Questions dealing with optional named arguments of Mathematica functions.
61
votes
4answers
1k views
How can one find undocumented options or option values in Mathematica?
Mathematica has a lot of undocumented or poorly documented options.
How does one go about working out if there is an undocumented option that might solve a particular problem?
How does one work out ...
48
votes
4answers
2k views
Functions with Options
Suppose you want to create a function which has optional arguments.
Maeder's book "Programming in Mathematica" covers the topic extensively up to version 3, but some things have changed/evolved since ...
32
votes
2answers
805 views
Extract values for ViewMatrix from a Graphics3D
Under More Information in the help page of ViewMatrix the following entry can be found
With the setting ...
28
votes
3answers
699 views
How to find out which method Mathematica selected?
There are commands like NonlinearModelFit[] or NDSolve[] that have the option Method it ...
26
votes
6answers
983 views
How can I create a function with optional arguments and options?
Is it possible to create a function with optional arguments that also takes options?
Here is a simple example. I have a function f with option "g". It also has ...
25
votes
1answer
226 views
Quickly look-up usages, options and attributes of symbols
When I'm writing code in the front-end, I find myself very often looking up the list of options of a symbol over and over again in the documentation center. In most cases you find there a list of ...
18
votes
2answers
181 views
Evaluation of OptionValue[]
I have a function that takes an OptionsPattern and I want to access several options, say a, and ...
18
votes
1answer
421 views
Publishing results obtained in Mathematica
I've been using Mathematica to solve nonlinear partial differential equations for my doctoral research for the last 2 years or so. I am not an expert in Mathematica or mathematics and I am an engineer ...
16
votes
3answers
248 views
How can I work out which functions work with SetOptions?
Not all functions seem to work with SetOptions. e.g.
...
15
votes
3answers
363 views
How can I set Grid alignments using numbers?
There is an example in the Alignment documentation (it also appears in the Grid documentation):
...
14
votes
2answers
1k views
How to save plots in grayscale
As sophomoric as this question seems, how should I save plots in grayscale in Mathematica?
I generally like eps images for their scalability and I use ghostscript or other third party perl scripts ...
14
votes
2answers
244 views
Why doesn't Mathematica use uniform criteria for validating Options?
Plot[Sin[x], {x, 0, 1}, pp -> 0]
Gives as expected:
Plot::optx: Unknown option pp in Plot[Sin[x],{x,0,1},pp->0]. >>
However:
...
14
votes
2answers
358 views
Plot Option Precedence while combining Plots with `Show[]`
I like to build sophisticated plots by combining simpler ones with Show[]. Typically this involves setting non-default Plot-Options with the different ...
12
votes
3answers
423 views
How to plot a curve with border around the line?
This can be useful if the curve is passing over both dark and light backgrounds (like well-done subtitles in movies).
12
votes
1answer
240 views
Function as an option to a function
I am new to mathematica ,so this question may seem a little naive.
I know how to use the option as an argument to a function, we can define an option by using ...
12
votes
1answer
116 views
How do I get a list of allowed values for an option?
When using Mathematica how can I get a list of the allowed values of an option? As an example I can use the Options command as follows -
...
11
votes
3answers
595 views
Number format of axes in a plot
How can I have a conditional format of the values appearing in the axis of a plot ?
I have in mind the number format options available in Excel for plots as described here ...
11
votes
2answers
339 views
About number truncation of ticks display in ListPlot
In my problem, I need to plot a figure in a relatively small region of the $x$ axis, e.g.,
...
11
votes
1answer
178 views
Problem using OptionValue with functions defined by SubValues, and the use of Options for function dispatch
I have a function that looks like:
...
11
votes
2answers
113 views
Options which require RuleDelayed
For some functions in Mathematica it is important to use RuleDelayed. One prominent example is the EvaluationMonitor for ...
11
votes
1answer
185 views
What's a good style for inheriting Options[] of built-in function?
Options[myPlot] = Options[Plot];
myPlot[args___] := ...
When defining a "wrapper" function like the above, I'd like it to inherit the ...
10
votes
3answers
469 views
Passing down arguments
In R, one can use ... to pass arguments down to another function. For example
...
10
votes
2answers
229 views
What do the options of SmoothKernelDistribution do?
The function SmoothKernelDistribution has three options that are not described in too much detail in the Mathematica's help window.
InterpolationPoints: What is ...
10
votes
2answers
372 views
Factorizing polynomials over fields other than $\mathbb{C}$
I'd like to take a polynomial in $\mathbb{Z}_5[x]$ of the form $ax^2+bx+c$ and factor it into irreducible polynomials.
For example:
Input...
x^2+4
Output...
...
10
votes
2answers
561 views
Labels and tickmarks inside Frame
Is there a way to force Plot and related functions to place the tick labels inside, rather than outside a frame? For example, consider,
...
