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I can not figure it out.

Why does Position only uses patterns to match elements in a list, but Select only uses pure function to test element in a list?

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Position[Range[0, 10], _?(Divisible[#, 5] &)] – belisarius Mar 7 at 12:38
@belisarius Thank you, belisarius. Can Select use patterns? – matheorem Mar 7 at 13:25
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If you want to select elements based on patterns, you may be better off with Cases. Also, this question seems directly relevant. – Leonid Shifrin Mar 7 at 13:36
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@LeonidShifrin I think the OP is more interested in the language design decision. I don't have any input for that. – belisarius Mar 7 at 13:40
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@belisarius My understanding is that Select comes from a data-processing world and is closer to the functionality present in more traditional languages, while Position and Cases are tools to work with symbolic Mathematica expressions, based on the pattern-matching. They are more general, and well-suited for general expression traversals, while Select is better optimized to work with structured data such as packed arrays. Both are useful in different situations. I think that in my answer in the question I linked I described this distinction better. – Leonid Shifrin Mar 7 at 13:53
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closed as not a real question by Szabolcs, Oleksandr R., Sjoerd C. de Vries, rcollyer, acl Mar 8 at 1:33

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