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Re: Piecewise vs. /; ?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg103935] Re: Piecewise vs. /; ?
• From: Erik Max Francis <max at alcyone.com>
• Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:20:02 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <hashpc$qu8$1@smc.vnet.net> <hav19a$4gr$1@smc.vnet.net>

Szabolcs Horv=E1t wrote:
> In short, /; is a programming construct that affects evaluation.
> Piecewise[] is used to represent a mathematical concept: piecewise
> functions.
>
> If you want to do mathematical operations like integration, then use
> Piecewise[].  Condition[] (/;) is a lot more general than Piecewise[],
> for example one could write a "function" that returns a different value
> in the evening than in the morning, which is obviously not a function in
> the mathematical sense, and thus can't be integrated.

Got it!  Thanks to you and David for responding.

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