Groups > comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica > #16791

Re: checking the sign of all terms in a long expression

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From	Bob Hanlon <hanlonr357@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica
Subject	Re: checking the sign of all terms in a long expression
Date	Sun, 13 Apr 2014 09:25:30 +0000 (UTC)
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Position works with general expressions not just lists. Replacing the head
Plus with the head List (List@@) is unnecessary.


toCheck = a + a b + a b c + a c - b + bc + d - e f;


Head[toCheck]


Plus


Flatten@Position[List @@ toCheck, Times[-1, __]]


{2, 8}


Flatten@Position[toCheck, Times[-1, __]]


{2, 8}



Bob Hanlon




On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 5:16 AM, Murray Eisenberg <murray@math.umass.edu>wrote:

> Are the symbols a, b, etc., just symbolic, as you seem to indicate, or
> might they be actual numeric values, too?
>
> If indeed the symbols a, b, etc. are just symbols and NOT numbers, then
> the following should help -- but note that Mathematica will automatically
> rearrange the terms of toCheck into its usual canonical form.
>
>          toCheck = a + a b + a b c + a c - b + bc + d - e f
>     (* a - b + a b + bc + a c + a b c + d - e f *)
>
>          Flatten@Position[List@@toCheck, Times[-1,__]]
>     (* {2, 8} *)
>
> If you insist on identifying the "negative" terms by their positions in
> the original expression, before it is evaluated, then you may want to treat
> it as a string, and the treatment will be trickier.
>
>
> On Apr 11, 2014, at 2:10 AM, dantimatter <google@dantimatter.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > hello all
> > is there to check the signs of all terms in a symbolic expression, like
> >
> > toCheck = a + a b + a b c + a c - b + bc + d ....
> >
> > in this case, with the assumption that the a, b, c etc are all positive,
> only one term is negative (b by itself) and the rest are positive.  I have
> expressions like this that have a hundred or more terms and i'm worried i
> might not be catching all those that are of a different sign.
> >
> > thanks
> >
>
> Murray Eisenberg                                murray@math.umass.edu
> Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
> Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 240 246-7240 (H)
> University of Massachusetts
> 710 North Pleasant Street
> Amherst, MA 01003-9305
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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Re: checking the sign of all terms in a long expression Bob Hanlon <hanlonr357@gmail.com> - 2014-04-13 09:25 +0000

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