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JavaScript

Can someone explain how this sum code works?

var sum = [1, 2, 3].reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0);
console.log(sum); // 6

I know the above code calculates the sum of an array but how?

"a" and "b" are the parameters, then "a" and "b" are added together but what is the 0 for?

1 Answer

Moosa Bonomali
Moosa Bonomali
6,297 Points

The reduce function is executed as follows;

arr.reduce(callback[, initialValue])

The initialValue is optional. In your case 0 is the initial value. In this case it may not be necessary to include the 0, if you had a different initial value, then this value would have been added to sum of your array.

The callback function takes 4 parameters, 2 of which are required. In your case a and b.

(a , b)

a is the accumulator - it keeps track of the total so far b is the current value been processed. The return value of the callback function

=> a + b 

will be stored in a until all array elements are processed.