RE: algebraic substitution rules
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg30755] RE: [mg30716] algebraic substitution rules
- From: "David Park" <djmp at earthlink.net>
- Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 03:26:59 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Isabelle,
If you look up ReplaceAll in Help you will see that it says:
"ReplaceAll looks at each part of expr, tries all the rules on it, and then
goes on to the next part of expr. The first rule that applies to a
particular part is used; no further rules are tried on that part, or on any
of its subparts."
Mathematica first looked at the entire expression and found that a_ matched.
So it would have done an Expand on the entire expression if you had only
used a_ :> Expand[a] instead of a_ -> Expand[a] (which gets evaluated to
a -> a). After that it will make no further modifications to the entire
expression or its subparts.
You could do it in two steps.
1 + x^2 + x^3 + x^4 /. {x^2 -> 1 + x , x^3 -> x(1 + x) , x^4 -> (1 + x)^2}
/.
a_ :> Expand[a]
3 + 4*x + 2*x^2
David Park
djmp at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cattiaux Isabelle [mailto:Isabelle.Cattiaux at univ-valenciennes.fr]
To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
> Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 2:56 AM
> To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
> Subject: [mg30755] [mg30716] algebraic substitution rules
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Could someone tell me why the first substitution rule
> works and the second doesn't
>
> In[1]:==
> 1+x^2+x^3+x^4 /. {x^2->1+x ,x^3->x(1+x) ,x^4->(1+x)^2}
>
> Out[1]==
> 2 + x + x(1 + x)+ (1 + x)^2
>
> In[78]:==
> 1+x^2+x^3+x^4 /. {x^2->1+x ,x^3->x(1+x) ,x^4->(1+x)^2,a_->Expand[a]}
>
> Out[78]==
> 1 + x^2 + x^3 + x^4
>
> --
> Isabelle Cattiaux-Huillard
> Universite de Valenciennes
>