Sum an Array of Numbers with JavaScript

By  on  

It's rare that I'm disappointed by the JavaScript language not having a function that I need. One such case was summing an array of numbers -- I was expecting Math.sum or a likewise, baked in API. Fear not -- summing an array of numbers is easy using Array.prototype.reduce!

const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4];
const sum = numbers.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0);

The 0 represents the starting value while with a and b, one represents the running total with the other representing the value to be added. You'll also note that using reduce prevents side effects! I'd still prefer something like Math.sum(...numbers) but a simple reduce will do!

Recent Features

  • By
    Page Visibility API

    One event that's always been lacking within the document is a signal for when the user is looking at a given tab, or another tab. When does the user switch off our site to look at something else? When do they come back?

  • By
    Send Text Messages with PHP

    Kids these days, I tell ya.  All they care about is the technology.  The video games.  The bottled water.  Oh, and the texting, always the texting.  Back in my day, all we had was...OK, I had all of these things too.  But I still don't get...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools ASCII Art

    I didn't realize that I truly was a nerd until I could admit to myself that ASCII art was better than the pieces Picasso, Monet, or Van Gogh could create.  ASCII art is unmatched in its beauty, simplicity, and ... OK, well, I'm being ridiculous;  ASCII...

  • By
    Introducing MooTools LazyLoad

    Once concept I'm very fond of is lazy loading. Lazy loading defers the loading of resources (usually images) until they are needed. Why load stuff you never need if you can prevent it, right? I've created LazyLoad, a customizable MooTools plugin that...

Discussion

  1. Chris Zuber

    Initializing with 0 might not be necessary since it takes the value from the first item in the array if not provided (and then skips the first item for the rest). It’s very slightly slower to set it to 0.

    Here’s what I wonder though… Suppose this were in some math.js module. Would it be sum(nums) or sum(...nums)? sum([1,2,3]) or sum(1,2,3)? I kinda prefer the latter.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!