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Re: Help in function defination

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg122047] Re: [mg122033] Help in function defination
  • From: Heike Gramberg <heike.gramberg at gmail.com>
  • Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:53:53 -0400 (EDT)
  • Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
  • References: <201110100826.EAA15303@smc.vnet.net>

When you call for example N1dx[1,10,10], all appearances of p1 in the 
definition of N1dx are replaced with 1
before the definition is evaluated giving

D[N1[1,10,10],1]

which doesn't make sense. What you want is to apply the derivative 
before substituting a value for p1. This can be
done by using a Block[] structure, e.g.

N1dx[p1_, p2_, p3] := Block[{a}, D[N1[a, p2, p3], a] /. {a -> p1}]

Alternatively, you could use Derivative:

N1dx[p1_, p2_, p3_] := Derivative[1, 0, 0][N1][p1, p2, p3]

In both cases N1dx[1,10,10] returns -81/8.


Heike.

On 10 Oct 2011, at 10:26, Mohan wrote:

> Hi, I have defined some functions, but when i substitute values i get
> an error message, please check below.
>
> Definition of a basic function
> In[1]:= SFn1[p_] := (1/2)*(1 - p)
>
> Definition of new function using the basic function
> In[65]:= N1[p1_, p2_, p3_] := (SFn1[p1]*(p1))*SFn1[p2]*SFn1[p3]
>
> Derivative of the new function
> In[68]:= N1dx[p1_, p2_, p3_] := D[N1[p1, p2, p3], p1]
>
> declaring function variables for the new derivative function
> In[69]:= N1dx[x, y, z]
>
> this is the output i want. its right
> Out[69]= 1/8 (1 - x) (1 - y) (1 - z) - 1/8 x (1 - y) (1 - z)
>
> =
**************************************************************************
************************
> If i substitute the value for the derivative function I get an error
> as shown below...
> please help me to find the right way to do it.
> =
**************************************************************************
************************
> In[77]:= N1dx[1, 10, 10]
>
> During evaluation of In[77]:= General::ivar: 1 is not a valid
> variable. >>
>
> Out[77]= \!\(
> \*SubscriptBox[\(\[PartialD]\), \(1\)]0\)
>
> Out[69]= 1/8 (1 - x) (1 - y) (1 - z) - 1/8 x (1 - y) (1 - z)
>
> In[77]:= N1dx[1, 10, 10]
>
> During evaluation of In[77]:= General::ivar: 1 is not a valid
> variable. >>
>
> Out[77]= \!\(
> \*SubscriptBox[\(\[PartialD]\), \(1\)]0\)
>




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