Torch.sum not return a Tensor

1 
>>> a = torch.randn(1,2)
>>> a

 0.4613 -0.6274
[torch.FloatTensor of size 1x2]

>>> torch.sum(a)
-0.16612520813941956

According to the official doc, torch.sum should return a Tensor, so why I got a float number?

2

There are two versions of torch.sum: one which sums all elements in a Tensor and returns a float, and one with sums all elements in each dimension of a Tensor and returns a Tensor.

>>> a = torch.randn(1,2)
>>> a

 1.1424  0.5776
[torch.FloatTensor of size 1x2]

>>> torch.sum(a)
1.7199773788452148

>>> torch.sum(a,0)

 1.1424
 0.5776
[torch.FloatTensor of size 2]

>>> torch.sum(a,1)

 1.7200
[torch.FloatTensor of size 1]
3

But the official docs says they will both return a Tensor
http://pytorch.org/docs/master/torch.html#reduction-ops

4

Ah, interesting! It looks like a recent change. You linked to the docs for the master branch, but the same docs for v0.3.1 show the two different return types. I guess you’re using an older version of PyTorch, but looking at the latest docs.

5 
>>> torch.__version__
'0.3.1.post2'

I prefer they both return a Tensor… Why to change that?

6

Hi,

In master, Tensor and Variable are now the same thing. So the behaviour is the same as what Variable used to be: It will return a Tensor with a single element in it.

In 0.3.1, Tensor sum was returning a python float while a Variable sum was returning another Variable with a single element. This weird behaviour is now fixed in master.

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