What is reduce?
reduce is a higher-order function commonly used in programming, especially
in functional programming paradigms. It processes a collection (like an array
or list) and reduces it to a single cumulative value by applying a function
repeatedly.
How reduce Works
- Takes a function and an initial accumulator value.
- Iterates over each element in the collection.
- Applies the function to the accumulator and the current element.
- Updates the accumulator with the result.
- Returns the final accumulator after processing all elements.
Example in JavaScript
javascript
const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
// Sum all numbers using reduce
const sum = numbers.reduce((accumulator, currentValue) => accumulator + currentValue, 0);
console.log(sum); // Output: 15
Common Uses of reduce
- Summing numbers
- Multiplying values
- Flattening arrays
- Counting occurrences
- Building objects or maps from arrays
If you want, I can provide examples in other programming languages or explain specific use cases!
