Re: [Numpy-discussion] Product of an empty sequence

[Travis O. <oli...@ie...>]

Ivan Vilata i Balaguer wrote:
> Today I was surprised by this::
>
>   
>>>> import numpy
>>>> numpy.__version__
>>>>         
> '1.0.dev3341'
>   
>>>> numpy.prod(())
>>>>         
> 1.0
>
> Wouldn't be 0.0 a more natural answer?  I understand that 1 is neutral
> on product operations, but I still can't see why 1.0 is a better answer.
>   

It's the identity for the multiplication ufunc.  

>  Sorry for the clueless question, but I have searched lists, docstrings
> and web and found nothing about this.
>
> (BTW, the definitions of ``prod()`` and ``product()`` are still
> identical as noted by Sebastian Haase some time ago.)
>   
Is this a problem?

-Travis