# Computing logits for a vector and for all vectors in a set

I've had to write two different functions (shown below), but I want to combine the two functions into one. Is there a way to do this?

softmax_a_set() takes a list of numpy arrays, applies softmax() to each individual numpy array, and then returns a list of processed numpy arrays.

def softmax(a_vector):
"""Compute a logit for a vector."""
denom = sum(numpy.exp(a_vector))
logit = numpy.exp(a_vector)/denom
return logit

def softmax_a_set(a_set):
"""computes logits for all vectors in a set"""
softmax_set = numpy.zeros(a_set.shape)

for x in range(0, len(a_set)):
softmax_set[x] = softmax(a_set[x])

return softmax_set

• Ah, I see. Emphasis on didn't. Defining a function is just a shortcut anyway. First, you define a_vector as whatever is passed in, in this case a_set[x]. Next, you define denom. Next, you define logit. Next, you use logit elsewhere, in this case softmax_set[x] = logit. Mar 21 '16 at 12:46
• Why do you have/want to pack them into a single function? Following the Zen of Python, your solution looks perfectly fine. Mar 21 '16 at 16:44

Why do you want to combine them into two functions? It’s possible, but I don’t think it would be an improvement. They’re two fairly distinct functions, and cramming the code for both into a single function would make the code less readable.

If you really need a single function that handles both, you could do something like:

def softmax(a):
if isinstance(a, vector):
return softmax_a_vector(a)
elif isinstance(a, set):
return softmax_a_set(a)


which gets what you want, but you keep the nice separation of code into distinct functions.

One other minor thing: you can improve the for loop in softmax_a_set with enumerate:

for idx, a_vector in enumerate(a_set):
softmax_set[idx] = softmax(a_vector)