Re: undocumented function: StringQ
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg47601] Re: undocumented function: StringQ
- From: drbob at bigfoot.com (Bobby R. Treat)
- Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 02:31:41 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <c5o9i7$16q$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
>>I just noticed that there is a built-in test StringQ[], >> that is not documented in the online help You don't mean "online help", you mean on DISK help. Try searching for StringQ at Wolfram's online Documentation Center http://documents.wolfram.com/ and you'll find hundreds of unrelated articles, in addition to a few that actually mention this function. In addition, this works: ?StringQ StringQ[expr] gives True if expr is a string, and False otherwise. If you look up String in the Help Browser and look at topics under String Manipulation, StringQ isn't listed, and this is what I call undocumented: we can't find out about it unless somebody tells us about it, we see it in a post like this, et cetera. We can't look it up at the Doc Center or use ? unless we know it exists and we know its precise name. By that definition, there are hundreds, probably thousands of undocumented functions and features. Help for complex topics is poorly written, too -- apparently by programmers with little or no skill in writing for an audience. That said, Mathematica is more complex and better documented than Visual Basic for Applications, Excel, et cetera, so.... We're lucky. Bobby Marcus Stollsteimer <marcus314 at yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<c5o9i7$16q$1 at smc.vnet.net>... > Hi, > > I just noticed that there is a built-in test StringQ[], > that is not documented in the online help. > > ?StringQ > StringQ[expr] gives True if expr is a string, and False otherwise. > > Only a mistake? > Is it unsafe to use this function? > > Regards, > Marcus