Functions and patterns

Symja implements a Term rewriting system. Here we describe how the rewriting rules can be defined with function and pattern notation.

Functions can be defined in the following way:

>> f(x_) := x ^ 2

This tells Symja to replace every occurrence of f with one (arbitrary) parameter x with x ^ 2.

>> f(3)
9

>> f(a)
a^2

The definition of f does not specify anything for two parameters, so any such call will stay unevaluated:

>> f(1, 2)
f(1,2)

In fact, functions in Symja are just one aspect of patterns: f(x_) is a pattern that matches expressions like f(3) and f(a). The following patterns are available:

_

matches one expression.

x_

matches one expression and stores it in x.

__

matches a sequence of one or more expressions.

___

matches a sequence of zero or more expressions.

_h

matches one expression with head h.

x_h

matches one expression with head h and stores it in x.

p | q

or

Alternatives(p, q)

matches either pattern p or q.

p ? t

or

PatternTest(p, t)

matches p if the test t(p) yields True.

p /; c

or

Condition(p, c)

matches p if condition c holds.

As before, patterns can be used to define functions:

>> g(s___) := Plus(s) ^ 2

>> g(1, 2, 3)
36

MatchQ(e, p) tests whether e matches p:

>> MatchQ(a + b, x_ + y_)
True

>> MatchQ(6, _Integer)
True

ReplaceAll (operator /.) replaces all occurrences of a pattern in an expression using a Rule given by ->:

>> {2, "a", 3, 2.5, "b", c} /. x_Integer -> x ^ 2
{4,"a",9,2.5,"b",c}

You can also specify a list of rules:

>> {2, "a", 3, 2.5, "b", c} /. {x_Integer -> x ^ 2.0, y_String -> 10}
{4.0,10,9.0,2.5,10,c}

ReplaceRepeated (operator //.) applies a set of rules repeatedly, until the expression doesn’t change anymore:

>> {2, "a", 3, 2.5, "b", c} //. {x_Integer -> x ^ 2.0, y_String -> 10}
{4.0,100.0,9.0,2.5,100.0,c}

There is a “delayed” version of Rule which can be specified by :> (similar to the relation of := to =):

>> a :> 1 + 2
a:>1+2

>> a -> 1 + 2
a->3

This is useful when the right side of a rule should not be evaluated immediately (before matching):

>> {1, 2} /. x_Integer -> N(x)
{1,2}

Here, N is applied to x before the actual matching, simply yielding x. With a delayed rule this can be avoided:

>> {1, 2} /. x_Integer :> N(x)
{1.0,2.0}

In addition to defining functions as rules for certain patterns, there are pure functions that can be defined using the & postfix operator, where everything before it is treated as the function body and # can be used as argument placeholder:

>> h = # ^ 2 &;

>> h(3)
9

Multiple arguments can simply be indexed:

>> s = #1 + #2 &;

>> s(4, 6)
10

It is also possible to name arguments using Function:

>> p = Function({x, y}, x * y);

>> p(4, 6)
24

Pure functions are very handy when functions are used only locally, e.g., when combined with operators like Map:

>> # ^ 2 & /@ Range(5)
{1,4,9,16,25}

Sort using the second element of a list as a key:

>> Sort({{x, 10}, {y, 2}, {z, 5}}, #1[[2]] < #2[[2]] &)
{{y,2},{z,5},{x,10}}

Functions can be applied using prefix or postfix notation, in addition to using ():

>> h @ 3
9

>> 3 // h
9