Problem with evaluation of delayed rules
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg21505] Problem with evaluation of delayed rules
- From: Eckhard Hennig <hennig at itwm.uni-kl.de>
- Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 02:43:25 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: ITWM
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi, I would greatly appreciate any elegant solutions to the following type of problem. Assume that we have a list of symbols, e.g. In[1]:= symbols = {a, b, c, d}; and that we have the following expression that involves a function (here "If") with HoldXXX attribute (HoldAll, HoldRest, ...). In[2]:= expr = If[x > 0, Difference[1, 2], Difference[3, 4]]; In the above expression, I want to replace all objects of the form Difference[i, j] by differences of the two entries i and j from the list "symbols". If I use a delayed rule as follows In[3]:= expr /. Difference[x_, y_] :> symbols[[x]] - symbols[[y]] then this is what I get: Out[3]= If[x > 0, symbols[[1]] - symbols[[2]], symbols[[3]] - symbols[[4]]] Due to the HoldXXX attribute of the "If" function, the right-hand side of the delayed rule remains unevaluated. However, I need the result of the rule to be evaluated BEFORE it is inserted into expr, i.e. the result I want for In[3] is: Out[3new]= If[x > 0, a - b, c - d] Does there exist any (simple) approach to forcing Mathematica 3.0/4.0 to simplify the result of a delayed rule as soon as the rule applies to a subexpression of a held expression (please note the conditions below)? One may argue that it doesn't make a difference in the end whether result of rewriting expr is given in the form of Out[3] or Out[3new]. Well, the difference comes in as soon as you clear the value of "symbols" with Clear[symbols] and then evaluate Out[3] for some x. Condition 1: Temporarily removing any HoldXXX attributes from expr or any of its subexpressions is not a solution because I only want the results of rules to be simplified. No further simplification of held subexpressions must be performed after rule application. For example, Out[3] /. If -> MyIf /. MyIf -> If yields Out[3new], but this approach does not count as a solution. Condition 2: The solution must not be limited to a predefined set of functions with HoldXXX attribute, say If and Which. Best regards, Eckhard ----------------------------------------------------------- Dipl.-Ing. Eckhard Hennig mailto:hennig at itwm.uni-kl.de Institut fuer Techno- und Wirtschaftsmathematik e.V. (ITWM) Erwin-Schroedinger-Strasse, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany Voice: +49-(0)631-205-3126 Fax: +49-(0)631-205-4139 http://www.itwm.uni-kl.de/as/employees/hennig.html ITWM - Makers of Analog Insydes for Mathematica http://www.itwm.uni-kl.de/as/products/ai -----------------------------------------------------------