Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:29:47 -0400, Alan G Isaac wrote:
>>> np.subtract.reduce([]) 0.0
Getting a right identity for an empty array is surprising. Matching Python's behavior (raising a TypeError) seems desirable. (?)
On 7/23/2010 10:37 AM, Pauli Virtanen wrote:
I don't think matching Python's behavior is a sufficient argument for a change. As far as I see, it'd mostly cause unnecessary breakage, with no significant gain.
Besides, it's rather common to define
sum_{z in Z} z = 0 prod_{z in Z} z = 1
if Z is an empty set -- this can then be extended to other reduction operations. Note that changing reduce behavior would require us to special-case the above two operations.
To reduce (pun intended) surprise is always a significant gain. I don't understand the notion of "extend" you introduce here. The natural "extension" is to take a start value, as with Python's ``reduce``. Providing a default start value is natural for operators with an identity and is not for those without, and correspondingly we end up with ``sum`` and ``prod`` functions (which match reduce with the obvious default start value) but no equivalents for subtraction and division. I also do not understand why there would have to be any special cases. Returning a *right* identity for an operation that is otherwise a *left* fold is very odd, no matter how you slice it. That is what looks like special casing ... Alan Isaac