How to perform a sum just for a list of indices over numpy array, e.g., if I have an array a = [1,2,3,4] and a list of indices to sum, indices = [0, 2] and I want a fast operation to give me the answer 4 because the value for summing value at index 0 and index 2 in a is 4
3 Answers
You can use sum directly after indexing with indices:
a = np.array([1,2,3,4])
indices = [0, 2]
a[indices].sum()
Comments
The accepted a[indices].sum() approach copies data and creates a new array, which might cause problem if the array is large. np.sum actually has an argument to mask out colums, you can just do
np.sum(a, where=[True, False, True, False])
Which doesn't copy any data.
The mask array can be obtained by:
mask = np.full(4, False)
mask[np.array([0,2])] = True
1 Comment
Joshua Dempster
Since the question asks for a fast operation, this is the better answer IMO.
Try:
>>> a = [1,2,3,4]
>>> indices = [0, 2]
>>> sum(a[i] for i in indices)
4
Faster
If you have a lot of numbers and you want high speed, then you need to use numpy:
>>> import numpy as np
>>> a = np.array([1,2,3,4])
>>> a[indices]
array([1, 3])
>>> np.sum(a[indices])
4
a[indices].sum()