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I am given a list

a = {1.1,2.1,3.1,4.1,...}

As you can see this is not a list of the form 

{{1.1},{2.1},{3.1},{4.1},...}

Now I was wondering whether it is possible to write a swap function

swap[a,{1,3}]

which would swap the first and third entry such that I get 

{3.1,2.1,1.1,4.1,...}

As a result.

Any help will be greatly appreciated !

If it is not possible please just tell me then I'll start looking for other ways to approach this problem.

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  • $\begingroup$ I do not understand is this statement: "So I cannot target single entries using a command like [...]". Moroever, please adopt the habit of positing complete minimal examples. Mentioning the symbol MinVarGeneralThermal1 is totally irrelevant for the problem at hand, isn't it? You question is merely about reording a given list. $\endgroup$ – Henrik Schumacher Feb 19 '19 at 11:09
  • $\begingroup$ You are right, I corrected the name of the function. What I meant with 'function1[T, E, d][[2]]' is that this allows to target a single entry of a list, which would correspond to {2.1} in my example $\endgroup$ – CatoMaths Feb 19 '19 at 11:16
  • $\begingroup$ I took the freedom to modify your post in order to remove the function. Please check whether this is in accordance with your actual question. Also, please rephrase the part "So I cannot target single entries using a command like [...]" because I still don't get what you are asking for. $\endgroup$ – Henrik Schumacher Feb 19 '19 at 11:20
  • $\begingroup$ Oh well, this statement was written to help the readers understand my issue. But it is not necessary to understand the problem by any means. I will delete it. And thank you for the edit ! $\endgroup$ – CatoMaths Feb 19 '19 at 11:33
  • $\begingroup$ Dupe of 191781? $\endgroup$ – Christopher Lamb Feb 19 '19 at 17:14
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a = {1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1};

swap[a_, {i_, j_}] := Module[{b = a},
  b[[{j, i}]] = b[[{i, j}]];
  b
  ]

swap[a, {3, 1}]

{3.1, 2.1, 1.1, 4.1}

Alternatively, you may also use ReplacePart as follows:

swap[a_, {i_, j_}] := ReplacePart[a, {i -> a[[j]], j -> a[[i]]}]
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