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Re: Pattern test and expression sequence

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg83138] Re: Pattern test and expression sequence
  • From: Jean-Marc Gulliet <jeanmarc.gulliet at gmail.com>
  • Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:30:42 -0500 (EST)
  • Organization: The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • References: <fh9903$ap6$1@smc.vnet.net>

Jan Lellmann wrote:

> I want to define a pattern that accepts a sequence of expressions (of 
> arbitrary length) that matches some condition. So as a minimalist 
> example, if I wanted to accept all expressions with f as head and at 
> least 2 arguments, I want to write
> 
> myQ[x__] := (Print[x]; Length[{x}] > 1)
> f[x__?myQ] := works[x];
> f[1, 2]
> 
> This should print "1 2" and return "works[1,2]". But it doesn't, it just 
> prints "1" and returns f[1,2] unevaluated. So apparenty Mathematica does 
> not pass the complete expression sequence to myQ, but only the first 
> element ("1").
> 
> There is a workaround using /; :
> f[x__] /; (myQ[x] == True) := works[x];
> 
> but it is rather ugly and cumbersome when there is more than one argument.
> 
> Does anyone have an idea why Mathematica does this? Is it a bug? Or is 
> there a (nice) workaround?

Replace the test "?myQ" by "/; myQ[x]", as in the following:

In[1]:= myQ[x__] := (Print[x]; Length[{x}] > 1)
f[x__ /; myQ[x]] := works[x];
f[1, 2]

During evaluation of In[1]:= 12

Out[3]= works[1, 2]

Regards,
-- 
Jean-Marc


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