add some more docstrings

2 files changed, 16 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/numpy/core/fromnumeric.py b/numpy/core/fromnumeric.py
index bfd8a1e0d..c3b5d031f 100644
--- a/numpy/core/fromnumeric.py
+++ b/numpy/core/fromnumeric.py
@@ -468,9 +468,17 @@ def mean(a, axis=0, dtype=None):
         mean = a.mean
     except AttributeError:
         return _wrapit(a, 'mean', axis, dtype)
-    return mean(axis, dtype)    
+    return mean(axis, dtype)
 
 def std(a, axis=0, dtype=None):
+    """std(sample, axis=0, dtype=None)
+    Return the standard deviation, a measure of the spread of a distribution.
+
+    The standard deviation is the square root of the average of the squared
+    deviations from the mean, i.e. std = sqrt(mean((x - x.mean())**2)).
+
+    For multidimensional arrays, std is computed by default along the first axis.
+    """
     try:
         std = a.std
     except AttributeError:
diff --git a/numpy/core/src/arraymethods.c b/numpy/core/src/arraymethods.c
index 757df2ef5..c01d3db4b 100644
--- a/numpy/core/src/arraymethods.c
+++ b/numpy/core/src/arraymethods.c
@@ -1385,7 +1385,13 @@ array_all(PyArrayObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 	return PyArray_All(self, axis);
 }
 
-static char doc_stddev[] = "a.std(axis=None, dtype=None)";
+static char doc_stddev[] = "a.std(axis=None, dtype=None)\n"
+"Return the standard deviation, a measure of the spread of a distribution.\n"
+"\n"
+"The standard deviation is the square root of the average of the squared\n"
+"deviations from the mean, i.e. std = sqrt(mean((x - x.mean())**2)).\n"
+"\n"
+"For multidimensional arrays, std is computed by default along the first axis.\n";
 
 static PyObject *
 array_stddev(PyArrayObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)