Python's sum() function returns the sum of numbers in an iterable.
sum([3,4,5]) == 3 + 4 + 5 == 12
I'm looking for the function that returns the product instead.
somelib.somefunc([3,4,5]) == 3 * 4 * 5 == 60
I'm pretty sure such a function exists, but I can't find it.
In Python 3.8, the prod function was added to the math module. See: math.prod().
The function you're looking for would be called prod() or product() but Python doesn't have that function. So, you need to write your own (which is easy).
Yes, that's right. Guido rejected the idea for a built-in prod() function because he thought it was rarely needed.
As you suggested, it is not hard to make your own using reduce() and operator.mul():
from functools import reduce # Required in Python 3
import operator
def prod(iterable):
return reduce(operator.mul, iterable, 1)
>>> prod(range(1, 5))
24
Note, in Python 3, the reduce() function was moved to the functools module.
As a side note, the primary motivating use case for prod() is to compute factorials. We already have support for that in the math module:
>>> import math
>>> math.factorial(10)
3628800
If your data consists of floats, you can compute a product using sum() with exponents and logarithms:
>>> from math import log, exp
>>> data = [1.2, 1.5, 2.5, 0.9, 14.2, 3.8]
>>> exp(sum(map(log, data)))
218.53799999999993
>>> 1.2 * 1.5 * 2.5 * 0.9 * 14.2 * 3.8
218.53799999999998
Note, the use of log() requires that all the inputs are positive.