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Assigning to a sublist

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg35161] Assigning to a sublist
• From: Bob Harris <nitlion at mindspring.com>
• Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 00:23:30 -0400 (EDT)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Howdy,

I'm trying to assign a new value to an entry in a sublist (of another list),
and I can't understand why it won't work.

For example, I do the following:

  In[1]:= zz = {{2, {{1, 1}}}, {10, {{3, 1}}}, {5, {{2, 1}}}}
  Out[1]= {{2, {{1, 1}}}, {10, {{3, 1}}}, {5, {{2, 1}}}}

  In[2]:= zz[[3]][[2]]
  Out[2]= {{2, 1}}

  In[3]:= Append[zz[[3]][[2]], {1, 1, 1, 1, 1}]
  Out[3]= {{2, 1}, {1, 1, 1, 1, 1}}

  In[4]:= zz[[3]][[2]] = Append[zz[[3]][[2]], {1, 1, 1, 1, 1}]
  Set::"setps : zz[[3]] in assignment of part is not a symbol."
  Out[4]= {{2, 1}, {1, 1, 1, 1, 1}}

For some reason it doesn't like the assignment.  What confuses me is that is
zz[[3]][[2]] were just a variable, it would work.  Further, if it were just
an entry at the *top* level of a list, it would work, as this example shows:

  In[5]:= yy = zz[[3]]
  Out[5]= {5, {{2, 1}}}

  In[6]:= yy[[2]]
  Out[6]= {{2, 1}}

  In[7]:= yy[[2]] = Append[yy[[2]], {1, 1, 1, 1, 1}]
  Out[7]= {{2, 1}, {1, 1, 1, 1, 1}}

So it seems like the issue is just that deeply nested things don't behave
like things that are not as deeply nested.  Am I right about that?  How can
I modify an entry in a sublist?

Thanks,
Bob H

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Assigning to a sublist
    • From: Tomas Garza Hernandez <tgarza01@prodigy.net.mx>