryView_FromBuffer(Py_buffer *view)

Create a memoryview object wrapping the given buffer structure view. For simple byte buffers, PyMemoryView_FromMemory() is the preferred function.

PyObject *PyMemoryView_GetContiguous(PyObject *obj, int buffertype, char order)

Create a memoryview object to a contiguous chunk of memory (in either ‘C’ or ‘F’ortran order) from an object that defines the buffer interface. If memory is contiguous, the memoryview object points to the original memory. Otherwise, a copy is made and the memoryview points to a new bytes object.

int PyMemoryView_Check(PyObject *obj)

Return true if the object obj is a memoryview object. It is not currently allowed to create subclasses of memoryview.

Py_buffer *PyMemoryView_GET_BUFFER(PyObject *mview)

Return a pointer to the memoryview’s private copy of the exporter’s buffer. mview must be a memoryview instance; this macro doesn’t check its type, you must do it yourself or you will risk crashes.

Py_buffer *PyMemoryView_GET_BASE(PyObject *mview)

Return either a pointer to the exporting object that the memoryview is based on or NULL if the memoryview has been created by one of the functions PyMemoryView_FromMemory() or PyMemoryView_FromBuffer(). mview must be a memoryview instance.