The following functions manipulate lists. They can also be used to manipulate expressions, as shown in the next section, Manipulating Expressions. A summary of commands with explanations is in Table 8.4.
Most of the functions have two variants, one that produces a new value, and one that works in-place directly on its arguments. Here are some examples:
// In-place example
A = {2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 2, 1};
A = Remove( A, 3 ); // delete the third item in the list A, storing result in A
Remove From( A, 3 ); // delete the third item in the list A, in place
Show( A ); // A = {2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1};
// New value example
B = {2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 2, 1};
onetwo = Insert( {1}, 2 ); // {1, 2}
Insert Into( B, {1, 2}, 4 ); // put 1, 2 before the current 4th item
Show( B ); // B = {2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1};
Note: If the position is omitted in the Insert Into command, items are placed at the end of the list.
a = Shift( {1,2,3,4}, 1 ); // store the list {2,3,4,1} in a
Shift Into( a, -1 );
Show( a ); // a = {1, 2, 3, 4};
b = Reverse( a ); // b is now {4,3,2,1}
Reverse Into( a ); // a is now {4,3,2,1}
Show( a ); // a = {4, 3, 2, 1};
s = Sort List( {1,4,2,5, -7.2, Pi(), -11, cat, apple, cake} );
Show( s ); // s = {-11, -7.2, 1, 2, 4, 5, apple, cake, cat, Pi()};
c = {5, pie, 2, Pi(), -2};
Sort List Into( c );
Show( c ); // c = {-2, 2, 5, Pi(), pie};
In-place functions are those that operate on lists or expressions directly. They have From or Into in their names (for example, Remove From and Insert Into). They do not return a result; you have to show the list to see the result. The first argument for an in-place function must be an L-value. An L-value is an entity such as a variable whose value can be set.
myList = {a, b, c, d};
Insert Into( myList, 2, 3 );
Show( myList );
myList = {a, b, 2, c, d}
These examples show how to use Insert Into and Remove From with nested lists:
a = {{1, 2, 3}, {"A", "B", "C"}};
Show( a );
a = {{1, 2, 3}, {"A", "B", "C"}}
Insert Into( a[1], 99, 1 );
Show( a );
a = {{99, 1, 2, 3}, {"A", "B", "C"}}
Remove From( a[1], 1 );
Show( a );
a = {{1, 2, 3}, {"A", "B", "C"}}
For the not-in-place functions, you must either state the list directly or else quote a name that evaluates to a list. Such functions do not have From or Into in their names. They return manipulated lists or expressions without changing the original list or expression given in the first argument.
myNewList = Insert( {a, b, c, d}, 2, 3 );
{a, b, 2, c, d}
oldList = {a, b, c, d};
newList = Insert( oldList, 2, 3 );
{a, b, 2, c, d}
Substitute() and Substitute Into() merit further discussion. Both functions find all matches to a pattern in a list (or expression) and replace them with another expression. Each pattern must be a name. The arguments are evaluated before they are applied, so most of the time you must quote them with an Expr() function.
Substitute( {a,b,c}, Expr( a ), 23); // returns {23,b,c}
Substitute( Expr( Sine( x ) ), Expr( x ), Expr( y ) ); // returns Sine(y)
To delay evaluating an argument, use NameExpr instead of Expr:
a = {quick, brown, fox, jumped, over, lazy, dogs};
b = Substitute( a, Expr( dogs ), Expr( cat ) );
canine = Expr( dogs );
equine = Expr( horse );
c = Substitute( a, Name Expr( canine ), Name Expr( equine ) );
Show( a, b, c );
a = {quick,brown,fox,jumped,over,lazy,dogs}
b = {quick,brown,fox,jumped,over,lazy,cat}
c = {quick,brown,fox,jumped,over,lazy,horse}
Substitute Into does the same work, in place:
Substitute Into( a, Expr( dogs ), Expr( horse ) );
You can list multiple pattern and replacement arguments to do more than one replacement in a single step:
d = Substitute( a,
Name Expr( quick ), Name Expr( fast ),
Name Expr( brown ), Name Expr( black ),
Name Expr( fox ), Name Expr( wolf )
);
{fast,black,wolf,jumped,over,lazy,dogs}
Note that substitutions are done repeatedly over multiple instances of the expression pattern. For example:
Substitute( Expr( a + a ), Expr( a ), Expr( aaa ) );
results in:
aaa + aaa