Re: Protecting from evaluation
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg14665] Re: Protecting from evaluation
- From: "David Bailey" <db at salford-software.com>
- Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 02:10:20 -0500
- Organization: Salford Software.com
- References: <71jl01$8m7@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
William B. Marks wrote in message <71jl01$8m7 at smc.vnet.net>...
>To display variable names along with their values I can put them in
>quotes first using
>
>quote[var_] := ToString[var]
>SetAttributes[quote,HoldAllComplete].
>
>Then this works
>quote[Unevaluated @ cVWGL]
>cVWGL
>but this fails
>quote[cVWGL]
>20
>but since this fails
>Unevaluated /@ {cVThGL, cVWGL}
>{Unevaluated[900], Unevaluated[20.]}
>
>I can't see a way to protect members of a list of variables except by
>putting quotes around them by hand. Any suggestions?
>
>
> I can't see a way to protect members of a list of variables except by
> putting quotes around them by hand. Any suggestions?
First, your 'quote' function can be written so you do not need to wrap
its argument in 'Unevaluated' each time you use it. The problem with
the function
as you wrote it is that although the argument is not evaluated on the
call to
'quote', it is still evaluated when you call 'ToString' - so you are no
further
forward! The answer is either to temporarily remove its value, e.g.
using the 'Block'
construct:
SetAttributes[quote,HoldAllComplete]; quote[var_] :=
Block[{var},ToString[var]]
or to use HoldForm:
SetAttributes[quote,HoldAllComplete]; quote[var_] :=
ToString[HoldForm[var]]
When you write Unevaluated /@ {cVThGL, cVWGL} it is important to realise
that the
/@ operator invokes the 'Map' function, which evaluates its
arguments.....
The following function will apply 'quote' to a list without evaluating
it:
SetAttributes[listQuote,HoldFirst];
listQuote[x_]:=ReleaseHold[Map[quote,Hold[x],{2}]]
As you can see, manipulating unevaluated expressions is rather subtle
and I usually recommend that people avoid giving their algebraic
variables explicit
values. For example, instead of setting cVWGL to 20, you could save this
value
in a list of transformation rules (stored in a variable) and apply this
whenever
you needed to map from variables to values.
David Bailey
Salford Software
db at salford-software.com