Questions tagged [boxes]
Boxes are the underlying representation of two-dimensional forms in notebooks.
167
questions
37
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How do I extract the contents of a selected cell as plain text?
My aim is to extract the contents of an Input cells as plain text. Ideally I would like to be able to select one or more Input cells and press a button which would then extract the text from these ...
- 35.9k
24
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How can I get the unchanged Box form of an arbitrary expression?
One may observe that MakeBoxes does not give the actual Box form of various expressions:
MakeBoxes[{1*^4, 000123, a*b c}]
<...
- 272k
22
votes
3
answers
822
views
Tokenize Mathematica input in a simple way
Background
Usually, I give detailed descriptions when I have a question which sometimes lead to that users don't write their answers because they maybe think their answer is too simple. Therefore, I ...
- 113k
22
votes
2
answers
642
views
Understanding evaluation and typesetting
Background
So, one could be surprised by the fact that:
Hold @ Grid[{{1, 2}}]
(*or*)
Hold @ Graphics @ Disk[]
This issue and methods of prevention are ...
Kuba♦
- 137k
20
votes
0
answers
252
views
Inconsistent handling of Dynamic option values; intended, omission, or bug?
In answering Dynamic ClipPlanes calculated from current ViewPoint Kuba and I got into a brief exchange regarding how Option values wrapped in Dynamic should be ...
- 272k
19
votes
3
answers
515
views
What are "\<" and "\>" delimiters in box expressions?
If I enter a string (say, "abc") in a cell, and then switch to box representation (Shift+Ctrl+E or menu item ...
- 7,213
18
votes
3
answers
350
views
How do I use the third and fourth arguments of Parenthesize?
Parenthesize seems to do a good job with constructing boxes that need to be appropriately parenthesized:
...
- 19.7k
18
votes
3
answers
574
views
Notebook vs. DocumentNotebook; display a Notebook inline, like a DocumentNotebook
If you evaluate a DocumentNotebook[] expression in the front-end, it nicely displays inline, inside of an output cell in the current notebook:
For my purposes, <...
- 2,422
17
votes
1
answer
347
views
How to make version 12 print Root objects to screen normally as in earlier versions?
From clean kernel, when typing
result = Reduce[2 d^2 == -((2*(1 + d) + ((4 d^3)/(1 - d)))*(d - 1)),d]
Here what version 12 displays on the screen, compared to ...
- 143k
17
votes
0
answers
189
views
Issue with undo after copying a string inside a string
Bug introduced in 10.0 and persisting through V11.3
Here's a small but annoying issue related to undo and copying of strings.
Steps required to get the problem:
Type ...
Kuba♦
- 137k
16
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Backslash commands in strings?
I discovered by playing around that
Text[DisplayForm@SubscriptBox["λ", "k"]]
produces the same result as
...
- 8,661
14
votes
1
answer
942
views
How to convert a notebook cell to a string retaining all formatting, colorization of identifiers etc?
I have an opened Mathematica notebook containing several cells. Suppose, I am interested in one of them -- it may contain a complete or incomplete expression (e.g. with syntax errors, highlighted ...
- 7,213
14
votes
1
answer
243
views
How to create a general AttachedCell toolbar?
For example, when an image is displayed in the frontend, the image suggestion toolbar, which is an AttachedCell, pops up:
It can can be found here, among other ...
- 47k
13
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How to embed an image into a string?
Note: The bug described in the post is in Mathematica 9, and has been fixed in 10.0.
The documentation for String contains the following statements:
Strings can ...
- 7,213
12
votes
6
answers
12k
views
Notation of partial derivative
I want to write partial derivatives of functions with many arguments. Why is it that when I type
f[x,y] ctrl+6 (0,1)
it turns out to be bad syntax? The output of
...
- 7,046
12
votes
2
answers
674
views
What are the differences between using MakeBoxes and Interpretation?
Say I want to define a custom graphical representation for my function foo.
I can do this using MakeBoxes as in the following:
<...
