Skip to main content

string manipulation - Why the pattern match don't work as expected


When I try to figure out this problem,I write such code:


words = Catenate[
WordList[#, Language -> "English",
IncludeInflections -> True] & /@ {"KnownWords", "Stopwords"}];
string = StringReplace[
"What is the best approach to a problem like this in Mathematica?",
" " -> ""];
StringCases[string, __?(MemberQ[words, ToLowerCase[#]] &)]



{"WhatisthebestapproachtoaproblemlikethisinMathematica"}



But I am confused why I get whole string?What's mistake I have made?



Answer



You commented on July 6th:



but I don't understand still why the ? cannot work totally and give whole string.




As MarcoB already quoted:



In a form such as __?test, every element in the sequence matched by __ must yield True when test is applied.



You can easily see for yourself that this is true.


words = {"is", "a", "problem"};

StringCases["What is the best approach to a problem?", __?(MemberQ[words, #] &)]



{"a", "a", "a", "a"}

More explicitly we can use Print or Sow as the test function(1) to see exactly which expressions are being tested:


Reap[ StringCases["Mathematica", __?Sow] ][[2, 1]]


{"M", "M", "M", "M", "M", "M", "M", "M", "M", "M", "M", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", 
"a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "t", "t", "t", "t", "t", "t", "t", "t", "t", "h", "h",
"h", "h", "h", "h", "h", "h", "e", "e", "e", "e", "e", "e", "e", "m", "m", "m",
"m", "m", "m", "a", "a", "a", "a", "a", "t", "t", "t", "t", "i", "i", "i", "c",

"c", "a"}

Observe that:



  1. Only single letter strings are ever tested

  2. 66 matches are attempted due to every test failing (11 + 10 + 9 + 8 ...)


The first point is actually very useful behavior and I direct you to my own answer Using a PatternTest versus a Condition for pattern matching for additional examples.


The second point is the deleterious consequence of extremely flexible pattern matching used in Mathematica which allows the test function itself to be stateful. I personally feel that there should be a more efficient matching scheme available as an alternative as many uses do not require this level of generality.


Contrast this with Condition (short form /;)



Reap[ StringCases["Mathematica", x__ /; Sow[x]] ][[2, 1]]

{"Mathematica", "Mathematic", "Mathemati", "Mathemat", "Mathema", "Mathem",
"Mathe", "Math", "Mat", "Ma", "M", "athematica", "athematic", "athemati",
"athemat", "athema", "athem", "athe", "ath", "at", "a", "thematica", "thematic",
"themati", "themat", "thema", "them", "the", "th", "t", "hematica", "hematic",
"hemati", "hemat", "hema", "hem", "he", "h", "ematica", "ematic", "emati", "emat",
"ema", "em", "e", "matica", "matic", "mati", "mat", "ma", "m", "atica", "atic",
"ati", "at", "a", "tica", "tic", "ti", "t", "ica", "ic", "i", "ca", "c", "a"}


Here we see that every possible alignment is tried, with the entire candidate sequence passed to the test function each time.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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-...

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...

mathematical optimization - Minimizing using indices, error: Part::pkspec1: The expression cannot be used as a part specification

I want to use Minimize where the variables to minimize are indices pointing into an array. Here a MWE that hopefully shows what my problem is. vars = u@# & /@ Range[3]; cons = Flatten@ { Table[(u[j] != #) & /@ vars[[j + 1 ;; -1]], {j, 1, 3 - 1}], 1 vec1 = {1, 2, 3}; vec2 = {1, 2, 3}; Minimize[{Total@((vec1[[#]] - vec2[[u[#]]])^2 & /@ Range[1, 3]), cons}, vars, Integers] The error I get: Part::pkspec1: The expression u[1] cannot be used as a part specification. >> Answer Ok, it seems that one can get around Mathematica trying to evaluate vec2[[u[1]]] too early by using the function Indexed[vec2,u[1]] . The working MWE would then look like the following: vars = u@# & /@ Range[3]; cons = Flatten@{ Table[(u[j] != #) & /@ vars[[j + 1 ;; -1]], {j, 1, 3 - 1}], 1 vec1 = {1, 2, 3}; vec2 = {1, 2, 3}; NMinimize[ {Total@((vec1[[#]] - Indexed[vec2, u[#]])^2 & /@ R...