How can I slice each element of a numpy array of strings?
<p>Numpy has some very useful <a href="http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/routines.char.html" rel="noreferrer">string operations</a>, which vectorize the usual Python string operations.</p>

<p>Compared to these operation and to <code>pandas.str</code>, the numpy strings module seems to be missing a very important one: the ability to slice each string in the array. For example,</p>

<pre><code>a = numpy.array(['hello', 'how', 'are', 'you'])
numpy.char.sliceStr(a, slice(1, 3))
&gt;&gt;&gt; numpy.array(['el', 'ow', 're' 'ou'])
</code></pre>

<p>Am I missing some obvious method in the module with this functionality? Otherwise, is there a fast vectorized way to achieve this?</p>