Re: An argument pattern problem: ranges and lists
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg53001] Re: An argument pattern problem: ranges and lists
- From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
- Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 06:14:48 -0500 (EST)
- References: <cq0tro$2n8$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Simon Anders wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to use argument patterns to ensure that my function is only
> applied onto arguments which have the format
> pauli [_, _]
> where the second argument should be an integer between 0 and 4.
>
> So I defined a type
> pauliT = HoldPattern [pauli [_, s_Integer] /; s>=0 && s<=4];
>
> and declared my function as follows:
> f [p:pauliT] := DoSomething
>
> This works fine, but another function takes a pair of arguments
> g [p:{pauliT,pauliT}] := DoSomethingElse
>
> This is never called, because the pattern cannot be matched.
>
> I observed:
>
> pauliT = HoldPattern [pauli [_, s_Integer] /; s>=0 && s<=4];
> MatchQ[{pauli[1, 2], pauli[1, 3]}, {pauliT, pauliT}]
> --> False
>
> The problem seems to be that I named the second argument 's', because if
> I delete this name, it matches:
>
> pauliT = HoldPattern [pauli [_, s_Integer]];
> MatchQ[{pauli[1, 2], pauli[1, 3]}, {pauliT, pauliT}]
> --> False
>
> pauliT = HoldPattern [pauli [_, _Integer]];
> MatchQ[{pauli[1, 2], pauli[1, 3]}, {pauliT, pauliT}]
> --> True
>
> So, how do I specify the range condition correctly?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Simon
>
>
>
Hi Simon,
I like your style in defining variables to contain patterns, however if
you think about what happens if you have a repeated copy of pauliT, you
end up with the same named pattern occurring twice - so the rules of
Mathematica specify that it must match the same thing. You need to get a
unique variable (rather than s) each time you use pauiliT. This can be
done using 'With' after allowing for the subtlety that 'With'
handles /; constructs specially:
pauliT := With[{s = Unique[]},
HoldPattern[Condition1[pauli[_, s_Integer], (s > 0 && s <= 4)]]
] /. Condition1 -> Condition;
Of course, in this case it would be easier to avoid using a pattern
variable and write:
pauliT = HoldPattern[pauli[_, 1 | 2 | 3 | 4]]
David Bailey
dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk