

def compute_dot(vector1, vector2):
    """ Compute dot product of two lists

    @brief Compute the dot product of two numeric lists by iterating over
    the two lists and adding the elementwise product.
    Ideally, numpy dot product functionality should be employed. This function
    can be used in cases where numpy is not accessible.

    Args:
        @param vector1 list, List of numbers
        @param vector2 list, List of numbers

    Returns:
        Numeric. Float or int (depending on type of input)
        If either of the two inputs are invalid or empty then zero is returned.
        If the lists are of unequal length then the longer list is truncated to
        the length of the shorter list and then the dot product is returned.
    """
    if not vector1 or not vector2:
        return 0
    # zip is used to truncate longer list to shorter length
    return sum(p*q for p,q in zip(vector1, vector2))