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