plotting a python function that uses an array - sage

In sagemath, I would like to plot the following function foo (Coef is an array that is big enough) :
def foo(x):
x_approx = floor (x*4)
return Coef[x_approx]
I wanted to use the command plot(foo(x), (x,0,0.1)).
But I got the error unable to convert floor(4*x) to an integer.
Whereas when `foo is not using an array, it works:
def foo(x):
x_approx = floor (x*4)
return 4*x_approx

Use plot(foo, (x, 0, 0.1)) instead (that is, replace foo(x) with foo). If you use foo(x), then Sage tries to evaluate foo(x) first, in which case it treats x as a symbolic variable and can't turn it into a number to plot. If you use foo, then it knows to treat it as a plottable/callable function, and it does the right thing.
Edit: I think the issue is that for plotting, Sage requires a certain type of function, a symbolic function, and using a Python construct like Coef[...] doesn't fit into that framework.

Related

Scilab pointer function

I am working on converting code from MATLAB to scilab included here.
The # symbol is used as a memory pointer in MATLAB pointing to the location of the function tst_callback.
Scilab does not like this however. Is there a scilab equivalent for the #?
function test
sysIDgui(#tst_callback)
end
function tst_callback()
disp("Hello Ron")
endfunction
What you are trying to do is to pass a function as argument to another function. In Scilab, you don't need any special syntax.
Try it yourself. Define these two functions:
function y = applyFunction(f,x)
y = f(x);
endfunction
function y = double(x)
y = x * 2;
endfunction
Then test it on the console:
--> applyFunction(double,7)
ans =
14.
Note: the main usage of # in MATLAB, is to create anonymous functions (see documentation), ones that are not defined in a separate file. As for Scilab, there is no way to create anonymous functions.

Can I add a method to a function to receive as an argument another particular function?

I've created my immutable Tensor_field and a function nabla that acts on the tensor (that is nabla(a::Tensor_field) = do something.
I've added a method to function dot for the tensor: Base.dot(a::Tensor_field, b::Tensor_field) = do something....
Now I want to define a new behavior to function dot with nabla as an argument.
Something like Base.dot(nabla::function, a::Tensor_field) = do something different.
I know in Julia we are able to pass functions as arguments to other functions, but I couldn't find in the docs how to define a method for a "functional" argument.
If I type typeof(nabla) the output is My_Module_Name.#nabla, not a real DataType...
If you want it to work for any function, you can do
Base.dot(f::Function, a::Tensor_field) = do something different
If you only want it to work for the nabla function already defined, you can take advantage of what you have discovered, namely that each function has a unique type:
Base.dot(f::typeof(nabla), a::Tensor_field) = do something different
This will match only the function called nabla, which will now be called f inside the function dot.
Note that you can write ∇ as \nabla<TAB> and use it in your code instead of the word nabla. If your tensor field is called e.g. 𝐯 (written as \mbfv<TAB>), you can then write ∇⋅𝐯 in your Julia code! (The centered dot is written as \cdot<TAB>, and is an alias for the dot function.)

What does the "Base" keyword mean in Julia?

