Re: algebraic ReplaceAll?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg122309] Re: algebraic ReplaceAll?
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:15:20 -0400 (EDT)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <j7u4qc$t5h$1@smc.vnet.net>
On 10/22/2011 3:10 AM, Dushan Mitrovich wrote: > Is there a way to get ReplaceAll to actalgebraically, so it recognizes > the negative of a replaced quantity as well as the positive? For > example, this works > In: x-w /. x-w->y > Out: y > > but these don't > In: -x+w /. x-w->y > w-x /. x-w->y > Out: w-x > w-x > > - Dushan > > > > How would you wish the replacement to work on this: -x /. x-w->y ?? would -y-w be ok with you? If so, try -x /. x-> y+w. x-w /. x-> y+w w-x /. x-> y+w etc. You can make the pattern work from w-> x-y alternatively. Or if you want to know if some expression e can be expressed as Q*(x-w)+R, you can do this by polynomial division. Three points: 1. Your request is ambiguous. 2. The pattern matcher basically sucks for this, as Andrzej observes. 3. Alternatives (e.g. semantica, or http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~fateman/papers/better-rules.pdf ) exist, but item 1. above needs some thought either way. RJF