Demonstrates calculating running average without maintaining a list of past values.

running_average.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""
Demonstrates calculating running average without maintaining a list of past values.
"""

nums = [55,2,591,5,31,73,7823,8,11,952,4,75,2,1000,1]

def classic_average():
	avg = sum(nums) / len(nums)
	print("The classic average is {}".format(avg))


def running_average():
	n = 0
	running_avg = 0
	for num in nums:
		n += 1
		running_avg = running_avg + ((num - running_avg) / n) 

	print("The running average is {}".format(running_avg))	



classic_average()
running_average()


"""
Output:

The classic average is 708.8666666666667
The running average is 708.8666666666667

"""