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<head><title>toExternalString -- convert to a readable string</title>
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<div><h1>toExternalString -- convert to a readable string</h1>
<div class="single"><h2>Synopsis</h2>
<ul><li><div class="list"><dl class="element"><dt class="heading">Usage: </dt><dd class="value"><div><tt>toExternalString x</tt></div>
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<li><div class="single">Inputs:<ul><li><span><tt>x</tt>, any Macaulay2 object</span></li>
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<li><div class="single">Outputs:<ul><li><span><span>a <a href="___String.html">string</a></span>, a string representation of <tt>x</tt>, which can be used, in conjunction with <a href="_value.html" title="evaluate">value</a>, to read the object back into the program later</span></li>
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<div class="single"><h2>Description</h2>
<div>See also <a href="_to__String.html" title="convert to a string">toString</a> which simply converts <tt>x</tt> to a string that can be displayed meaningfully.<table class="examples"><tr><td><pre>i1 : toString {1,4,a,f,212312,2.123243242}
o1 = {1, 4, a, f, 212312, 2.12324}</pre>
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<table class="examples"><tr><td><pre>i2 : R = QQ[x_1..x_5];</pre>
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<tr><td><pre>i3 : toExternalString R
o3 = QQ[x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4, x_5, Degrees => {5:1}, Heft => {1}, MonomialOrder
=> VerticalList{MonomialSize => 32, GRevLex => {5:1}, Position => Up},
DegreeRank => 1]</pre>
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Matrices and ring elements are linearized<table class="examples"><tr><td><pre>i4 : x_1^3-3/4*x_5*x_3
3 3
o4 = x - -x x
1 4 3 5
o4 : R</pre>
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<tr><td><pre>i5 : toExternalString oo
o5 = x_1^3-(3/4)*x_3*x_5</pre>
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<tr><td><pre>i6 : value oo
3 3
o6 = x - -x x
1 4 3 5
o6 : R</pre>
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<div class="single"><h2>Caveat</h2>
<div>Not everything can be converted to a string in such a way that it can be read back into the program later.</div>
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<div class="single"><h2>See also</h2>
<ul><li><span><a href="_to__String.html" title="convert to a string">toString</a> -- convert to a string</span></li>
<li><span><a href="_value.html" title="evaluate">value</a> -- evaluate</span></li>
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