what does a reducer function do? code example

Example 1: how to use reduce javascript

const sum = array.reduce((accumulator, element) => {
  return accumulator + element;
}, 0);
// An example that will loop through an array adding
// each element to an accumulator and returning it
// The 0 at the end initializes accumulator to start at 0
// If array is [2, 4, 6], the returned value in sum
// will be 12 (0 + 2 + 4 + 6)

const product = array.reduce((accumulator, element) => {
  return accumulator * element;
}, 1);
// Multiply all elements in array and return the total
// Initialize accumulator to start at 1
// If array is [2, 4, 6], the returned value in product
// will be 48 (1 * 2 * 4 * 6)

Example 2: reduce

var sum = _.reduce([1, 2, 3], function(memo, num){ return memo + num; }, 0);
=> 6