- 7,623
12
votes
2
answers
322
views
ToExpression and ToBoxes aren't inverses of each other?
Applying ToExpression and ToBoxes repeatedly to Hold[1/1] gives many ...
- 1,959
12
votes
1
answer
789
views
How to change the font color of a variable in whole input cell
I want to track the occurrence of a particular variable in a code. So the idea is to change its color. Usually I do it in a crude way - convert the code into text and then use ...
- 15.9k
12
votes
1
answer
182
views
Strange behavior of UpSetDelayed together with MakeBoxes
In order to answer this question, I just stumbled into the world of UpValues. Though I managed to find a solution for the problem, I'm confused by my own code now 囧,...
- 66.2k
11
votes
1
answer
225
views
Functions returns Command Completion Output
Is there a function that returns the output as if you invoked Command Completion.
To help clarify I am looking for a function that returns the Cell Data as if you invoked ...
- 7,605
11
votes
2
answers
196
views
Are there any good tutorials on Boxes?
I am fairly competent in Mathematica, but I admit that I am baffled by Boxes, both making boxes and converting boxes back into expressions. I want to educate myself,...
- 3,426
10
votes
1
answer
222
views
How to get string representation of boxes in v10.2?
In Mathematica versions up to 10.1 we could get string representation of given boxes by passing them to ToString with InputForm:
...
- 15.1k
10
votes
1
answer
133
views
How do I view the built-in definition of TemplateBox styles in terms of low level boxes?
The following:
TemplateBox[{"a", "b"}, "Binomial"] // RawBoxes
yields the correctly formatted (2d box structure) of Binomial[a,b]:
$$\...
- 19.7k
10
votes
1
answer
560
views
How to convert arbitrary raw boxes directly into String?
This question is motivated by the recent question about searching inside of the NB files.
According to the Documentation, ToString expects a high-level WL ...
- 61.9k
10
votes
1
answer
213
views
How to defer creating/displaying boxes in front end until requested?
If the size of an output expression is larger than threshold ByteCount, the front end will display an abbreviated version of it by producing an ...
- 19.7k
9
votes
1
answer
464
views
How to get a list of all expressions in a notebook matching a certain pattern?
Suppose I have a Mathematica notebook saved to a certain location on disk. Given a pattern I need to get the list of all expressions matching this pattern that appear in input, output or print cells ...
- 7,213
9
votes
3
answers
297
views
Why does MakeBoxes mess up RowBox ordering?
When I use RowBox for MakeBoxes the order of the elements is changed for TraditionalForm, if there is a plus (+) in the list of elements.
...
- 403
9
votes
1
answer
244
views
Is there a way to have a Tooltip for non-editable raster graphics produced by MakeBoxes?
I have a function which produces a large object I would like to hide. Formatting is of course an option but I'm hoping for something a little more meaningful using raster graphics and ...
- 19.3k
9
votes
1
answer
160
views
On an existing notebook, how to transform all "double brackets" into "DoubleBracket"
Sometimes, having all double brackets [[...]] transformed into \\[LeftDoubleBracket] ... \\[RightDoubleBracket] can really ...
- 6,665
9
votes
1
answer
226
views
Ways to obtain a BoxObject
Is there any way to get a BoxObject, except with EvaluationBox or ParentBox?
So usually one ...
Kuba♦
- 137k
9
votes
1
answer
299
views
Pasting TemplateBox with a Dynamic argument
Ok, this is pretty specific...
The objective is to use a TemplateBox to format something that is programatically inserted with ...
- 42.6k
8
votes
2
answers
99
views
MakeBoxes for Power not matching when inside Times?
If I try to define boxes for Power[x,-1] like this,
MakeBoxes[Power[x, -1], TraditionalForm] := "matched";
it works as long ...
- 19.7k
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How to convert expression with Subscript to string
I've tried ToString[], but it doesn't work properly with subscripts:
How to convert expr containing subscript to a string with ...
