Python sum() Function

Description

The sum() function returns the sum of all numeric items in any iterable (list or tuple). By default, the optional start argument is 0. If a start value is given, the numbers in the list are added to the start value.

Syntax

sum(iterable, start)

Parameters

x : an iterable with numeric operands
start: initial value of sum

Return Value

This function returns the sum of the numeric operands in the iterable.

Example

x = [10,20,30]
total = sum(x)
print ("x: ",x, "sum(x): ", total)

x = (10, -20, 10)
total = sum(x)
print ("x: ",x, "sum(x): ", total)

x = [10,20,30]
start = 5
total = sum(x, start)
print ("x: ",x, "start:", start, "sum(x, start): ", total)

This will produce the following output:

x: [10, 20, 30] sum(x): 60
x: (10, -20, 10) sum(x): 0
x: [10, 20, 30] start: 5 sum(x, start): 65