Re: Replacement Rule with Sqrt in denominator
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg114599] Re: Replacement Rule with Sqrt in denominator
- From: Albert Retey <awnl at gmx-topmail.de>
- Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 02:27:59 -0500 (EST)
- References: <idnqpr$q58$1@smc.vnet.net> <idqd1i$j3o$1@smc.vnet.net>
Hi, > I don't want to claim that pattern matching in Mathematica is bugged, > I am certainly not entitled to do so. I was always quite happy to > follow the rules and look at the FullForm in order to create the > correct pattern, until I learned (actually just by following this > thread) that this does not always produce the expected results. So > even though this may not be a bug, pattern matching can be very > confusing sometimes, and, in terms of usability, may seem to be poorly > implemented to some people. > Having said that, could somebody give me a little insight on how > pattern matching "really" works (I'm sure Daniel has done so many > times already, please feel free to refer me to previous posts!): > What set (or class) of expressions does pattern matching exclude from > its "normal" behavior (obviously there is Rational, Complex, > whatnot...)? Why? Are there different such classes? Why does 3/5[[1]] > fail (alternatively: Why does Rational behave differently then List, > say)? I think the reason is that Rational, Complex, SparseArray and some others are atoms, which you can check by AtomQ (see also tutorial/BasicObjects). Unfortunately there seems to be no "PatternMatcherForm" which would allow users to look at the expression as the pattern matcher actually sees it. Also I can see no obvious and consistent pattern on what is treated as an atom and what not: while SparseArray-objects are atoms (tested with AtomQ and even documented as such) InterpolatingFunction-objects are not... hth, albert