[Tutor] Summing arrays

[Wolfgang Maier]

On 03/16/2017 10:12 AM, Alan Gauld via Tutor wrote:
> On 16/03/17 05:11, Aaliyah Ebrahim wrote:
>
>> def sum2(N):
>>
>>     b = np.arange(1,N+1,1)
>>     mylist = [ ]
>>     for i in b:
>>         terms = 2*(1+3**(i-1))
>>         a = mylist.append[terms]
>>     return np.sum(mylist)
>
>> terms = 2*(1+3**(i-1))----> 9         mylist.append[terms]     10
>> return np.sum(mylist)     11
>> TypeError: 'builtin_function_or_method' object is not subscriptable
>
> You are using [] to call append instead of ().
> It should be
> a = mylist.append(terms)
>
> However, most of your function could be replaced by
> a list comprehension:
>
> def sum2(N):
>     mylist = [2*(1+3**(i-1)) for i in np.arange(1,N+1,1) ]
>     return np.sum(mylist)
>
> And I'm not sure the np versions of the functions will
> give much advantage over the standard range() and sum()
>
> Any time you see a structure like
>
> aList = []
> for <some iteration>
>    aList.append(<some expression>)
>
> You should consider whether a comprehension would
> be more suitable
>

Alternatively, you could even use a generator expression (essentially, 
just omitting the brackets from Alan's suggestion) and avoid keeping 
mylist in memory like this:

def sum2(N):
     return np.sum(2*(1+3**(i-1)) for i in np.arange(1,N+1,1))

In addition, I'd agree with Alan that the advantage of using numpy 
functionality in this function seems quite questionable. You'd probably 
get pretty much the same performance with just:

def sum2(N):
     return sum(2*(1+3**(i-1)) for i in range(1,N+1,1))

Best,
Wolfgang