Re: Re: A simple swap function
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg2199] Re: [mg2151] Re: [mg2132] A simple swap function
- From: Allan Hayes <hay at haystack.demon.co.uk>
- Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 02:26:05 -0400
In [mg2151] Re: [mg2132] A simple swap function Richard Mercer sugggested a function for swapping the values of two symbols. Richard: There are problems with swap[v1_Symbol,v2_Symbol]:= If[ValueQ[v1] && ValueQ[v2], {v1,v2} = {v2,v1}]; since swap evaluates its elemenents on the left hand side. Examples: {a = 1; b = 2; swap[a,b], {a,b}} {swap[1, 2], {1, 2}} {a = va; b = vb; swap[a,b], {a,b}} {Null, {va, vb}} Solution: give swap the attribute HoldAll SetAttributes[swap, HoldAll] {a = 1; b = 2; swap[a,b], {a,b}} {{2, 1}, {2, 1}} {a = va; b = vb; swap[a,b], {a,b}} {{vb, va}, {vb, va}} Allan Hayes hay at haystack.demon.co.uk