Re: Pattern matching
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg116550] Re: Pattern matching
- From: CHARLES GILLINGHAM <cgillingham1 at me.com>
- Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 05:13:57 -0500 (EST)
There is no way to modify the rule and get the result you expect. f[u+0] becomes f[u] before the rule is even applied. You can modify the way you apply the rule, like so:
rule = f[u + x_ ] :> x
ReleaseHold[ Hold[ f[u+0] ] /. rule ]
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Andr=E9 M. Grabinski"@smc.vnet.net
Date: February 18, 2011 1:33:47 AM
To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
Subject: [mg116550] [mg116516] Pattern matching
Hi everyone,
hopefully someone of you could answer me a simple question concerning
patterns in Mathematica 8. Consider the following minimal example,
In[1]:= rule = f[u + x_] -> x;
f[u + 5] /. rule
f[u + 0] /. rule
f[u] /. rule
Out[1]= 5
Out[2]= f[u]
Out[3]= f[u]
Now the question: in which way do I need to modify "rule" in order to
get "0" as result for "Out[3]"? Of course I could add a second rule,
i.e. "rule = {f[u + x_] -> x,f[u] -> 0}", but I feel like there should
be a more elegant way than to take care of each and every exception
(okay, in this minimal example this wouldn't matter but I'm just
interested in the general way of setting up patterns).
Thank you very much in advance,
A.G.