Re: Why is y a local variable here?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg63169] Re: [mg63085] Why is y a local variable here?
- From: "Steven T. Hatton" <hattons at globalsymmetry.com>
- Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 07:22:26 -0500 (EST)
- References: <200512130841.DAA08255@smc.vnet.net> <976C0928-EE8E-4FE2-824E-FE1F2C3636EF@omegaconsultinggroup.com>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On Thursday 15 December 2005 11:27, Omega Consulting wrote:
> I have a hard time understanding the purpose of your example. You say
> that you want to define
>
> sd[y_] = SDP[n - 1, y]
>
> in your function. But you want the global value of y to be used. If
> so, why have y as a parameter of sd. If the global value comes in,
> then sd will always return the same thing (n and y are fixed values).
>
> If you want the function to use the global value, don't make it a
> parameter of sd.
I didn't want Global`y to be used, I just didn't understand why it was being
hidden (renamed) when code using almost the same construct was seeing the
Global`y.
> The other part of your question is where does y$ come from, why isn't
> it y (which would then evaluate into the global y value). This is a
> subtle side-effect of how Mathematica scoping works. It is somewhat
> complicated and usually only appears when you nest one scoping
> construct inside another. In this case, the = for sd inside the :=
> for SDP. The details are in section 2.7.4 of the Mathematica Book
> (Advanced Topic: Variables in Pure Functions and Rules). That
> describes the situation in a much better way than I could reproduce
> here.
That was my only question. Thank you. I will need to read that section
carefully a few times. I believe the replacement is due to there being an
unbound variable "n" within the sd[y_]=SDP[n-1,y];, and that variable is
changed during evaluation. The discussion seems to focus on pure functions,
but I suspect the same rules apply to Modules and other block structures as
well. That seems to be what the rather cryptic comment about lambda
expressions is about.
Here is another nuance of the situation. The following is the correct
implementation of the algorithm. If I change it by making y local to the
Module, it does not us "x" in the result. Instead, the result contains the
instance variable of the Module.
SDP[0, x_] := x
SDP[n_Integer?Positive, x_] := Module[{sd, srp = Sqrt[Prime[n]], py},
sd[y_] = SDP[n - 1, y];
Expand[sd[x + srp] sd[x - srp]]]
SDP[5, x]
Maeder makes in interesting observation at the bottom of page 221 in
_Programming in Mathematica_.
Steven
- References:
- Why is y a local variable here?
- From: "Steven T. Hatton" <hattons@globalsymmetry.com>
- Why is y a local variable here?