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Summing Values the Pythonic Way With sum() (Overview)

Python’s built-in function sum() is an efficient and Pythonic way to sum a list of numeric values. Adding several numbers together is a common intermediate step in many computations, so sum() is a pretty handy tool for a Python programmer.

As an additional and interesting use case, you can concatenate lists and tuples using sum(), which can be convenient when you need to flatten a list of lists.

In this video course, you’ll learn how to:

  • Sum numeric values by hand using general techniques and tools
  • Use Python’s sum() to add several numeric values efficiently
  • Concatenate lists and tuples with sum()
  • Use sum() to approach common summation problems
  • Use appropriate values for the arguments in sum()
  • Decide between sum() and alternative tools to sum and concatenate objects

This knowledge will help you efficiently approach and solve summation problems in your code using either sum() or other alternative and specialized tools.

If you’d like to learn more about the REPL used in this course, check out Discover bpython: A Python REPL With IDE-Like Features. Note that all the code in this course will also run in the Python standard REPL.

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Course Slides (PDF)

1.8 MB

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