Re: Functions of Arrays
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg102650] Re: [mg102590] Functions of Arrays
- From: Leonid Shifrin <lshifr at gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:32:19 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <200908161039.GAA01145@smc.vnet.net>
Hi,
you should really define your function on lists, of which arrays are a
special case. Lists are the data structure most used in Mathematica, and it
has many functions to conveniently work with lists - using them, you can
make your programs brief and efficient.
If you simply want your function to take a list (array) and return a sum of
squares,
here are some ways:
sumsq1[x_List] := Total[x^2];
sumsq2[x_List] := x.x;
With the following test array (list):
In[1] = test = Range[10]
Out[1] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
You get:
In[2] = sumsq1[test]
Out[2] = 385
In[3] = sumsq2[test]
Out[3] = 385
If you plan to use Mathematica often, it is a good idea to read some simple
account on
basic Mathematica programming with lists. Mathematica book and online
documentation are both
pretty good. A very good book is by Paul Wellin et al. Also, I have
devoted a chapter to this
topic in my book:
http://www.mathprogramming-intro.org/
It is free, you may want to check it out.
Regards,
Leonid
On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 2:39 PM, zak <u.gotzes at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Functions can be defined via
>
> f[x1_, x2_] := x1^2 + x2^2
>
> in Mathematica.
>
>
> But how can I manage it to define a function depending on an array?
> I would like to do something like
>
> Array[x,2]
> f[x[1]_,x[2]_]:=x[1]^2+x[2]^2
>
> because the length of the array varies in my application.
>
>
- References:
- Functions of Arrays
- From: zak <u.gotzes@googlemail.com>
- Functions of Arrays