Re: Ask Mathematica to sub for a long expression
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg71887] Re: Ask Mathematica to sub for a long expression
- From: "Mark Westwood" <markc.westwood at gmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 05:11:13 -0500 (EST)
- References: <ekp4o4$2fq$1@smc.vnet.net>
Hi Aaron The simple answer is that what you want to do is very easy in Mathematica. For example, define; In[3]:= xpr1 = 2 Sqrt[a^2 + b^2 - 2*a*b*Cos[theta]] (* an expression involving your long expression *) then execute In[5]:= xpr1/.Sqrt[a^2 + b^2 - 2*a*b*Cos[theta]] -> c Out[5]:= 2c and now your fun begins. Note the use of the /. which is a shorthand notation for the ReplaceAll function. Check out the on-line Help for this. As it stands this replacement rule is very inflexible, it will only replace expressions which exactly match the given one. What you might want to do is replace expressions which match a more general pattern. For example, suppose you assign the expression to be replaced to a variable, like this In[12]:= expressionToBeReplaced = Sqrt[a_^2 + b_^2 - 2*a_*b_*Cos[theta]] (* note carefully the underscores appended to the variable names, which transforms them into Patterns -- back to the Help system for further info on this *) and now you can try things like In[14]:= 2 Sqrt[x^2 + y^2 - 2*x*y*Cos[theta]] /. expressionToBeReplaced -> c Out[14]:= 2c Now the replacement works for any expression which has the same structure as the one you are seeking to replace. OK, over to you, post again when you've mastered simple replacement rules and want more guidance. Regards Mark Westwood aaronfude at gmail.com wrote: > Hi, > > Is it possible to ask Mathematica to replace a long expression, such as > Sqrt[a^2+b^2-2*a*b*Cos[theta]] with "c", whenever it encounters that > long expression? > > Thanks! > > Aaron Fude