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From: Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de>
Subject: Re: Simple recursive sum function | what's the cause of the weird behaviour?
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 15:19:30 +0200
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:50062

Russel Walker wrote:

> Since I've already wasted a thread I might as well...
> 
> Does this serve as an acceptable solution?
> 
> def supersum(sequence, start=0):
>     result = type(start)()
>     for item in sequence:
>         try:
>             result += supersum(item, start)
>         except:
>             result += item
>     return result

That depends on what is an acceptable result ;)
For instance:

>>> supersum([2, 3], 1)
5
>>> supersum([[1], ["abc"]], [])
[1, 'a', 'b', 'c']