All Questions
91,384
questions
639
votes
7
answers
192k
views
xkcd-style Plots
I received an email to which I wanted to respond with a xkcd-style graph, but I couldn't manage it. Everything I drew looked perfect, and I don't have enough command over ...
- 6,798
596
votes
19
answers
154k
views
Where can I find examples of good Mathematica programming practice?
I consider myself a pretty good Mathematica programmer, but I'm always looking out for ways to either improve my way of doing things in Mathematica, or to see if there's something nifty that I haven't ...
545
votes
37
answers
128k
views
What are the most common pitfalls awaiting new users?
As you may already know, Mathematica is a wonderful piece of software.
However, it has a few characteristics that tend to confuse new (and sometimes not-so-new) users. That can be clearly seen from ...
355
votes
6
answers
235k
views
How do I draw a pair of buttocks?
I'm trying to develop a function which 3D plot would have a buttocks like shape.
Several days of searching the web and a dozen my of own attempts to solve the issue have brought nothing but two ...
- 3,003
257
votes
9
answers
18k
views
What are the use cases for different scoping constructs?
Mathematica includes three functions that I know of which can be used to effectively (if not actually) define a variable and give it a value within a local scope: ...
- 4,891
220
votes
2
answers
13k
views
What is the distinction between DownValues, UpValues, SubValues, and OwnValues?
When reading through the documentation, you often encounter the phrases DownValues, UpValues, ...
- 33.8k
211
votes
24
answers
17k
views
What are some useful, undocumented Mathematica functions?
There have already been some questions about some undocumented functionality in Mathematica. Such as (please add to these lists!)
How can one find undocumented options or option values in Mathematica?...
207
votes
2
answers
41k
views
Help find a bright object on Mars!
In today's news, scientists found a bright object on one of Curiosity's photos (it's near the bottom of the picture below). It's a bit tricky to find - I actually spent quite some time staring at the ...
- 5,116
203
votes
3
answers
52k
views
Alternatives to procedural loops and iterating over lists in Mathematica
While there are some cases where a For loop might be reasonable, it's a general mantra – one I subscribe to myself – that "if you are using a ...
- 269k
202
votes
2
answers
64k
views
QR Code in shopping cart handle
This week, the market people from my work wanted to put QR codes in shopping cart handles, but when they tested it, the QR code did not work. I noted that the cylindrical curvature (even small) ...
- 26k
198
votes
9
answers
73k
views
Elegant operations on matrix rows and columns
Question
The Mathematica tutorial has a section 'Basic Matrix Operations', describing operations like transpose, inverse and determinant. These operations all work on entire matrices. I am missing a ...
- 7,557
181
votes
5
answers
18k
views
Performance tuning in Mathematica?
What performance tuning tricks do you use to make a Mathematica application faster? MATLAB has an amazing profiler, but from what I can tell, Mathematica has no similar functionality.
- 2,409
181
votes
6
answers
23k
views
How to compile effectively?
What are the best practices of compiling functions? I understand that this is a vague question, but let me list some aspects that might trigger useful answers. Some of these have already been answered ...
- 46.5k
176
votes
8
answers
21k
views
List of compilable functions
Is there somewhere a list on the functions that Compile can compile, or the cases in which a particular function can be compiled that I haven't found?
I'd be glad ...
- 42.4k
171
votes
1
answer
31k
views
Mathematica Minecraft
Some time ago I asked myself: with all these great graphics and interactive capabilities of Mathematica, what kinds of 3D games can be implemented in it? And the answer which came to mind is ...
- 12.6k
167
votes
6
answers
8k
views
How can one find undocumented options or option values in Mathematica?
Mathematica has a lot of undocumented or poorly documented options.
How does one go about working out if there is an undocumented option that might solve a particular problem?
How does one work out ...
164
votes
5
answers
16k
views
Are you interested in purchasing David Wagner's "Power programming with Mathematica"?
