Services & ResourcesWolfram ForumsMathGroup Archive

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

HoldForm in defined function doesn't seem to work

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg99182] HoldForm in defined function doesn't seem to work
• From: joel.aufgang at gmail.com
• Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:37:14 -0400 (EDT)

I'm struggling to understand why this doesn't work:


f[x_] = HoldForm[x];
HoldForm[123 456 789] (* returns "123 x 456 x 789" *)
f[123 456 789] (* returns"44253432" *)

I don't understand why the two results are different.   Is there a
special trick I need to do to be able to define f so that the HoldForm
works?

I'm using this to help visualize the way a notebook represents typed
expressions, so I'm trying to do something like this:

BoxTree[expr_] := TreeForm[ToBoxes[HoldForm[expr]][[1]]];
a b c d e // BoxTree
123 456 789 // BoxTree (* want this to show as a RowBox like the
previous example *)


Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: HoldForm in defined function doesn't seem to work
    • From: Leonid Shifrin <lshifr@gmail.com>
  • Re: HoldForm in defined function doesn't seem to work
    • From: "Scot T. Martin" <smartin@seas.harvard.edu>