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Re: What characters are allowed in mathematica variable names? i.e. how

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg126017] Re: What characters are allowed in mathematica variable names? i.e. how
• From: "djmpark" <djmpark at comcast.net>
• Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:46:46 -0400 (EDT)
• Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
• References: <32533813.28585.1334213213186.JavaMail.root@m06>

Jesse,

Here are several possibilities, which you can track down on the following
Help pages.

guide/SpecialCharacters
guide/NonPrintingCharacters
ref/character/LetterSpace
guide/TextualForms
ref/character/UnderBracket

my\[LetterSpace]first\[LetterSpace]variable

my\[UnderBracket]first\[UnderBracket]variable

These are both Symbols and can be used as variables.

LetterSpace has the alias esc ls esc.
UnderBracket has the alias esc u[ esc.

Here is another "special form" that can be used for primed and double primed
symbols. 

x\:02b9  which gives x'
x\:02ba  which gives x"

These have the Head Symbol and can be used for variables. They are not
confused with derivatives and the primes are at the proper level. For some
reason no one seems to mind the lack of regular primed symbols in
Mathematics despite the fact that they are extremely common in the
mathematical literature. In any case, these particular forms are on the
Presentations Application palette.


David Park
djmpark at comcast.net 
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/index.html 




From: Jesse Perla [mailto:jesseperla at gmail.com] 


In other languages like C++, _ is a kosher character to be in variable
names.  It is not in mathematica, so things like "my_first_variable" don't
work.  I have been using a ` to separate out the words to get things like
my`first`variable, but now realize it is creating other issues due to the
scoping it introduces.

Are there are other characters I can use to separate out words in variable
names?

Thanks