# vtkCellArray: Support offsets/connectivity as vtkDataArray | vtkUnstructuredGrid: Support CellTypes as vtkDataArray

**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtkcellarray-support-offsets-connectivity-as-vtkdataarray-vtkunstructuredgrid-support-celltypes-as-vtkdataarray/16079
**Category:** Development
**Tags:** proposal
**Created:** [October 2, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtkcellarray-support-offsets-connectivity-as-vtkdataarray-vtkunstructuredgrid-support-celltypes-as-vtkdataarray/16079 "2025-10-02T14:51:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 4

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### Author: ![user27182](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/user27182/32/10104_2.png) [@user27182](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/user27182)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtkcellarray-support-offsets-connectivity-as-vtkdataarray-vtkunstructuredgrid-support-celltypes-as-vtkdataarray/16079/4 "2025-10-22T16:39:55Z")

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> [@spyridon97](#):
>
> ## vtkDataSet: GetCellTypes updates
> 
> `vtkDataSet`’s method `void GetCellTypes(vtkCellTypes* types)`, has been deprecated in favor of
> 
> `void GetDistinctCellTypes(vtkCellTypes* types)`.

I originally asked a question related to this here [How to get full cell types array with new VTK 9.6 API](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-get-full-cell-types-array-with-new-vtk-9-6-api/16106), but it seems more appropriate to post here…

Can we keep `GetCellTypes(vtkCellTypes* types)`? `GetDistinctCellTypes` is not a suitable replacement since it is useful in many cases to keep the full cell types array (such as filter/extract cells by type).

E.g. downstream we are trying to make the `pyvista` API compatible with the latest VTK dev wheels, but this change (i.e. the deprecation of a full cell types array) has broken a lot of features in `pyvista` and it seems there is no suitable alternative (see [Fix latest vtk incompatibilty by edabor · Pull Request #8003 · pyvista/pyvista · GitHub](https://github.com/pyvista/pyvista/pull/8003#issuecomment-3431875583)).

Or maybe there is another way to keep the full array with the new API that I missed?

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_[View the full topic](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtkcellarray-support-offsets-connectivity-as-vtkdataarray-vtkunstructuredgrid-support-celltypes-as-vtkdataarray/16079)._