.sum()

The .sum() function sums the elements of an array over a given axis.

Syntax

numpy.sum(a, axis, dtype, out, keepdims, initial, where)

The a argument is required and represents the array of elements to sum. All other arguments are optional. Used by itself, a will result in a scalar that sums all the elements of the array.

.sum() provides the following arguments:

• a: The array of elements to sum.
• axis: An int or tuple of ints specifying the axis/axes along which to sum.
• dtype: The type of the returned array and the accumulator used to sum elements. Defaults to the dtype of array.
• out: An ndarray to receive result. Must have the same shape as expected output.
• keepdims: A boolean if true will keep reduced axes in the result as dimensions with size one.
• initial: The starting value for sum.
• where: A boolean array that maps to array and selects elements to include into the sum.

Example

The following example creates an array then uses a few .sum() operations to sum the elements.

import numpy as np

nd = np.array([[1,2,3],[4,5,6]])

print(np.sum(nd))
print(np.sum(nd, axis=0))
print(np.sum(nd, axis=1))

This produces the following output:

21
[5 7 9]
[ 6 15]