From the answer to this question (Sort a numpy array by another array, along a particular axis, using less memory), I learned how to sort a multidimensional numpy array a by the values of another numpy array b without creating too many additional arrays.
However, numpy.rec.fromarrays([a, b]) only works if the arrays a and b have the same shape. My b array is 1-D array, but a array is a N-D array (N is not specified). Is it a nice way (and efficient) to sort the a array among a particular axis by the value of the 1-D array b?