RE: My posting about Optional command
- To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu (Mathgroup)
- Subject: RE: My posting about Optional command
- From: Scott Herod <sherod at newton.colorado.edu>
- Date: Sat, 2 Jul 1994 23:12:02 -0600 (MDT)
I think I figured out the problem I was having with the Optional
command. Briefly, it was the fact that I was assigning an undefined
as the optional argument. This variable was then receiving all
of the definitions. Use of the Trace command details this.
In[3]:= ??f
Global`f
f[x_, y_:temp] := Block[{}, If[y == temp, y = Pi]; Print[x, y]]
In[3]:= y
Out[3]= y
In[4]:= temp
Out[4]= Pi
In[5]:= Trace[f[b]]
bPi
Out[5]= {f[b], Block[{}, If[temp == temp, temp = Pi]; Print[b, temp]],
> {If[temp == temp, temp = Pi]; Print[b, temp],
> {If[temp == temp, temp = Pi], {{temp, Pi}, {temp, Pi}, Pi == Pi, True},
> temp = Pi, Pi}, {{temp, Pi}, Print[b, Pi], Null}, Null}, Null}
In[6]:= bye
As you can see, temp (not y) is being set to Pi. The next time the function
f is loaded, temp has a value assigned to it. Sorry to make two post
out of this.
Scott Herod
(sherod at newton.colorado.edu)