I saw this example in the Julia language documentation. It uses something called Base. What is this Base?
immutable Squares
count::Int
end
Base.start(::Squares) = 1
Base.next(S::Squares, state) = (state*state, state+1)
Base.done(S::Squares, s) = s > S.count;
Base.eltype(::Type{Squares}) = Int # Note that this is defined for the type
Base.length(S::Squares) = S.count;
Base is a module which defines many of the functions, types and macros used in the Julia language. You can view the files for everything it contains here or call whos(Base) to print a list.
In fact, these functions and types (which include things like sum and Int) are so fundamental to the language that they are included in Julia's top-level scope by default.
This means that we can just use sum instead of Base.sum every time we want to use that particular function. Both names refer to the same thing:
Julia> sum === Base.sum
true
Julia> #which sum # show where the name is defined
Base
So why, you might ask, is it necessary is write things like Base.start instead of simply start?
The point is that start is just a name. We are free to rebind names in the top-level scope to anything we like. For instance start = 0 will rebind the name 'start' to the integer 0 (so that it no longer refers to Base.start).
Concentrating now on the specific example in docs, if we simply wrote start(::Squares) = 1, then we find that we have created a new function with 1 method:
Julia> start
start (generic function with 1 method)
But Julia's iterator interface (invoked using the for loop) requires us to add the new method to Base.start! We haven't done this and so we get an error if we try to iterate:
julia> for i in Squares(7)
println(i)
end
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching start(::Squares)
By updating the Base.start function instead by writing Base.start(::Squares) = 1, the iterator interface can use the method for the Squares type and iteration will work as we expect (as long as Base.done and Base.next are also extended for this type).
I'll grant that for something so fundamental, the explanation is buried a bit far down in the documentation, but http://docs.julialang.org/en/release-0.4/manual/modules/#standard-modules describes this:
There are three important standard modules: Main, Core, and Base.
Base is the standard library (the contents of base/). All modules
implicitly contain using Base, since this is needed in the vast
majority of cases.

Call Arguments of Function inside Function / R language

I have a function:
func <- function (x)
{
arguments <- match.call()
return(arguments)
}
1) If I call my function with specifying argument in the call:
func("value")
I get:
func(x = "value")
2) If I call my function by passing a variable:
my_variable <-"value"
func(my_variable)
I get:
func(x = my_variable)
Why is the first and the second result different?
Can I somehow get in the second call "func(x = "value")"?
I'm thinking my problem is that the Environment inside a function simply doesn't contain values if they were passed by variables. The Environment contains only names of variables for further lookup. Is there a way to follow such reference and get value from inside a function?
In R, when you pass my_variable as formal argument x into a function, the value of my_variable will only be retrieved when the function tries to read x (if it does not use x, my_variable will not be read at all). The same applies when you pass more complicated arguments, such as func(x = compute_my_variable()) -- the call to compute_my_variable will take place when func tries to read x (this is referred to as lazy evaluation).
Given lazy evaluation, what you are trying to do is not well defined because of side effects - in which order would you like to evaluate the arguments? Which arguments would you like to evaluate at all? (note a function can just take an expression for its argument using substitute, but not evaluate it). As a side effect, compute_my_variable could modify something that would impact the result of another argument of func. This can happen even when you only passed variables and constants as arguments (function func could modify some of the variables that will be later read, or even reading a variable such as my_variable could trigger code that would modify some of the variables that will be read later, e.g. with active bindings or delayed assignment).
So, if all you want to do is to log how a function was called, you can use sys.call (or match.call but that indeed expands argument names, etc). If you wanted a more complete stacktrace, you can use e.g. traceback(1).
If for some reason you really wanted values of all arguments, say as if they were all read in the order of match.call, which is the order in which they are declared, you can do it using eval (returns them as list):
lapply(as.list(match.call())[-1], eval)
can't you simply
return paste('func(x =', x, ')')

Function as an argument in Erlang

I'm trying to do something like this:
-module(count).
-export([main/0]).
sum(X, Sum) -> X + Sum.
main() ->
lists:foldl(sum, 0, [1,2,3,4,5]).
but see a warning and code fails:
function sum/2 is unused
How to fix the code?
NB: this is just a sample which illustrates problem, so there is no reason to propose solution which uses fun-expression.
Erlang has slightly more explicit syntax for that:
-module(count).
-export([main/0]).
sum(X, Sum) -> X + Sum.
main() ->
lists:foldl(fun sum/2, 0, [1,2,3,4,5]).
See also "Learn you some Erlang":
If function names are written without a parameter list then those names are interpreted as atoms, and atoms can not be functions, so the call fails.
...
This is why a new notation has to be added to the language in order to let you pass functions from outside a module. This is what fun Module:Function/Arity is: it tells the VM to use that specific function, and then bind it to a variable.

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