# Replacing value by another value

My question is that in Mathematica notebook when I write replacing commands, it didn't replace.

In[1]:= 2*x+y+1/.(x+y)->0
Out[1]:=1+2x+y


or

In[2]:= x+x+y+1/.(x+y)->0
Out[2]:=1+2x+y

• For the second this works HoldForm[x + x + y + 1] /. (x + y) -> 0 – mattiav27 Jan 7 at 10:05

ReplaceAll is not designed to do algebra, which does not try any algebraic transform. But Reduce etc. can do them.

However, I still can make something work with ReplaceAll.

For the first line, it's not replaced because there isn't any x+y at all, as you can see that with FullForm:

Plus[1,Times[2,x],y]


I recommend this command:

/. y->-x


For the second line, there is a x+y in x+x+y+1. But it's evaluated and then turns to 2x+y+1. You can use Hold to forbid it to be evaluated, and then use ReleaseHold after replacing:

ReleaseHold[Hold[x + x + y + 1] /. (x + y) -> 0]


For more convinience, use Unevaluated to hold it just once:

Unevaluated[x + x + y + 1] /. (x + y) -> 0


To break 2x to x+x, try:

Apply[Unevaluated@*Plus, Table[#2, #1] & @@ (2 x)]

• Thank you Sir, Is there any command to break 2*x= x+x? – Habib Ullah Jan 7 at 8:31
• @HabibUllah No. You can imagine that: even if there is a function converting a scalar product to a sum, the result will finally be evaluated to be a product. So such a function is useless. But you can use non-standard evaluation as: Table[#2,#1]&@@(2x), and replace its head List by Plus when needed. – bcegkmqs23 Jan 7 at 8:58
• Thank you so much for your kind suggestions. – Habib Ullah Jan 7 at 10:14

You could like this:

z /. ToRules[Reduce[z == 2 x + y + 1 && x + y == 0, {z, y}]]


which yields:

1 + x

• Thank you so much. – Habib Ullah Jan 7 at 8:05
• @HabibUllah Welcome to MSE. There are many ways to achieve your goal.. You can choose the way that best suits your purposes. Good luck:) – ubpdqn Jan 7 at 8:07