Re: Overloading StringJoin
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg109792] Re: Overloading StringJoin
- From: Albert Retey <awnl at gmx-topmail.de>
- Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 02:00:59 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <hsr8al$bev$1@smc.vnet.net>
Am 17.05.2010 13:12, schrieb Mark Adler:
> I use Join enough that I like to overload StringJoin to do it:
>
> Unprotect[StringJoin];
> x_List <> y_List := x~Join~y
> Protect[StringJoin];
>
> Then I can do this:
>
> {1, 2} <> {3, 4}
> {1, 2, 3, 4}
>
> Why doesn't Mathematica already do this?
I don't know...
> It seem like an obvious use
> of <>. Or is there a good reason that they don't do this, and
> therefore if I do, it makes me a bad person?
I think here is a good reason to not do this: What would you expect the
following to return?
{"1", "2"} <> {"3", "4"}
"standard" mathematica evaluates this to a string, your change to
StringJoin changes it to a List, so you might break code that relies on
this behavior...
hth,
albert