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

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg126019] Re: What characters are allowed in mathematica variable names? i.e. how
  • From: Jesse Perla <jesseperla at gmail.com>
  • Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:47:28 -0400 (EDT)
  • Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com

Thanks,

Are there any characters that are simply in the ASCII set and hence won't
expand to something complicated when I use a .m file or use mathematica on
the commandline?

-Jesse

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 8:16 AM, djmpark <djmpark at comcast.net> wrote:

> 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
>
>


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