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Bug in Pattern Matching ??!?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg29767] Bug in Pattern Matching ??!?
• From: "Drago Ganic" <drago.ganic at in2.hr>
• Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 01:00:11 -0400 (EDT)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hi,

some time ago ther was a post which received no answer from the group (as far as I know).

The problem was in this behaviour of Mathematica:

In[1]:= MatchQ[f[1, 2], f[x_Integer, y___]]
Out[1]= True

In[2]:= SetAttributes[f, Flat]

In[3]:= MatchQ[f[1, 2], f[x_Integer, y___]]
Out[4]= False


I don't see why the Flat attributes should change the behavoiur of Mathematica in this case. Here is the same thing without  MatchQ:

In[4]:=h[1, 2] /. h[x_Integer, y___] :> "OK"
Out[4]= "OK"

In[5]:= SetAttributes[h, Flat]

In[6]:= h[1, 2] /. h[x_Integer, y___] :> "OK"
Out[6]=h[1, 2]


The problem is in the  *head* restriction (Integer). Without it, everything is fine:

In[7]:= h[1, 2] /. h[x_, y___] :> "OK"
Out[7]= "OK"


To me this is a Bug, ... , or is it a feature :-). 

Greetings from Croatia,
Drago Ganic