How do you sum a list in python using a for loop?

I'm new to Python and I have this problem:

I need to program a Python function that gives me back the sum of a list of numbers using a for loop.

I just know the following:

sum = 0
for x in [1,2,3,4,5]:
      sum = sum + x

print(sum)

divibisan

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asked Apr 26, 2014 at 10:35

3

I think what you mean is how to encapsulate that for general use, e.g. in a function:

def sum_list(l):
    sum = 0
    for x in l:
        sum += x
    return sum

Now you can apply this to any list. Examples:

l = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
sum_list(l)

l = list(map(int, input("Enter numbers separated by spaces: ").split()))
sum_list(l)

But note that sum is already built in!

answered Apr 26, 2014 at 10:42

jonrsharpejonrsharpe

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l = [1,2,3,4,5]
sum = 0
for x in l:
    sum = sum + x

And you can change l for any list you want.

answered Apr 26, 2014 at 10:38

zbszbs

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x=[1,2,3,4,5]
sum=0
for s in range(0,len(x)):
   sum=sum+x[s]
print sum   

answered Apr 26, 2014 at 10:52

3

Sum in a for loop in Python #

To sum in a for loop in Python:

1. Declare a new variable and set it to 0.
2. Use a for loop to iterate over a sequence of numbers.
3. Reassign the variable to its value plus the current number.

Copied!
my_list = [2, 4, 6, 8]

# ✅ sum using a for loop
total = 0

for num in my_list:
    total += num

print(total)  # 👉️ 20

# ----------------------

# ✅ sum numbers in range using a for loop

total_2 = 0

for num in range(1, 5):
    total_2 += num

print(total_2)  # 👉️ 10

print(list(range(1, 5)))  # 👉️ [1, 2, 3, 4]

# ----------------------

# ✅ sum numbers taken from user input using a for loop

# 👇️ user enters 1 2 3 4
user_input = input('Enter space-separated numbers:')

my_list = list(map(int, user_input.split()))

print(my_list)  # 👉️ [1, 2, 3, 4]

total_3 = 0

for num in my_list:
    total_3 += num

print(total_3)  # 👉️ 10

We used a for loop to sum the numbers in a list.

The first step is to declare a new variable and initialize it to 0.

On each iteration, we use the += operator to reassign the variable to its current value plus the current number.

The following 2 lines of code achieve the same result:

• total += num
• total = total + num

Here is an example that uses the longer reassignment syntax.

Copied!
my_list = [2, 4, 6, 8]

total = 0

for num in my_list:
    total = total + num

print(total)  # 👉️ 20

If you need to add the numbers in a certain range using a for loop, create the range with the range() class.

Copied!
total_2 = 0

for num in range(1, 5):
    total_2 += num

print(total_2)  # 👉️ 10

print(list(range(1, 5)))  # 👉️ [1, 2, 3, 4]

The range class is commonly used for looping a specific number of times in for loops and takes the following parameters:

If you need to sum numbers taken from user input in a for loop, use the input() function.

Copied!
# 👇️ user enters 1 2 3 4
user_input = input('Enter space-separated numbers:')

my_list = list(map(int, user_input.split()))

print(my_list)  # 👉️ [1, 2, 3, 4]

total_3 = 0

for num in my_list:
    total_3 += num

print(total_3)  # 👉️ 10

The input function takes an optional prompt argument and writes it to standard output without a trailing newline.

The input() function is guaranteed to return a string even if the user enters a number.

We ued the str.split() function to split the string on each space.

The str.split() method splits the string into a list of substrings using a delimiter.

The method takes the following 2 parameters:

If the separator is not found in the string, a list containing only 1 element is returned.

We used a whitespace separator in the example, but you use any other separator that suits your use case.

Here is an example that splits the user-provided string on each comma.

Copied!
# 👇️ user enters 1,2,3,4
user_input = input('Enter comma-separated numbers:')

my_list = list(map(int, user_input.split(',')))

print(my_list)  # 👉️ [1, 2, 3, 4]

total_3 = 0

for num in my_list:
    total_3 += num

print(total_3)  # 👉️ 10

After splitting the string, we get a list of strings, so we used the map() function to convert each string in the list to an integer.

Copied!
# 👇️ user enters 1,2,3,4
user_input = input('Enter comma-separated numbers:')

# 👇️ ['1', '2', '3', '4']
print(user_input.split(','))

The map() function takes a function and an iterable as arguments and calls the function with each item of the iterable.

The map() function passes each string to the int() class and converts it to an integer.

How do you sum items in a list in Python?

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