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Groups > comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica > #16620

Re: Do we need a When function?

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On Sat, Mar 08, 2014 at 02:42:31AM -0500, David Bailey wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> Recently I wanted to create an expression that only evaluated when x was 
> a number. Obviously, one way to do that is to write something like:
> 
>   If[x<1000000000000,f[x]]
> 
> This will stay unevaluated until x is assigned to a number - as required 
> - but it is very ugly because it makes it hard to understand what is 
> going on.

Why isn't this simply 

If[NumericQ[x], f[x]]   (*are NumberQ, if want an actual number type*)

But I'm further confused by your statement that it stays unevlauate until x is
assigned a number.  That's not true, it will evaluate to Null unless x is
numeric prior to the start of evaluation.
 
> More generally, it would be nice to write an expression that will only 
> evaluate when an expression is true. I solved that by writing a function 
> When:
> 
> SetAttributes[When, HoldAll];
> When[cond_, val_] := val /; cond
> 
> However, my point is that this construction is sufficiently useful that 
> it should be built in to Mathematica, and my solution might not be 
> obvious to all users.
> 
> Am I missing a simpler solution?
> 
> Do others agree that this is an omission in the language?

I'm not sure what your use case is.  F[x] will of course stay unevluated until
x has some value which F knows what to do with...

--
Itai Seggev
Mathematica Algorithms R&D
217-398-0700 

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Re: Do we need a When function? Itai Seggev <itais@wolfram.com> - 2014-03-10 08:37 +0000
  Re: Do we need a When function? Szabolcs Horvát <szhorvat@gmail.com> - 2014-03-11 07:17 +0000
  Re: Do we need a When function? David Bailey <dave@removedbailey.co.uk> - 2014-03-13 07:11 +0000

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