lue=999999)

>>> x.ptp()
10

This example shows that a negative value can be returned when
the input is an array of signed integers.

>>> y = np.ma.MaskedArray([[1, 127],
...                        [0, 127],
...                        [-1, 127],
...                        [-2, 127]], dtype=np.int8)
>>> y.ptp(axis=1)
masked_array(data=[ 126,  127, -128, -127],
             mask=False,
       fill_value=np.int64(999999),
            dtype=int8)

A work-around is to use the `view()` method to view the result as
unsigned integers with the same bit width:

>>> y.ptp(axis=1).view(np.uint8)
masked_array(data=[126, 127, 128, 129],
             mask=False,
       fill_value=np.uint64(999999),
            dtype=uint8)
)