Re: Problem: Passing Variables within Expressions To Mathematica through JLink
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg26216] Re: Problem: Passing Variables within Expressions To Mathematica through JLink
- From: tgayley at wolfram.com (Todd Gayley)
- Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2000 02:10:42 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: Wolfram Research, Inc.
- References: <9074kr$b0o@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On 30 Nov 2000 22:07:07 -0500, "rani olam" <okayr9 at cool.com.jo> wrote: > >Hi >The following program is a visual basic program to send request to >Mathematica Kernel to calculate Pi to arbitrary decimal digits throught >JLink using the expression > N[Pi, NumOfDigits] and sending it Packet by Packet, the problem is >that i could not send this expression as a whole using the following >line : >Text1.Text=link.evaluateToOutputForm("N[Pi, NumOfDigits]", 0) >i could not pass the variable NumOfDigits within the expression to >Kernel. >it work if we replaced the variable with a number such as 10000: >Text1.Text=link.evaluateToOutputForm("N[Pi, 10000]", 0) >unfortunately the user's guide give us only examples about calculating >2+2, an the packet by packet method. >any help? >rani olam >okayr9 at cool.com.jo > >'remember to adjust the mathematica kernel path as in your system >'Text1.Text is for displaying Pi digits in the Text window >'Text2.Text is for entering the number of digits you want to calculate >'The main method is from the User's Manual of JLink which could be >obtained from: >'http://www.wolfram.com/solutions/mathlink/jlink >Private Sub Command1_Click() > NumOfDigits= Val(Text2.Text) > >Set link = GetObject("java:com.wolfram.jlink.KernelLinkCOM") > link.setLink ("-linkname 'C:\Program Files\Wolfram >Research\Mathematica\4.0\\mathkernel' -linkmode launch") > > link.discardAnswer > link.putFunction "EvaluatePacket", 1 > link.putFunction "ToString", 1 > link.putFunction "N", 2 > link.putSymbol ("Pi") > link.put (NumOfDigits) > link.waitForAnswer >Text1.Text =link.getString >link.Close >End Sub > > Rani, I'm glad you posted this question, since many readers are probably not aware that J/Link can be used to call Mathematica from COM-aware scripting languages like Visual Basic, VBScript, Active Server Pages, etc. Because the Microsoft Java virtual machine is tightly integrated with COM, Java classes are automatically COM objects that expose a so-called "Dispatch" interface, meaning they can be easily scripted. J/Link has a special KernelLinkCOM class that exposes virtually the entire J/Link KernelLink interface to non-Java scripting languages. Your code is a good example of all that you need to write to use J/Link's high-level facilities for calling Mathematica without being the least bit concerned that Java is providing the "glue" layer. The answer to your question about getting this line to work: Text1.Text=link.evaluateToOutputForm("N[Pi, NumOfDigits]", 0) is that NumOfDigits is a variable in VB, so you need to create a string of Mathematica input that contains its value, not its name: Text1.Text=link.evaluateToOutputForm("N[Pi, " & NumOfDigits & "]", 0) (For people not familiar with VB, & is a string-join operator). Thus, your subroutine becomes just: Private Sub Command1_Click() NumOfDigits= Val(Text2.Text) Set link = GetObject("java:com.wolfram.jlink.KernelLinkCOM") link.setLink ("-linkname 'C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\4.0\\mathkernel' -linkmode launch") Text1.Text = link.evaluateToOutputForm("N[Pi, " & NumOfDigits & "]", 0) link.Close End Sub This question examplifies a classic decision in all flavors of MathLink programming: Do you create a string giving a complete command and send that, or do you build the input expression by sending it piece-by-piece with a sequence of MathLink "put" calls? Often, as here, it is more convenient to use the facilities of your programming language to construct a complete string. In rarer cases it is easier to send the epxression piecemeal. Todd Gayley Wolfram Research