Re: simple pattern match question
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg91181] Re: simple pattern match question
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 07:16:48 -0400 (EDT)
On 8/7/08 at 4:42 AM, congruentialuminaire at yahoo.com wrote: >I am trying to understand simple pattern rule evaulation. The >following trivial examples baffles me: >--------------------------------------------------- >In[1]:= f[x_Number] := x ^ 2 >In[2]:= f[3] >Out[2]= f[3] >In[3]:= f[3.3] >Out[3]= f[3.3] >In[4]:= NumberQ[3.3] >Out[4]= True >-------------------------------------------------- >Why is it that f[3.3] does not evaluate?? Because there is no built-in object with Head of Number. That is: In[2]:= Head[3.3] Out[2]= Real So, In[3]:= f[x_Real] := x^2 f[3.3] Out[4]= 10.89 But then In[5]:= f[3] Out[5]= f(3) Since, In[6]:= Head[3] Out[6]= Integer So, you might want to use something more general such as In[7]:= g[x_?NumericQ] := x^2 g[3.3] g[3] Out[8]= 10.89 Out[9]= 9