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
    6 Things You Didn’t Know About Firefox OS

    Firefox OS is all over the tech news and for good reason:  Mozilla's finally given web developers the platform that they need to create apps the way they've been creating them for years -- with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.  Firefox OS has been rapidly improving...

  • By
    Chris Coyier’s Favorite CodePen Demos

    David asked me if I'd be up for a guest post picking out some of my favorite Pens from CodePen. A daunting task! There are so many! I managed to pick a few though that have blown me away over the past few months. If you...

Incredible Demos

  • 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...

  • By
    Drag and Drop MooTools File Uploads

    Honesty hour confession:  file uploading within the web browser sucks.  It just does.  Like the ugly SELECT element, the file input is almost unstylable and looks different on different platforms.  Add to those criticism the fact that we're all used to drag and drop operations...

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!