RE: Releasing several Holds simultaneously
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg82329] RE: Releasing several Holds simultaneously
- From: "Andrew Moylan" <andrew.j.moylan at gmail.com>
- Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:16:11 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <ff1po5$90n$1@smc.vnet.net> <47147224.60309@gmail.com>
Hi Szabolcs, My general expression is of the form Hold[SetDelayed[a, b]] where both a and b may contain one or more Holds. The expression is the result of using Mathematica to generate Mathematica code. I start with Hold[SetDelayed[a, b]] and then insert (via /. and placeholders) code into b. The reason b contains Holds is that some of the pieces of code that I insert into it are wrapped in Hold because they can't be evaluated: pieceofcode = Hold[z[[1]]]; So I could generalise my question like this: Suppose I have Hold[a := b] and I have pieceofcode = Hold[z[[1]]]. How can I arrange to evaluate a := z[[1]]? Here's my present solution: SetAttributes[SuperHold, HoldAll]; ReleaseSuperHold[expr_] := expr /. SuperHold[x_] :> x; pieceofcode = Hold[z[[1]]]; SuperHold[a := b] /. b -> pieceofcode // ReleaseHold // ReleaseSuperHold; Andrew -----Original Message----- From: Szabolcs Horv=E1t [mailto:szhorvat at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, 16 October 2007 6:11 PM To: Andrew Moylan Subject: [mg82329] Re: Releasing several Holds simultaneously Andrew Moylan wrote: > Hold[a := Hold[1]] > > How can I release both of these Holds (and thus execute a:=1) > simultaneously? > > ReleaseHold[%] doesn't work; it evaluates a := Hold[1] before the > other hold is removed. > Hi Andrew, How did you construct the expression Hold[a := Hold[1]]? Perhaps there is a way to avoid the double Hold and construct Hold[a := 1] directly (even if there is an expression in place of '1' that must not be evaluated), using Unevaluated[]. > % /. Hold[x_]:>x does the same thing, because /. only matches once per part. > If you use Replace instead of ReplaceAll, then you can specify the level at which the replacement should be done. Replace[Hold[a := Hold[1]], Hold[x_] -> x, {2}] -- Szabolcs