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How to use Thread when second argument to function is a list of lists?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg86372] How to use Thread when second argument to function is a list of lists?
  • From: "Nasser Abbasi" <nma at 12000.org>
  • Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 05:06:48 -0500 (EST)
  • Reply-to: "Nasser Abbasi" <nma at 12000.org>

Hello;

I have a function which I want to call repeatedly for all rows of a matrix 
to find non-zero elements in each row.
This function takes as input the row number and the matrix itself and 
returns a list that contain the non-zero elements in the that row.

i.e. function is   f[ list , matrix]:=Module[{},.....]

I want to use Thread to call this function 'f' over all the rows of the 
matrix. Something like

Thread[  f[{1,2,3}, matrix] ]

But it is not working. I guess becuase matrix is a list of lists and it is 
of different dimension than the list of the row numbers?
I can use MapThread, but then I have to write

MapThread[  f  {{1,2,3}, {matrix,matrix,matrix}} ]

and the above works but I have to duplicate 'matrix' to make it work, which 
I do not like.

Here is the code that does not work

------------------- Thread not working, why? -----------------

findNonZeroElements[row_, p_] := Module[{}, Select[p[[row,All]], #1 != 0 
& ]]

mchain[p_] := Module[{lhs, rhs},
   {nRow, nCol} = Dimensions[p];
   lhs = Range[nRow];
   Thread[findNonZeroElements[lhs, p]]      (* NOT WORKING *)
]

p = {{1, 0, 0, 0, 0}, {0, 0.2, 0.8, 0, 0}, {0, 0.7, 0.3, 0, 0},
    {0.1, 0, 0.1, 0.4, 0.4}, {0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.2, 0.4}};

mchain[p]
---------------------------------------------------------

Here is the same as above but using MapThread and this works

In[172]:= findNonZeroElements[row_, p_] := Module[{}, Select[p[[row,All]], 
#1 != 0 & ]]

mchain[p_] := Module[{lhs, rhs},
   {nRow, nCol} = Dimensions[p];
    lhs = Range[nRow];
    MapThread[findNonZeroElements, {lhs, Table[p, {nRow}]}]    (*OK*)
]

p = {{1, 0, 0, 0, 0}, {0, 0.2, 0.8, 0, 0}, {0, 0.7, 0.3, 0, 0},
    {0.1, 0, 0.1, 0.4, 0.4}, {0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.2, 0.4}};
mchain[p]

Out[175]= {{1}, {0.2, 0.8}, {0.7, 0.3}, {0.1, 0.1, 0.4, 0.4}, {0.1, 0.3, 
0.2, 0.4}}

thanks,
Nasser



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