Re: Do Modules Produce Side Effects?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg47984] Re: [mg47964] Do Modules Produce Side Effects?
- From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz at mimuw.edu.pl>
- Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 07:03:16 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <200405040508.BAA17753@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On 4 May 2004, at 14:08, Harold Noffke wrote:
> $Version "5.0 for Microsoft Windows [2000] (November 18, 2003)"
>
> MathGroup:
>
> The MathBook definition of Module tells me, "Module creates new
> symbols to represent each of its local variables every time it is
> called." I am led by this, and other Module descriptions, to conclude
> Modules do not produce side effects, like Blocks do. However, we have
> ...
>
> In[1]:= m=i^2
> Out[1]= i^2
>
> In[2]:= Module[ {}, m=4; 2*m ]
> Out[2]= 8
>
> In[3]:= m
> Out[3]= 4
>
> I expected m to remain unchanged from its original i^2. But Module
> changed m to 4, just as I would expect a Block to do.
>
> Am I misunderstanding something about the "side effect safety" of
> Modules?
>
> Regards,
> Harold
>
>
Since you did not localize m by including it in curly brackets it
remained a global variable. This is in no sense a "side effect" but
just the standard distinction between "local" and "global".
Andrzej Kozlowski
Chiba, Japan
http://www.mimuw.edu.pl/~akoz/
- References:
- Do Modules Produce Side Effects?
- From: Harold.Noffke@wpafb.af.mil (Harold Noffke)
- Do Modules Produce Side Effects?