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Background:

  bar := {1, 1, 1};
  foo[var_] := {Hold[var], 2 var}
  SetAttributes[foo, HoldAll]
  foo[bar]

Result, as expected:

  {Hold[bar], {2, 2, 2}}

What I then do ( which is clearly not correct, but I don't know another way ) is that I ToString the first element of the list, i.e. Hold[bar] and then extract the substring "bar" out of it.

What I want is just this:

  f[data_?VectorQ] := f[data, name_of_data]
  f[data_?VectorQ, name_?StringQ] := "Save data as name" ...

So for example:

   ape = {1,2,3};
   bear= {2,3,4};
   f[ape] translates to f[{1,2,3"}, "ape"]
   f[bear, "bird"] translates to f[{2,3,4}, "bird"]
   f[ape+bear] translates to Null or False.

Question: How do I access the name of a list in a function ?

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7
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You need to use HoldForm instead of Hold.

Clear@f
SetAttributes[f, HoldAll]
f[data_?VectorQ] := f[data, ToString@HoldForm@data]
f[data_?VectorQ, name_?StringQ] := "Save data as " <> name

With this:

f[ape]
(* "Save data as ape" *)

f[ape, "bird"]
(* "Save data as bird" *)

To get Null or False for f[ape+bear], you can use StringFreeQ[name, "+"] to see if the input is of that form. Similarly, "{" for list arguments (no need to check for "}"). So the second definition for f above would be:

f[data_?VectorQ, name_?StringQ] := 
    If[StringFreeQ[name, "+" | "{"], "Save data as " <> name, False]

f[{1, 2, 3}]
(* False *)

f[ape + bear]
(* False *)
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  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, 4 seconds difference $\endgroup$ – Heike May 5 '12 at 17:41
  • $\begingroup$ Oooh. That's the closest I've been involved in! :) $\endgroup$ – rm -rf♦ May 5 '12 at 17:47
  • $\begingroup$ Any reason for name_?StringQ rather than name_String? $\endgroup$ – Mr.Wizard♦ May 5 '12 at 18:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Mr.Wizard That's what the OP used for whatever reason and I stuck with it $\endgroup$ – rm -rf♦ May 5 '12 at 18:28
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    $\begingroup$ @R.M.: I think you need _?StringQ since _String would not work due to the HoldAll attribute. You could alternatively wrap an Evaluate around the second argument in the call to f which would probably a good idea anyway... $\endgroup$ – Albert Retey May 5 '12 at 18:34
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You could use HoldForm instead of Hold, for example

bar := {1, 1, 1};
foo[var_] := {ToString@HoldForm[var], var}
SetAttributes[foo, HoldAll]
foo[bar]

(* output: {"bar", {1, 1, 1}} *)

Edit

To distinguish between proper variable names and something like ape + bear you could do something like

foo[var_] := {var, Quiet@Check[SymbolName[Unevaluated[var]], False]}
SetAttributes[foo, HoldAll]

bar := {1, 1, 1};
ape = {2, 3, 4};

foo[bar]

(* ==> {{1, 1, 1}, "bar"} *)

foo[bar + ape]

(* ==> {{3, 4, 5}, False} *)
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  • $\begingroup$ Is there a smart way to check that only f[varname] is OK and not f[{1,2,3}] or f[var1+var2+var3] etc.? they all pass VectorQ $\endgroup$ – nilo de roock May 5 '12 at 17:48
  • $\begingroup$ @ndroock1 I've updated my answer $\endgroup$ – Heike May 5 '12 at 18:04
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    $\begingroup$ As for the check whether the argument is a symbol you could just use foo[var_Symbol]:=... or even combine it with _?VectorQ as this: _Symbol?VectorQ. It might come as a surprise that this works but _Symbol will check the Head of the unevaluated argument due to the HoldAll attribute while the VectorQ will see the evaluated argument. And yes, Leonid would for sure consider the _?VectorQ part to be an evaluation leak. For this particular use case I would consider that no problem though... $\endgroup$ – Albert Retey May 5 '12 at 18:47

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