# Tag Info

## Hot answers tagged symbols

35 votes

### How can I adaptively simplify a curved shape?

We can use the Ramer-Douglas-Peucker algorithm to reduce the number of points. This algorithm was originally devised for processing map data. ...
• 228k
34 votes
Accepted

### What are the requirements for a well behaved indexed variable? Subscript, ToExpression, Downvalue?

General usage Here is what I think Using strings and subsequently ToString - ToExpression just to generate variable names is ...
• 112k
33 votes

### Character to replace _ in symbol names?

This has been discussed on comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica. The gist is that there are lots of Unicode characters you could use, e.g. \[LetterSpace] or ...
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30 votes
Accepted

### Why did Mathematica choose brackets for function arguments over parentheses?

The answer is quite simple. Most people want to multiply numbers without having to use the * symbol, e.g. 3x vs ...
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29 votes

### How to create symbols from strings and set values for them?

So recently I've learned from John Fultz that RawBoxes are kind of verbatim indicator for MakeBoxes which is not well stressed ...
• 133k
27 votes

### Why does removing a function and defining it on the same line not work?

Executing Trace on an expression reveals what is actually happening: ...
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26 votes

• 25.1k
13 votes

### Character to replace _ in symbol names?

The issue is that Mathematica interprets underscore as Blank and interprets my_variable as a ...
• 4,251
13 votes

### How can I define symbols but not have them show up in the front end?

Core Function Here's a single function that does all this coloring stuff: ...
• 45.7k
13 votes
Accepted

### Why does args symbol exist in a fresh kernel?

It's a type of otherwise harmless bug that tends to come and go with versions. I would suggest to report it to Wolfram, but also not to worry about it. Notice that the symbols have no associated ...
• 228k
13 votes

• 13.6k
12 votes

### How to create symbols from strings and set values for them?

In Mathematica version 10, you can also use Inactive to allow the Symbol to be created before doing the assignment. Here is an ...
• 95.5k
12 votes

### Bug: With[] pattern-variable renaming misses symbols within Except`

I agree that this is a bug. However, I want to point out that this usage of Except does not seem to be allowed in older versions. In version 9.0: We don't get the ...
• 228k
12 votes
Accepted

### Defining a symbol e that represents plus-minus-one, so that e^2 == 1 and e^3 == e

A quick way is to use TagSet[] and TagSetDelayed[] to teach Power[] how to deal with your ...
12 votes

### PlusMinus definition unexpectedly affects plotting

It appears that PlusMinus is the only wrapper that is not Protected: ...
• 265k
12 votes

### When is a symbol a Symbol? Is there an easy Mathematica way to test if an object is a symbol sort of like a SymbolQ?

How about: SymbolQ[_Symbol] = True SymbolQ[_] = False ?
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12 votes
Accepted

### Equivalent for \hookrightarrow, ↪

You can use an empty TemplateBox to create a new operator. For example: ...
• 125k
11 votes
Accepted

### Which Mathematica function has the longest name (by character length?)

Which documented Mathematica function has the longest name I assume then you want all of Mathematica, which includes all standard packages and contexts that come in the installation and not just in ...
• 115k
11 votes

### How can I adaptively simplify a curved shape?

Here is my attempt to use ParametricPlot for obtaining an adaptive approximation of the shape. It is based on the code of glyph to ...
• 60.3k
11 votes

### How can I adaptively simplify a curved shape?

Here I present a very simple angle-based polygon reduction algorithm as described in the chapter "A Simple Algorithm" of David Eberly's "Polyline Reduction". The only addition is ...
• 60.3k
11 votes

### How can I implement a listener variable in Mathematica?

As part of handling this for myself I wrote a package that does it. The idea was to mimic the *Var() classes in tkinter. I'll do ...
• 45.7k

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