Re: Functions, Part 1
- To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
- Subject: [mg581] Re: [mg564] Functions, Part 1
- From: "Dennis M. Schneider" <dschneid at knox.edu>
- Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 16:30:36 -0600 (CST)
On Fri, 17 Mar 1995, Jack Goldberg wrote: > Hi mathgroup: > In trying to understand all the differences between > f[] and Function[] I ran across something which puzzles me. > Consider the following: > > (1) f[x_] := x + 1 > > (2) g = Function[x,f[x]] > > (3) h = Function[x,Function[y,y+1]] > > Now g[2] and f[2] output 3 as expected. But > h[2] (indeed, h[garbage]) outputs Function[y,y+1]. What`s going on? > Clearly, I do not understand exactly what happens when one > uses the notation Function[x,body][2] since what I thought happens > was this: Every appearance of x in the expression "body" is > replaced by 2 and then body is evaluated. In view of (3) this > surely is not what happens. Or am I way off base? > Jack > In h, body is not a function of x. In the extreme, if h = Function[x, Function[x,x+1]], since the body is itself a function and variable declarations are treated as local, h[anything] will return Function[x,x+1]. Dennis Schneider