I recently contacted McGraw-Hill to see if they have a mechanism in place for printing out-of-print books that are still of interest. Specifically, I asked about "Power programming with Mathematica" ...
160
votes
12
answers
54k
views
1 Plot, 2 Scale/Axis
I would like to plot those two datasets on top of each other. But they have very different range on the $y$ axis. How can I have two different axis?
I found the following on the help menu but quite ...
- 5,519
160
votes
3
answers
13k
views
How to make use of Associations?
I have been curious about it for long. Now that Mathematica 10 arrives, I think it's time to ask the question: How the new Association data structure would be used ...
- 7,317
156
votes
9
answers
14k
views
General strategies to write big code in Mathematica?
I think after six months of exposure to Mathematica and the Wolfram Language I am fairly OK with writing short codes and snippets. However, what are some general strategies to use in order to write ...
- 8,860
149
votes
4
answers
26k
views
How to create word clouds?
Word clouds are rather useless fancy and visually appealing plots, where words are plotted with different sizes according to their frequency in a corpus. Many applications exist out there (Wordle, ...
- 46.5k
148
votes
7
answers
34k
views
How to generate a random snowflake
'Tis the season...
And it's about time I posed my first question on Mathematica Stack Exchange.
So, here's an holiday quest for you Graphics (and P-Chem?) gurus.
What is your best code for generating ...
- 5,406
145
votes
3
answers
22k
views
How to manipulate 2D plots?
When it comes to visual analysis, large datasets or data with intricate internal details often makes plotting in 2D useless, as the outcome is either just a fraction of the full dataset, or no details ...
- 46.5k
143
votes
7
answers
174k
views
Get a "step-by-step" evaluation in Mathematica
Is it possible in Mathematica to get a step-by-step evaluation of some functions; that's to say, outputting not only the result but all the stages that have led to it? If so, how does one do it?
...
- 2,489
139
votes
9
answers
35k
views
$\LaTeX$ and Mathematica
I quite often would like to draw graphics in my $\LaTeX$ documents using Mathematica. I have encountered three problems. I would like to know if there are any workarounds to these problems
I would ...
- 1,493
139
votes
8
answers
8k
views
Can one identify the design patterns of Mathematica?
... or are they unnecessary in such a high-level language?
I've been thinking about programming style, coding standards and the like quite a bit lately, the result of my current work on a mixed .Net/...
- 34.1k
137
votes
5
answers
18k
views
Resources for beautiful Mathematica Stylesheets
When the Wolfram Demonstrations were introduced and the Documentation-Center was redesigned, I remember it was the first time I thought someone had put some effort into creating a beautiful stylesheet....
- 112k
132
votes
9
answers
29k
views
Creating Mathematica packages
I'm building a package to help me write packages and their documentation. In this post I explained how to make a package and its documentation. In the answer I provided I describe how to build a very ...
- 6,440
129
votes
3
answers
34k
views
Is there an open source implementation of Mathematica-the-language?
I've seen questions before such as "What is the best open-source equivalent for Mathematica?", but that specific question (and that line of inquiry in general) cares more about the computer algebra ...
- 6,403
126
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Implementing efficient multiple undo
At the time this question was asked, version 10 was not out yet. The Front End of Mathematica 10 does have multiple undo, see the answer by John Fultz.
The Mathematica Front End's built-in Undo ...
- 42.4k
125
votes
7
answers
7k
views
What is the most convenient way to read definitions of in-memory symbols when we don't have the source files? (Spelunking tools)
Note: I put Simon's implementation on GitHub. Contributions welcome!
When trying to read the definition of already defined (package or built-in) symbols using ...
- 232k
122
votes
7
answers
17k
views
Struct equivalent in Mathematica?
I really miss having something like a struct in Mathematica. I know of (and regularly use) a couple of programming techniques which feel like a ...
