This is an old revision of the document!
Symbolic expressions
Symbolic expressions (formulas, equations, polynomials, etc) are enclosed in single quotes (' ') and may include any mathematically valid combination of numbers, constants, variables, functions and operators.
Examples of valid symbolic expressions are:
'X+1'
'√(X+2)/(1-z)^2'
Working with expressions
Expressions can be manipulated in various ways:
Normal operations using the stack: 'X+1' 2 * will produce the expression '(X+1)*2' as expected. The result of operations involving expressions is always an expression. No other processing is performed, the expression remains as the user input, for example: '(X+1)*2' 2 / will produce '((X+1)*2)/2'.
Evaluating the expression: Using the commands EVAL1, EVAL and →NUM will replace the contents of any variables that exist in the current directory (or upper) or as local variables while running a program, into the expression. The behavior of each command is only slightly different:
EVAL will replace variables with their content, and if those contents include variables, it will recursively replace them as well until no more replacements are possible. Variables that are not defined remain as symbolic variables. Numerical operations will be performed as long as the result is guaranteed exact and integer, otherwise they will remain as a symbolic expression. For example 1+1/2 EVAL will result in '3/2'. After EVAL the expression is always simplified using AUTOSIMPLIFY automatically (see the command AUTOSIMPLIFY).
EVAL1 will replace variables with their contents, but will not recurse into the contents of the variables. For example assume the variable X is defined as 'X+1'. Evaluating the expression 'X+5' with EVAL would produce a circular reference error. Using EVAL1 would return 'X+6', after replacing X only one time. After EVAL1 the expression is always simplified using AUTOSIMPLIFY automatically (see the command AUTOSIMPLIFY).
→NUM will replace variables with their contents, recursively just as EVAL but it requires the final result to be numeric. If any variable is undefined it will error.
Algebraic manipulation: Expressions can be modified by a number of commands that perform changes to the structure of the expression but preserving its symbolic nature. Most of the commands that modify an expression apply a combination of algebraic rules with other algorithms to produce the result. An example of this class of commands is the AUTOSIMPLIFY command, which performs numeric operations and applies a series of simple rules.
Algebraic Rules
Rules are expressions used to match and replace parts of an expression with other expressions, and are the base of symbolic manipulation.
Rules are symbolic expressions themselves, which have a left and right parts, separated with the rule operator :→. Rules can be applied to expressions with the command RULEAPPLY and RULEAPPLY1. The difference between them is (just like EVAL and EVAL1) that RULEAPPLY will apply the rule multiple times until no more changes are produced to the expression, while RULEAPPLY1 will apply the rule only once. Both commands return the number of replacements that were performed, or zero if nothing was changed.
For example, 'X+Y+1' 'X+1:→Z' RULEAPPLY it will search into the expression 'X+Y+1' and replace every occurrence of X+1 with Z. The rules engine always assumes the + operator is commutative, therefore it will try all permutations of the terms, resulting in the expression 'Z+Y' and 1 indicating it performed one replacement.
The usefulness of rules only becomes evident when wildcards are used. Wildcards are special variable names that will match different objects. The rules engine recognizes wildcards by the 2 first characters of the variable name. All wildcards start with a dot, and the character that follows indicates what type of wildcard it is (what objects it will match). Other characters are an arbitrary name assigned by the user. In the table below the name VAR is used as an example and can be substituted freely.
| Wildcard | Meaning |
.iVAR | Match a single integer number |
.nVAR | Match a single number (not necessarily an integer) |
.NVAR | Match the largest possible numeric sub-expression |
.vVAR | Match a single variable |
.mVAR | Match any algebraic sub-expression, use non-commutative multiplication |
.xVAR | Match any algebraic sub-expression |
.MVAR | Match the largest possible algebraic sub-expression (non-commutative multiplication) |
.XVAR | Match the largest possible algebraic sub-expression |
For examples on the use of wildcards, let's use the expression '√3*X^2+2.5*X+5*X*Y+(A+B)*Y^2' and apply some rules to it using RULEAPPLY:
| Rule | Result | Why? |
'X^.iN:→Z^.iN' | '√3*Z^2+2.5*X+5*X*Y+(A+B)*Y^2' | Only the first term has the form X^i |
'.vX^.iN:→Z^.iN' | '√3*Z^2+2.5*X+5*X*Y+(A+B)*Z^2' | The variable wildcard .vX matches both X and Y and makes 2 replacements. Because we used RULEAPPLY, it tries again and then matches Z and replaces it in 2 places, reporting 4 total changes after stopping due to the expression not changing |
'.nN*.vX:→.nN*(.vX-.nN)' | '√3*X^2+2.5*(X-2.5)+5*(X-5)*(Y-5)+(A+B)*Y^2' | It finds 2.5*X and replaces, then finds 5*X, replaces with 5*(X-5) then on the same term finds 5*Y and replaces it with 5*(Y-5), reporting a total of 3 replacements |
'.nN*.vX^2:→.nN*(.vX-1)^2' | '√3*X^2+2.5*X+5*X*Y+(A+B)*Y^2' | Does not make any replacements, since √3 is not a single number but a numeric expression |
'.NN*.vX^2:→.NN*(.vX-1)^2' | '√3*(X-1)^2+2.5*X+5*X*Y+(A+B)*Y^2' | Using .NN instead, matches √3 and does the replacement |
'.xN*.vX^2:→.xN*(.vX-1)^2' | '√3*(X-1)^2+2.5*X+5*X*Y+(A+B)*(Y-1)^2' | Using .xN instead, matches √3 and (A+B) as well |
'.NN*.vX^2+.XR:→.XR' | '2.5*X+5*X*Y+(A+B)*Y^2' | Finds √3*X^2'+… where .XR represents the rest of the expression, and removes the term |
'.xN*.vX^2+.XR:→.XR' | '2.5*X+5*X*Y' | Finds √3*X^2' and removes the term, then also finds (A+B)*Y^2 and removes it as well |