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For example, suppose that foo is defined like this.

foo[x_Integer, y_Integer] := x + y;

Then, any expression with head foo that does not match the pattern given above will remain "unevaluated". E.g., foo[3] "evaluates" to foo[3].

Although I recognize that there are situations where one may want precisely this behavior, in most of my programming I don't. Quite the contrary: I want expressions like foo[3] to be treated as malformed, IOW, as errors, and therefore to result in a loud, unequivocal failure whenever they are evaluated.

Hence, I find myself writing a lot of code of the form

foo[x_Integer, y_Integer] := x + y;
foo[___] := Abort[];

(Actually, I use a slightly embellished version of Abort[].)

But including a line like

foo[___] := Abort[];

for every function one defines adds up to a lot of hard-to-maintain clutter-code.

Does Mathematica have some other way to achieve the same thing with less clutter?

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  • $\begingroup$ Related question: mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/48208/3066 $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 17:37
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    $\begingroup$ Possible duplicate: mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/29321/12 $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 17:41
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    $\begingroup$ The practice of adding a definition of the form foo[___] := ... is pretty much the standard idiom. I have never found that it produced any code maintenance problems. $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 17:41
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    $\begingroup$ Abort is a rather drastic measure, and IMO not really the right solution for a reusable functions ... Unfortunately there's no one consistent way to deal with failures in Mathematica. Typical ways are: keep unevaluated and issue a message. Return $Failed, with or without a message. Return Failure[...]. In functions internal to your package: use Throw maybe. $\endgroup$
    – Szabolcs
    Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 17:42
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    $\begingroup$ The common practice is to make a call to Message and print an informative error message. $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Commented Dec 10, 2016 at 17:43

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Instead of foo[___] := Abort[] try this

LHS_foo := RuleCondition[Developer`CheckArgumentCount[LHS, 2, 2]; Fail];

It uses lots of undocumented functions, so it might not be to your taste.

It accomplishes @m_goldberg 's suggestion in the comments.

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