10
votes
1answer
93 views
Why are some option values symbols, other strings?
Is there a rationale, beyond historical accident, why some Mathematica option values are strings, while others are symbols?
It seems natural that some value spaces, e.g. named color schemes, are so ...
10
votes
1answer
117 views
Figuring out how AbsoluteOptions works with Graphs
I am puzzled by how AbsoluteOptions works with Graph objects. I would have expected that one could use it to obtain all the ...
9
votes
3answers
272 views
Dealing with nested options
OptionValue allows for recent versions of Mathematica (I think as from 7) to easily access optional parameters if they are explicitely given to a function or their default values otherwise.
For big ...
9
votes
2answers
254 views
Saving a notebook without output lines
Is it possible to change the way Mathematica saves so that Out[] lines are never included?
I have a .nb file that processes a ...
9
votes
2answers
119 views
Function with custom Options and modified Options for built-in Symbols
I couldn't find a more descriptive title, but I guess an example will explain my problem.
I set up some customized Grid function including some additional ...
9
votes
2answers
197 views
Determining the default Method used in optimization and root-finding algorithms
Is it possible to extract the Method which is used in functions like NMinimize, FindRoot, ...
9
votes
1answer
180 views
9
votes
3answers
129 views
Pass by reference for an option argument
Pass by reference can be faked by using HoldAll or something similar in the definition of a "Function". But can pass by reference be faked for symbols passed as ...
9
votes
1answer
940 views
What method does NDSolve use for solving PDEs?
What is NDSolve's mode of operation?
I use it to solve partial differential equations and never gave it too much thought. Recently, I came across this question. ...
9
votes
1answer
391 views
How to tell mathematica not to resolve stiffness issues
Very often I solve partial differential equations that are nonlinear and could be up to 4th order. In these cases, it is usual for the solution determined by ...
8
votes
2answers
151 views
How can automatic ticks be made “outie”?
By default, FrameTicks stick into the data area in a way that is sometimes uncomfortable.
...
8
votes
1answer
121 views
How can I add a background to a stylesheet?
In version 9 we can set the background to an image, however I'd like to save this into a stylesheet that can be installed.
7
votes
2answers
324 views
Solving/Reducing equations in $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$
I was trying to find all the numbers $n$ for which $2^n=n\mod 10^k$ using Mathematica.
My first try:
Reduce[2^n == n, n, Modulus -> 100]
However, I receive ...
7
votes
2answers
287 views
Why does ListPlot ignore some global options?
Why does the following plot no use the global PlotMarkers option?
...
7
votes
2answers
82 views
How to show wireframes on imported Object / Mesh (.obj file)
I've managed to import a Wavefront (.obj) file and store it in a variable like so:
...
7
votes
1answer
122 views
Pass Options to Export[]
I'm working with Options to change the look and feel of some generated Graphics by passing Options to several functions, one of them being Export[]. For example if
...
7
votes
1answer
53 views
Creating a NearestFunction that returns an index
I use Nearest repeatedly for large data sets. For example
pts = RandomReal[{-1, 1}, {1000, 3}];
Nearest[pts, {0, 0, 0}]
I ...
7
votes
1answer
229 views
Setting the DifferenceOrder Option
I've been playing around with Method in NDSolve[...] and can't quite seem to figure out how to force ...
7
votes
1answer
174 views
Setting up TextStyle with initialization cells in Mathematica 6+
It used to be quite straightforward to change the default settings of a notebook in terms of inputs, outputs, text styles and font sizes in previous versions of Mathematica using initialization cells ...
7
votes
1answer
189 views
What does MaxStepFraction do?
I find that with NDSolve[...] while solving a partial differential equation, changing the MaxStepFraction from ...
6
votes
2answers
153 views
Is there a way to programmatically set global preferences?
Can I set global preferences that are accessible via "Edit"->"Preferences" programmatically from within a notebook?
As learned from this question, turning off anti-aliasing can make a huge difference ...
6
votes
2answers
222 views
Passing unquoted strings (poor man's enumeration)
I would like to be able to pass an unquoted string as a parameter to a Mathematica function [that I am writing] and have it show up without evaluation if the string happens to be defined. Thus I would ...
6
votes
2answers
424 views
How to set the NDSolve method to LSODA
I notice that off all the Method options available for NDSolve[...], LSODA is invoked quite ...
6
votes
3answers
154 views
Get unevaluated option value?
This is kind of a follow-up to this question.
I want to be able to define a function that takes an option, and then, inside the function, retrieve and test the unevaluated value of the option. For ...
6
votes
1answer
199 views
Running an initialization cell on Mathematica start up
I am writing a bash script to run a bunch of Mathematica .nb files serially. So I thought I'd convert my Mathematica cells into ...
