Re: Baffled By Underscore Pattern Matching
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg46024] Re: [mg45992] Baffled By Underscore Pattern Matching
- From: "Sseziwa Mukasa,,(978) 536-2359" <mukasa at jeol.com>
- Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 03:20:55 -0500 (EST)
- References: <200402021020.FAA29529@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On Feb 2, 2004, at 5:20 AM, Harold Noffke wrote:
> MathGroup:
>
> In my study of Mathematica 5.0, I have reached "The Mathematica Book >
> Principals of Mathematica > Patterns > 2.3.8 Functions with Variable
> Numbers of Arguments". The In[1]/Out[1] example I understand, but the
> In[2,3]/Out[3] example (discussed below) has me totally mystified.
>
> As printed, we have ...
>
> In[2]:= h[a___, x_, b___, x_, c___] := hh[x] h[a, b, c]
>
> In[3]:= h[2, 3, 2, 4, 5, 3]
>
> Out[3]= h[4, 5] hh[2] hh[3]
>
> Now let's make a change to In[2] ...
>
> In[4]:= Clear[h, hh]
>
> In[5]:= h[a___, x_, b___, x_, c___] := hh[x] h[{a}, {b}, {c}]
>
> In[6]:= h[2, 3, 2, 4, 5, 3]
>
> Out[6]= h[{}, {3}, {4, 5, 3}] hh[2]
>
> I did a Trace on this pattern match problem, and found only that
> doublets were pulled out on each iteration. In order to understand
> what is happening here, I think I need to understand the matching
> process at a level of granularity finer than Trace can supply. I
> don"t have a clear mental picture of how In[5] manipulates the number
> stream which feeds into it from In[6]. I have no idea of how the
> In[6] lists came to contain the numbers they do.
>
> Any help, pointers to tutorial papers, or more illuminating examples
> will be greatly appreciated.
I think one can understand this function just by carefully tracing the
program. First of all, one must understand the definition of h. h
takes an arbitrary number of arguments. Reading the arguments from
left to right, the first repeated element that's encountered is bound
to x. a, b, and c are then those arguments which separate the repeated
element. h is also recursive, calling itself again with the argument
a,b,c. Your modification on line 5, changed h such that it calls
itself on the arguments {a},{b},{c}, which is three lists. Given the
original argument 2,3,2,4,5,3, x is bound to 2, the first repeated
argument, a is then empty, b is 3 and c is 4,5,3. In your modified
version h is thus called with the argument {},{3},{4,5,3}. None of the
elements are repeated and recursion terminates with your result. The
original function is called with the argument 3,4,5,3, the empty
argument a being dropped, so x binds to 3, a is empty again, b is 4,5
and c is empty. On the recursion h is called with 4,5 which has no
repeated element, so recursion terminates with the result seen in
Out[3].
Hope that's clear enough,
Ssezi
- References:
- Baffled By Underscore Pattern Matching
- From: Harold.Noffke@wpafb.af.mil (Harold Noffke)
- Baffled By Underscore Pattern Matching