- 5,340
122
votes
7
answers
13k
views
Minimal effort method for integrating C++ functions into Mathematica
Update: While at the time of writing the question loading DLLs with .NET/Link seemed easier, now I always use LibraryLink, which I recommend to anyone with a similar problem!
As of Mathematica 8, ...
- 232k
122
votes
3
answers
9k
views
What is a Mathematica packed array?
A simple sounding question with a few sub questions:
What is the difference between unpacked vs packed array?
Are packed arrays more space efficent, how much so?
Are packed arrays more time ...
- 2,263
121
votes
1
answer
8k
views
File-backed lists/variables for handling large data
Background
Currently I am working with some large data (most of it generated by Mathematica itself). I usually find it a hassle to do this. For example, I just exported a large amount of data to ...
- 232k
118
votes
7
answers
14k
views
Generating visually pleasing circle packs
EDIT: (my conclusion and thank you note) I want to thank you all guys for this unexpected intellectual and artistic journey. Hope you had fun and enjoyed it the same as I did.
I would like to ...
- 3,630
118
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why are numeric division and subtraction not handled better in Mathematica?
There is something that has been troubling me for a while. At least through version 10.0 the performance of a / b and a - b is ...
- 269k
116
votes
9
answers
6k
views
Functional style using lazy lists?
Let's say I want to answer the question "what are the first 400 palindromic prime numbers?"
The first approach that comes to my mind from the set of languages that I know is to use some sort ...
- 6,403
116
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Programmatic formatting for Mathematica code - possible?
It seems to be both an interesting programming challenge and a very useful practical application to have a Mathematica program which would allow one to pretty-print Mathematica code, so that it is ...
- 114k
114
votes
6
answers
29k
views
Exporting graphics to PDF - huge file
I want to draw some basic surfaces, export them to PDF and include them in a LaTeX file. I create a simple 3D graphics object, for instance with
...
- 1,375
112
votes
4
answers
25k
views
Why should I avoid the For loop in Mathematica?
Some people advise against the use of For loops in Mathematica. Why? Should I heed this advice? What is wrong with For? What ...
- 232k
112
votes
2
answers
29k
views
What is the difference between Reduce and Solve?
Solve and Reduce both can be used for solving equations.
Just by working with them, I know there are some differences between ...
- 1,599
112
votes
4
answers
11k
views
What are the recommended settings for git when using with Mathematica projects?
Background
I'm relatively new to git — currently overseeing an offshore .NET-based development project on GitHub within a private business account, but little experience beyond that.
I'd like to set ...
- 2,504
110
votes
4
answers
7k
views
Flatten command: matrix as second argument
One thing I could never wrap my head around is how Flatten works when provided with a matrix as the second argument, and the Mathematica help isn't particularly ...
- 14.8k
109
votes
6
answers
113k
views
How do I clear all user defined symbols?
Is there some way to do this other than going to Evaluation -> Quit kernel and firing a new one up?
- 2,593
108
votes
4
answers
16k
views
Plot draws list of curves in same color when not using Evaluate
This example comes from
the Mathematica documentation for Plot
under Basic Examples.
Can someone please explain why these are each plotted as a different color in ...
- 1,205
106
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Replacement inside held expression
I wish to make a replacement inside a held expression:
f[x_Real] := x^2;
Hold[{2., 3.}] /. n_Real :> f[n]
The desired output is ...
- 61.3k
105
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Profiling from Mathematica
I've always wished I could do some profiling like you get in Wolfram Workbench, but directly from Mathematica, without using or having Workbench. If it is possible, how can I do it?
- 42.4k
104
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Is it possible to define a new PlotTheme?
In version 10 one can define, say,
$PlotTheme = "Scientific"
Which changes the appearance of all plots. This is fantastic because on the one hand I can have nice ...
- 7,317
104
votes
3
answers
15k
views
Recovering data points from an image
Unfortunately, some data can only be obtained in picture form (Japanese publications anyone?). Since this cannot be worked with, it has to be converted to a dataset that can; I was wondering whether ...
- 14.8k