Skip to main content

list manipulation - Threading behavior of SameQ vs Equals


I ran into a bug in my code today based on an errant assumption. Namely, I thought that:


Thread[Equal[{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}]]
Thread[SameQ[{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}]]

Would



{aa == dd, bb == ee, cc == ff}
{False,False,False}

Respectively (variables are undefined). What I get instead is


{aa == dd, bb == ee, cc == ff}
False

Which I can argue makes sense, since the lists aren't equivalent. But why doesn't Thread work? What's the precedence argument here? How can I get the answer I want ({False,False,False}) from a similar construct?



Answer



Thread doesn't hold its arguments. You can check its attributes.



So, before doing any threading, it evaluates its arguments.


Now, understanding the behaviour you describe requires understanding the difference between Equal and SameQ. Equal is meant for math reasoning. For expressing an equality, which might involve a variable that at the time you don't yet know it's value. So, for example, x==8 returns unevaluated if x isn't defined.


SameQ however is a predicate. It will always return either True or False if the constructs are exactly the same (after evaluation).


So, Thread[SameQ[{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}]] -> Thread[False]-> False


One can see this by running (thanks @rcollyer)


Trace[Thread[SameQ[{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}]], 
 TraceInternal -> True]

Out[1] = {{{aa, bb, cc} === {dd, ee, ff}, False}, Thread[False], False}


If you want to thread SameQ without evaluation, just use Unevaluated


Thread[Unevaluated@SameQ[{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}]]

{False, False, False}

Another construction that gives the result you want is the one suggested by @kguler in his comment and supported by @rcoller and his upvoters: MapThread. I'd suggest you search the docs if you don't know it


MapThread[SameQ, {{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}}]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

functions - Get leading series expansion term?

Given a function f[x] , I would like to have a function leadingSeries that returns just the leading term in the series around x=0 . For example: leadingSeries[(1/x + 2)/(4 + 1/x^2 + x)] x and leadingSeries[(1/x + 2 + (1 - 1/x^3)/4)/(4 + x)] -(1/(16 x^3)) Is there such a function in Mathematica? Or maybe one can implement it efficiently? EDIT I finally went with the following implementation, based on Carl Woll 's answer: lds[ex_,x_]:=( (ex/.x->(x+O[x]^2))/.SeriesData[U_,Z_,L_List,Mi_,Ma_,De_]:>SeriesData[U,Z,{L[[1]]},Mi,Mi+1,De]//Quiet//Normal) The advantage is, that this one also properly works with functions whose leading term is a constant: lds[Exp[x],x] 1 Answer Update 1 Updated to eliminate SeriesData and to not return additional terms Perhaps you could use: leadingSeries[expr_, x_] := Normal[expr /. x->(x+O[x]^2) /. a_List :> Take[a, 1]] Then for your examples: leadingSeries[(1/x + 2)/(4 + 1/x^2 + x), x] leadingSeries[Exp[x], x] leadingSeries[(1/x + 2 + (1 - 1/x...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to thread a list

I have data in format data = {{a1, a2}, {b1, b2}, {c1, c2}, {d1, d2}} Tableform: I want to thread it to : tdata = {{{a1, b1}, {a2, b2}}, {{a1, c1}, {a2, c2}}, {{a1, d1}, {a2, d2}}} Tableform: And I would like to do better then pseudofunction[n_] := Transpose[{data2[[1]], data2[[n]]}]; SetAttributes[pseudofunction, Listable]; Range[2, 4] // pseudofunction Here is my benchmark data, where data3 is normal sample of real data. data3 = Drop[ExcelWorkBook[[Column1 ;; Column4]], None, 1]; data2 = {a #, b #, c #, d #} & /@ Range[1, 10^5]; data = RandomReal[{0, 1}, {10^6, 4}]; Here is my benchmark code kptnw[list_] := Transpose[{Table[First@#, {Length@# - 1}], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list kptnw2[list_] := Transpose[{ConstantArray[First@#, Length@# - 1], Rest@#}, {3, 1, 2}] &@list OleksandrR[list_] := Flatten[Outer[List, List@First[list], Rest[list], 1], {{2}, {1, 4}}] paradox2[list_] := Partition[Riffle[list[[1]], #], 2] & /@ Drop[list, 1] RM[list_] := FoldList[Transpose[{First@li...
Post a Comment
Read more

front end - keyboard shortcut to invoke Insert new matrix

I frequently need to type in some matrices, and the menu command Insert > Table/Matrix > New... allows matrices with lines drawn between columns and rows, which is very helpful. I would like to make a keyboard shortcut for it, but cannot find the relevant frontend token command (4209405) for it. Since the FullForm[] and InputForm[] of matrices with lines drawn between rows and columns is the same as those without lines, it's hard to do this via 3rd party system-wide text expanders (e.g. autohotkey or atext on mac). How does one assign a keyboard shortcut for the menu item Insert > Table/Matrix > New... , preferably using only mathematica? Thanks! Answer In the MenuSetup.tr (for linux located in the $InstallationDirectory/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/TextResources/X/ directory), I changed the line MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog"] to read MenuItem["&New...", "CreateGridBoxDialog", MenuKey["m", Modifiers-...
Post a Comment
Read more