Many of the functions in scipy do not include examples in their docstrings. Even a simple example can be helpful for a new user, so we should try to include examples wherever possible.
A script called find_functions_missing_examples.py is now maintained in my github repository analyze-scipy-code. This script reports the names of functions that are missing the "Examples" section.
Below is the output that I get when run with the current master branch. Some of these functions have proper docstrings, so all they need is the addition of an "Examples" section containing one or more illustrative examples. Many of them, however, do not comply with the numpy docstring guidelines, and may be missing the "Parameters" and "Returns" sections. In particular, the docstrings of many of the functions in scipy.special are quite terse. Anyone who works on this task should ensure that the final docstring complies with the guidelines. See, for example, #7148, where the sections "Parameters", "Returns" and "Examples" were added to the docstring of scipy.special.gamma.
I have added the tag "good first issue" to this task, because it is usually very easy to add one or two examples to a function. (How to edit the docstring of the functions in scipy.special is not obvious, but take a look at #7148 or #7143 for examples.) The tag does not mean it will be easy to complete this task. As you can see below, there is a lot of work to be done! Anyone who wants to help should feel free to pick a function or two to work on.
The script ignores functions that have the string "is deprecated" in their docstring. The names of other functions that should be ignored can be added to the list skip. If you find such a function, add a comment about it here.
Functions missing "Examples", not including fftpack and stats.mstats (last updated 15-August-2025):
scipy version 1.17.0.dev0+git20250815.2887dcb
fft (4)
idst
ifht
ihfft2
irfft2
interpolate (2)
make_splprep
make_splrep
linalg.interpolative (9)
estimate_rank
estimate_spectral_norm
estimate_spectral_norm_diff
id_to_svd
interp_decomp
reconstruct_interp_matrix
reconstruct_matrix_from_id
reconstruct_skel_matrix
svd
ndimage (5)
generic_filter1d
generic_gradient_magnitude
generic_laplace
morphological_laplace
watershed_ift
odr (1)
odr
optimize (5)
excitingmixing
fmin_ncg
fmin_tnc
linearmixing
linprog_verbose_callback
signal (22)
abcd_normalize
besselap
buttap
cheb1ap
cheb2ap
cspline2d
ellipap
hilbert2
invres
invresz
lfiltic
medfilt
qspline2d
residue
residuez
sos2zpk
sosfreqz
ss2zpk
symiirorder1
symiirorder2
vectorstrength
zpk2ss
special (123)
assoc_laguerre
bdtr
bdtrc
bdtri
bdtrik
bdtrin
bei_zeros
beip
beip_zeros
ber_zeros
berp
c_roots
cg_roots
chebyc
chebys
chndtr
chndtridf
chndtrinc
chndtrix
ellipj
ellipk
ellipkinc
ellipkm1
entr
eval_chebyt
eval_chebyu
eval_gegenbauer
eval_genlaguerre
eval_hermite
eval_hermitenorm
eval_jacobi
eval_laguerre
eval_sh_chebyt
eval_sh_chebyu
eval_sh_jacobi
eval_sh_legendre
fresnel_zeros
fresnelc_zeros
fresnels_zeros
h_roots
hankel1
hankel1e
hankel2
hankel2e
he_roots
hermitenorm
j_roots
jnjnp_zeros
js_roots
kei_zeros
keip
keip_zeros
kelvin
kelvin_zeros
ker_zeros
kerp
kerp_zeros
kl_div
l_roots
la_roots
lmbda
lpmv
lqmn
lqn
mathieu_a
mathieu_b
mathieu_even_coef
mathieu_modcem1
mathieu_modcem2
mathieu_modsem1
mathieu_modsem2
mathieu_odd_coef
modfresnelm
modfresnelp
obl_ang1
obl_ang1_cv
obl_cv
obl_cv_seq
obl_rad1
obl_rad1_cv
obl_rad2
obl_rad2_cv
pbdn_seq
pbdv
pbdv_seq
pbvv
pbvv_seq
pbwa
pro_ang1
pro_ang1_cv
pro_cv
pro_cv_seq
pro_rad1
pro_rad1_cv
pro_rad2
pro_rad2_cv
ps_roots
rel_entr
riccati_jn
riccati_yn
roots_chebyc
roots_chebys
roots_chebyt
roots_chebyu
roots_gegenbauer
roots_genlaguerre
roots_hermite
roots_hermitenorm
roots_jacobi
roots_laguerre
roots_sh_chebyt
roots_sh_chebyu
roots_sh_jacobi
roots_sh_legendre
s_roots
sh_chebyt
sh_chebyu
sh_jacobi
sh_legendre
t_roots
ts_roots
u_roots
us_roots
stats (2)
epps_singleton_2samp
kstatvar
Found 173 functions
(This issue was created March 13, 2017. At that time, version 0.19.0 had just been released a few days earlier. When I run this script on that version (with 'fft' removed from modules), it finds 674 functions without examples.)
Note: if your PR only adds documentation, please add [docs only] on a new line in the commit message. This will help save our CI credits.
person142, rgommers, rabernat, jotasi, twmr and 8 more
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