- 155
8
votes
1
answer
701
views
How to change brackets in TraditionalForm output
I'm trying to improve TraditionalForm's output by using different brackets when there are more than one. For instance, instead of $u(v(r(b))))$, I'd like to get $u\{...
- 1,099
8
votes
2
answers
223
views
Reading Cells or Boxes expression by expression
Let's say we have a cell:
(*newline*)
(*newline*)
Plot[
x,
{x, 0, 1}
]
(*newline*)
Plot[x, {x, 0, 2}]
How to read it expression by expression?
So e....
Kuba♦
- 137k
8
votes
1
answer
337
views
Converting string representation of boxes into explicit boxes [duplicate]
It is very easy and convenient to write textual labels as Strings in the WYSIWYG mode. For example, I define a short form describing a linear model: ...
- 61.9k
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to extract a possible closed form from WolframAlpha[] output
To find a possible closed form of a number, I can use the function
WolframAlpha["6.38905609893065", IncludePods -> "PossibleClosedForm"]
It returns a result ...
- 7,213
8
votes
2
answers
235
views
How to open and explore the codes of the system Palettes files
The built in Palettes of Mathematica are simply .nb files which can be found in the following place:
...
- 19.9k
8
votes
0
answers
126
views
What does the pair "\<" and "\>" in a string do? [duplicate]
What do \< and \> mean inside of a string?
...
- 19.7k
7
votes
4
answers
545
views
Make a custom object look like MatrixForm of a matrix?
Let's say I have a custom object that I denote
Obj[a,b,c,...]
There are always n^2 entries in the object for some integer <...
- 12k
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Formatted text in a Dynamic or Manipulate control
I am using a Manipulate control to show different calculations for the same user-specified parameters. I would like to show the results for the calculation the ...
- 177
7
votes
2
answers
284
views
How can you resize all the images in a notebook section?
I've pasted a large number of photos and they are too big which makes scrolling hard. Is there a way to automatically have Mathematica size them to 10% or something reasonable without have to click on ...
- 31.5k
7
votes
3
answers
305
views
How to avoid spaces between numbers when displaying TagBox(es)
The instruction :
DisplayForm[RowBox[List[0,1,Superscript[2,3],Superscript[1,2],a]]]
displays a gap between the first two items of the list
but if one is careful ...
- 957
7
votes
3
answers
419
views
How to extract the displayed name of an entity
Entities are typically displayed in their elided form:
It's useful when exploring the output of EntityList to have access to the canonical name of the ...
- 2,364
7
votes
1
answer
120
views
Why doesn't defined MakeBoxes display what is constructed in RHS?
Inspired by the @ybeltukov 's answer to this question, if I have the following polynomial
poly = a^2 + (a^2 + b^2 - c^2)*x + b^2*x^2;
var = x;
this generates ...
- 19.7k
7
votes
1
answer
464
views
Why only up to two \[Prime] superscripts are interpreted as derivatives?
I noticed that only up to two \[Prime] superscripts are interpreted as derivatives. Is there a reason for this restriction? Is it documented?
...
- 7,213
7
votes
2
answers
391
views
Prevent front-end from reformatting long fractions while editing
I am editing an expression containing wide fractions (typeset with fraction boxes):
But if, while editing the equation, the fraction exceeds some threshold (seems to be approximately the window width)...
- 2,422
7
votes
1
answer
86
views
How do I include additional kinds of boxes that are Tab-selectable
Observe that "PlaceHolder" and InputFieldBox are known by the FE to respond to pressing the Tab key:
...
- 19.7k
7
votes
1
answer
213
views
Convert between string and expression representation of boxes
Boxes may be represented as expressions or as strings. How can I convert between the two forms? In particular, how can I convert from the string representation to the expression representation?
...
- 235k
7
votes
1
answer
150
views
Quick way to preview and tweak styles?
I find the old stylesheet UI clunky and hard to use:
FrontEndExecute @ FrontEndToken @ "EditStyleDefinitions"
There's also the clunky style previewer as well:
...
- 31.5k