Pattern matching trivia
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg13628] Pattern matching trivia
- From: Ersek_Ted%PAX1A at mr.nawcad.navy.mil
- Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 03:08:29 -0400
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
I just discovered something interesting about pattern matching. The definitions for (goo) are no applied in the lines below. I understand this is because an expression with the head Complex or Rational is an atom, and is not considered a sum or product of smaller expressions. In[1]:= goo[a_+b_]:={Complex,a,b} goo[m_/n_]:={Rational,m,n} In[3]:= goo[2+3 I] Out[3]= goo[2+3 I] In[4]:= goo[2/3]//InputForm Out[4]= goo[2/3] Now the function (foo) below has the attribute HoldAllComplete. The peculiar thing is that the definitions are now used. It seems that when the arguments of (foo) are Complex or Rational, the pattern matcher now treats these arguments as the sum or product of smaller expressions. In[5]:= Attributes[foo]={HoldAllComplete}; foo[a_+b_]:={Complex,a,b} foo[m_/n_]:={Rational,m,n} In[7]:= foo[2+3I] Out[7]= {Complex,2,3 I} In[8]:= foo[2/3] Out[8]= {Rational,2,3} It turns out Version 3.0 has exactly five built in functions with the HoldAllComplete attribute. They are: HoldComplete InterpretationBox MakeBoxes Parenthesize Unevaluated Note: Parenthesize is only documented via the usage message below. I think that means it's an experimental feature. In[9]:= ?Parenthesize "Parenthesize[ expr, fmt, prec, group] will represent expr in format fmt and \ parenthesize it if necessary." __________________________________ Ted Ersek PS Starting 10 Aug 1998 my email address will be: ErsekTR at navair.navy.mil