Why is x an array in the softmax function?

2 points by jakeDevelops 3y ago ↗ HN

Sorry if this sounds dumb, I'm new to ML. So basically, if the softmax function is "e ^ (x - max(x)) / sum(e^(x - max(x))", I understand what e is, but then what's x? I keep seeing people make x an array, but shouldn't it just be a single number or float? Isn't that what the output would be of the summation formula? Thanks.

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sashank_1509 3y ago ↗

This is better answered in stack overflow but x is an array. I think a better written string is e ^ (x_i - max(x)) / sum_i(e^(x_i - max(x))" x_i is a specific element in the array x. Basically an array of real values is converted to an array of 0 to 1, with one corresponding to the largest element in x