Re: Combining pure functions
- To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
- Subject: [mg352] Re: [mg331] Combining pure functions
- From: villegas (Robert Villegas)
- Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 16:20:37 -0600
Xah Lee writes:
> Is there a way to combine several pure functions algebraicaly as one pure
> function?
>
> One Example:
>
> How to get (#^2&)/(#^3&) to become (#^2/#^3)&
In simple cases like this, a short command to throw away the Function
heads on subexpressions is:
DeleteCases[Function[expr], Function, {2, -1}, Heads->True]
where 'expr' stands for your expression that has sub-functions inside of it.
Using a couple examples like the one you gave:
In[8]:= DeleteCases[Function[ (#^2 &) / (#^3 &) ], Function, {2, -1},
Heads->True ]
2
#1
Out[8]= --- &
3
#1
In[9]:= DeleteCases[Function[ (Sin[#]&) / (ArcTan[#, #^2]&) - (Log[2, #^#]&)
], Function, {2, -1}, Heads->True ]
Sin[#1] #1
Out[9]= --------------- - Log[2, #1 ] &
2
ArcTan[#1, #1 ]
This method takes your function expression and wraps it in 'Function', then
goes inside and deletes any head 'Function' from a subexpression, leaving
the bare formula (essentially, the "# without the &"). With all the
Function's gone inside, the outer wrapper of 'Function' that we put on
becomes in charge of all the #'s. You end up with a single function.
I would guess that (#^2&)/(#^3&) is one example of a formulation that
someone might have, and that there could be more complex expressions
where some amount of coalescence of sub-functions would be wanted. In
the examples above, the operators on slot variables # were Mathematica
functions like Power, Sin, and Log. You might instead have operators that
are made up of pure functions that need to be combined to an extent:
( (#^2 &) + (#^3 &) ) [# + 3] &
You might want this expression to mean: take the argument and add 3, then
hit it with the operator which squares, cubes, and adds. Hence, you'd want
to convert it to:
(#^2 + #^3 &)[# + 3] &
These can get nested as much as you want. If your application needs to
construct operators from lots of smaller pure functions, then I have a
feeling that the first challenge would be to define what types of
expressions are allowed (maybe by inductive rules stating how they can
be built) and how they should be combined. I didn't come up with anything
really solid in the time I played with this, but I was just making things
up that people _might_ want to use, so some more real examples would
be needed.
Robby Villegas
Wolfram Research