Re: Replace, test question
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg120348] Re: Replace, test question
- From: Bill Rowe <readnews at sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:59:29 -0400 (EDT)
On 7/18/11 at 6:13 AM, tio540s1 at gmail.com (PA32R) wrote:
>I'm very new to Mathematica and trying to work my way through it. I
>don't understand why: {58, 61, 15, 66, 10, 2, 24, 81, 45, 84} /. x_
>/; PrimeQ -> P returns: {58, 61, 15, 66, 10, 2, 24, 81, 45, 84}
>I would expect it to take the list, replace everything in the list
>that matches any pattern and passes the PrimeQ test, i.e., is prime,
>with P to yield: {58, P, 15, 66, 10, P, 14, 81, 45, 84}
>Can someone explain my misunderstanding?
The way you have written things the test you intend to apply
simply isn't applied. In essence you have told Mathematica
call the pattern _ x then whenever PrimeQ (of nothing) is true
replace that pattern with P. And since PrimeQ (of nothing) will
never evaluate as True, Mathematica does no replacement
The syntax you want is either
In[1]:= {58, 61, 15, 66, 10, 2, 24, 81, 45, 84} /. x_ /;
PrimeQ[x] -> P
Out[1]= {58,P,15,66,10,P,24,81,45,84}
or more concise would be to use PatternTest rather than
Condition (/;), i.e.,
In[2]:= {58, 61, 15, 66, 10, 2, 24, 81, 45, 84} /. x_?PrimeQ -> P
Out[2]= {58,P,15,66,10,P,24,81,45,84}