# Creating authomatically inequalities/equations from a list of polynomials

I am trying to learn how to make automatically from a list of polynomials (or an arbitrary collection of algebraic expression) a list of inequalities/equalities (those will later serve as constraints in some optimization program).

So suppose I have the list like

polynoms={ax^2+bx+c, cx+d, a^3-20x+d}


and I would like to end up with a list like

const={ax^2+bx+c>=0, cx+d>=0, a^3-20x+d==0}


or at least with the list

const2={ax^2+bx+c>=0, cx+d>=0, a^3-20x+d>= 0}


where to the entire list the same $\geq 0$ has been applied. It is not a problem to do it manually when there are 3 or 5 inequalities to be generated, but when I have a list of 30 it becomse a nightmare... I have been searching through a bunch of possibilities how to do it automatically, but all are failing.. Thanks for any hints!

polynoms = {ax^2 + bx + c, cx + d, a^3 - 20 x + d};

(*  {ax^2 + bx + c >= 0, cx + d >= 0, a^3 + d - 20 x >= 0}  *)

#[[1]][#[[2]], 0] & /@ Transpose[{
{GreaterEqual, GreaterEqual, Equal},
polynoms}]

(*  {ax^2 + bx + c >= 0, cx + d >= 0, a^3 + d - 20 x == 0}  *)


Or

Inner[#1[#2, 0] &,
{GreaterEqual, GreaterEqual, Equal},
polynoms, List]

(*  {ax^2 + bx + c >= 0, cx + d >= 0, a^3 + d - 20 x == 0}  *)

• Thank you! It happened to be embarrassingly simple, I don't know how I failed to find "thread" command. – Kass Nov 20 '15 at 23:40

First, you may need to separate ax and bx into a * x and b * x if they are products with 'x'

Depending on your subsequent application (for example Solve) you can Apply Unequal to the list so that each variable is unique

  equations={a*b,b*c}

notequal =Apply[Unequal, {a,b,c}]
equationsnotequal = Apply[Unequal,equations]


and pass desired constraints simply by adding the bounds on the list e.g

Solve[{a,b,c}>0 && notequal && equations<42 && equationsnotequal, {a,b,c}, Integers]

• I need those constraints for NMaximize or FindFit, and those too sophisticated I guess to apply your idea... – Kass Nov 20 '15 at 23:42
• OK, no worries. Even though it doesn't address your specific use I think I will leave the answer here in case its useful for others, especially re Solve. Was the comment about using a*x (or a_space_x) to represent the product of a and x in Mathematica useful? – PlaysDice Nov 21 '15 at 16:55