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formatting - How does MakeBoxes handle an n-ary operator?


I want to format results from Reduce using the $\cup$ symbol instead of the $\lor$ symbol. For example, Reduce[x^2 > 4, x, Reals] produces $x<-2\lor x>2$ while I would like it to produce $x<-2\cup x>2$.


My current solution is to add the head xO to use in place of the Or head and associate the appropriate formatting with the xO head using MakeBoxes.


xO /: MakeBoxes[xO[x_, y_], form_] :=                                                             
RowBox[{MakeBoxes[x, form], "\[Union]", MakeBoxes[y, form]}];


When I want to invoke the special formatting, I simply substitute xO for Or.


Reduce[x^2 > 4, x, Reals] /. Or -> xO

This produces the desired result of $(x<-2)\cup (x>2)$. I am feeling like a master bit-twiddler at this point.


Of course, my next test case didn't work.


Reduce[x^3 + 2 x^2 - x - 2 == 0] /. Or -> xO
(* xO(x==-2,x==-1,x==1) *)

My MakeBoxes[xO[x_, y_]] definition above does not match the case when xO has three arguments. I added the following to limp along a little further.



xO /: MakeBoxes[xO[x_, y_, z_], form_] :=                                                         
RowBox[{MakeBoxes[x, form], "\[Union]", MakeBoxes[y, form], "\[Union]", MakeBoxes[z, form]}];

This works for three arguments, but is clearly not a robust solution. What is the general method for an n-ary function?


I tried several variations of the following:


xO /: MakeBoxes[xO[x_, y__], form_] :=                                                            
RowBox[{MakeBoxes[x, form], "\[Union]", MakeBoxes[y, form]}];

which produced the error:


MakeBoxes::argt: "MakeBoxes called with 3 arguments; 1 or 2 arguments are expected"


when applied to the Reduce[x^3 + 2 x^2 - x - 2 == 0] /. Or -> xO test case.


I am probably missing something obvious. Any ideas?



Answer



You were almost there. You just need to use the multiple-argument pattern, and generalize your code accordingly to create the internals of RowBox programmatically:


xO /: MakeBoxes[xO[x___], form_] :=
RowBox[
Riffle[
Map[MakeBoxes[#, form] &, {x}],
"\[Union]"

]
]

Note however that the above implementation leaks evaluation. It may or may not be a problem, but for example here:


x = 1;
xO[x == 1, x > 1, x < 1]

one may argue that the desired result should not be sensitive to the possible global values that x may have, so the result:


(* True \[Union] False \[Union] False *)


may be unsatisfacory. Thus, here is a more careful version:


ClearAll[xO];
SetAttributes[xO, HoldAllComplete];
xO /: MakeBoxes[xO[x___], form_] :=
RowBox@Riffle[
List @@ Replace[
HoldComplete[x],
elem_ :> With[{eval = MakeBoxes[elem, form]}, eval /; True],
{1}
],

"\[Union]"
]

which now gives


xO[x == 1, x > 1, x < 1]

(* x == 1 \[Union] x > 1 \[Union] x < 1 *)

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