<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <!-- for emacs: -*- coding: utf-8 -*- --> <!-- Apache may like this line in the file .htaccess: AddCharset utf-8 .html --> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 plus MathML 2.0 plus SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2002/04/xhtml-math-svg/xhtml-math-svg-flat.dtd" > <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> <head><title>IndexedVariable -- the class of all indexed variables</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../../Macaulay2/Style/doc.css"/> </head> <body> <table class="buttons"> <tr> <td><div><a href="___Indexed__Variable_sp.._sp__Indexed__Variable.html">next</a> | <a href="_index__Components.html">previous</a> | <a href="___Indexed__Variable_sp.._sp__Indexed__Variable.html">forward</a> | <a href="_index__Components.html">backward</a> | up | <a href="index.html">top</a> | <a href="master.html">index</a> | <a href="toc.html">toc</a> | <a href="http://www.math.uiuc.edu/Macaulay2/">Macaulay2 web site</a></div> </td> </tr> </table> <hr/> <div><h1>IndexedVariable -- the class of all indexed variables</h1> <div class="single"><h2>Description</h2> <div>Indexed variables provide the possibility of producing polynomial rings <tt>R[x_0, x_1, ..., x_(n-1)]</tt> in n variables, where n is not known in advance. If <tt>x</tt> is an symbol, and i is an integer, then <tt>x_i</tt> produces an indexed variable. After this has been done, an assignment <tt>x_i=v</tt> will assign another value to it. A new sequence of indexed variables of length n assigned to the symbol <tt>x</tt> can be produced with <tt>x_1 .. x_n</tt> and that sequence can be used in constructing a polynomial ring.<table class="examples"><tr><td><pre>i1 : ZZ/101[t_0 .. t_4] ZZ o1 = ---[t , t , t , t , t ] 101 0 1 2 3 4 o1 : PolynomialRing</pre> </td></tr> <tr><td><pre>i2 : (t_0 - 2*t_1)^3 3 2 2 3 o2 = t - 6t t + 12t t - 8t 0 0 1 0 1 1 ZZ o2 : ---[t , t , t , t , t ] 101 0 1 2 3 4</pre> </td></tr> </table> Warning: the values of the indexed variables <tt>t_i</tt> are stored in a global location, behind the scenes, so may not get garbage collected, even if <tt>t</tt> is a local variable.</div> </div> <div class="waystouse"><h2>Methods that use an indexed variable :</h2> <ul><li><span>IndexedVariable <- Thing, see <span><a href="__lt-.html" title="assignment with left side evaluated"><-</a> -- assignment with left side evaluated</span></span></li> <li><span>IndexedVariable ? IndexedVariable, see <span><a href="__qu.html" title="comparison operator">?</a> -- comparison operator</span></span></li> <li><span>Symbol ? IndexedVariable, see <span><a href="__qu.html" title="comparison operator">?</a> -- comparison operator</span></span></li> <li><span>baseName(IndexedVariable), see <span><a href="_base__Name.html" title="the base name of a generator">baseName</a> -- the base name of a generator</span></span></li> <li><span><a href="___Indexed__Variable_sp.._sp__Indexed__Variable.html" title="sequences of consecutive indexed variables">IndexedVariable .. IndexedVariable</a> -- sequences of consecutive indexed variables</span></li> <li><span><a href="___Indexed__Variable_sp.._lt_sp__Indexed__Variable.html" title="sequences of consecutive indexed variables">IndexedVariable ..< IndexedVariable</a> -- sequences of consecutive indexed variables</span></li> <li><span><a href="___Indexed__Variable_sp_us_sp__Ring.html" title="get a ring variable by name">IndexedVariable _ Ring</a> -- get a ring variable by name</span></li> <li><span><a href="_value_lp__Indexed__Variable_rp.html" title="retrieve the value of an indexed variable">value(IndexedVariable)</a> -- retrieve the value of an indexed variable</span></li> </ul> </div> <div class="waystouse"><h2>For the programmer</h2> <p>The object <a href="___Indexed__Variable.html" title="the class of all indexed variables">IndexedVariable</a> is <span>a <a href="___Type.html">type</a></span>, with ancestor classes <a href="___Basic__List.html" title="the class of all basic lists">BasicList</a> < <a href="___Thing.html" title="the class of all things">Thing</a>.</p> </div> </div> </body> </html>