44

In order to improve my workflow with Mathematica, I'm looking for cheat sheets.

The purpose of such reference cards is to be printed and to stay on the desk during the learning of a new programming langage. They are not extensive lists.

It should be

  • printable,
  • readable at a glance.

It may be

  • general,
  • or specific to a given task (algebra, analysis, style, ...)

I found a first list of such cheat sheets for Mathematica at devcheatsheet.com, with a special thumb up for this one at the Wolfram Library Archive. They might be unpractical (referring mostly for programming instead of shortcuts) or outdated (as they are mostly for version 5.2).

Any suggestion?

Edit: I am asking for good reference cards or cheat sheets. For a extensive list of all keyboard shortcuts, please refere to Wolfram's documentation.

Edit2: This good cheatsheet for git is a good example of what I'm looking for. As you may see, the way information is chosen, sorted and put together has much importance in the process. It is very usefull for people that have already understood the syntax but not yet memorized it. It is a speedy and smart summary. It is also a tool for beginners to detect what is important. Please see also the example from Wolfram's archive I gave above. I would be surprised it is the only one out there.

max
  • 1,585
  • 1
  • 14
  • 18
  • 2
    Take a look there: Customizing Mathematica shortcuts – Kuba Sep 03 '13 at 09:15
  • I'm sorry, but as I presently read this it's just too far off from a proper Q&A with a clear, definable answer. If you are looking for a list of keyboard shortcuts they are found in the Keyboard Shortcut Listing. If you want to do something specific with this list and will use Mathematica to do it, please describe what it is and I will reopen the question. – Mr.Wizard Sep 03 '13 at 10:18
  • 1
    @Mr.Wizard A first Edit of my question, which was necessary considering the poor English, made it even less clear I'm not looking for a simple document of all shortcuts. I modified again both title and text of the question. – max Sep 03 '13 at 11:22
  • 1
    max, @Mr.Wizard I've already included the link max just added as the first link. It is now redundant. In my understanding this is a clearcut question: poster requires infor arranged in a one-sheet format. – István Zachar Sep 03 '13 at 11:37
  • @István pardon me for being stubborn but that sounds like a question for [GraphicDesign.SE]. (Well, not really.) – Mr.Wizard Sep 03 '13 at 11:57
  • 1
    @Mr.Wizard But it also involves the tedious process of extracting/copying all the shortcuts from the doc page. And it is reasonable to assume that someone has already done that. I really don't want to defend this Q more than necessary, but my main argument is that if there is a useful shortcut sheet, it could be part of the FAQ and should be useful for learners of Mathematica. – István Zachar Sep 03 '13 at 12:06
  • @István "And it is reasonable to assume that someone has already done that." If that's the case what is the need for a question about it? – Mr.Wizard Sep 03 '13 at 12:08
  • 1
    @Mr.Wizard Following your logic the reference-request tag in general would be useless too. – István Zachar Sep 03 '13 at 13:19
  • 1
    Okay, you've all convinced me. Reopened. – Mr.Wizard Sep 03 '13 at 14:25
  • 1
    max, perhaps you can specify a bit more precisely what exactly you are looking for other than the (useful) links and resources you already mentioned? – Yves Klett Sep 03 '13 at 14:43
  • 1
    it seems tha what you want would be highly specialized to the individual -- make your own by taking notes on what you need often.. – george2079 Sep 03 '13 at 15:32
  • @george2079 No, it's not. Proof: lots of cheat sheets have become standards on coder's desks. You may of course create your owns. And indeed, I am taking notes of my most common commands. – max Sep 03 '13 at 16:19
  • 1
    I never really felt the need for these types of cheat sheets for any language, so I might not really see clearly what would work best for you ... but the auto-completion feature in v9 should help a lot already. I'd suggest making a note of the most important commands, especially those that are not typical for other languages: Table, Map, etc. If you type Table[, then press Ctrl-Shift-K, you get a list of templates which also show you how you can use it. Just a suggestion. – Szabolcs Sep 03 '13 at 16:21
  • 2
    One reason why so many people don't seem to understand why you want this might be that Mathematica has a huge number of functions. It's not at all comparable to languages like C or Python, or to the commands available in git. Even what you might call a "basic language" will contain a very large number of functions (Table, Do, Transpose, Map, Nest, Apply, Fold, Thread, Through, Composition, ReplaceAll, Position ... just to show how different this is from the small set of other languages---I'd consider these part of the core language, and not comparable to library functions) ... – Szabolcs Sep 03 '13 at 16:25
  • 4
    I guess you have a clear vision of what would be most helpful, so this smells like a potential self-answer we will be benefit from ;-) – Yves Klett Sep 03 '13 at 16:25
  • 1
    ... Then, as George said, which ones you are actually going to use at a given time will really depend on what you are doing. If you are doing image processing, the vast majority of your commands will use the Image* functions. Or maybe you are going to use Integrate, D, Solve, and ReplaceAll because you use it for CAS. So which ones to include in a useful list is really not clear. Perhaps just a list of common commands (and no more) for your preferred application areas would be more useful. You can rely on auto-completion to be reminded of the specific syntax. – Szabolcs Sep 03 '13 at 16:27
  • The other obvious point about Mathematica is that most people use it in a totally different way to C++ or java or even Haskell. It is typically used for tiny programmes, often just a single function (including maybe some options - like a Plot, ImageCrop, or LambertW) or a simple loop. Those are easy to look up. But a tricky one liner using functional programming (Map etc) tends to leave me desperate for a good cheat sheet. But thanks to everyone here I have found a few useful things. +1 where I could! – almagest Sep 16 '14 at 21:47
  • And special thanks to @Mr Wizard, that is the first time in my nearly 3 weeks on SE that I have seen that (a mod reopening quickly, but thoughtfully, as a result of reasoned argument ... – almagest Sep 16 '14 at 21:50

2 Answers2

14

Here are two I have found:

Mathematica Quick Reference

Mississippi State University Mathematica Guide

I'm not sure these are great but they are the best I've found. (I take it these are along the lines of what you want, correct?)

J. M.'s missing motivation
  • 124,525
  • 11
  • 401
  • 574
Kellen Myers
  • 2,701
  • 15
  • 18
  • 1
    Don't forget the utility of the Classroom Assistant palette! (Even though it doesn't provide a printable page, it's right there with a mouse click or two while you're using Mathematica.) – murray Jul 28 '14 at 19:26
  • That's a great point @murray! Many of the palettes (especially in newer versions of Mathematica) include whole functions and other useful syntax, not just Greek characters and math symbols. For example, the Linear Algebra and Matrices pallet includes RowReduce, Inverse, MatrixPower, MatrixForm, ReflectionMatrix, SingularValueDecomposition, etc. – Kellen Myers Jul 30 '14 at 22:44
12

Best Cheat Sheet so far...

Pretty much the best Cheat Sheet I have come across so far, is the following one by Hugo Touchette, a theoretical Physicist teaching at the National Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stellenbosch, South Africa:

Mathematica commands summary

The sheet has been last updated in May 2016 (Mathematica 8), but does need some updating for later versions. There is btw also some useful $\LaTeX$ - Information to be found on his pages...

gwr
  • 13,452
  • 2
  • 47
  • 78
  • The links should be fixed again. – gwr Apr 02 '19 at 15:23
  • Since the link in the first answer is broken, here it is again: http://web.archive.org/web/20180127125805/http://www.physics.sun.ac.za/~htouchette/archive/notes/mathematicacmds1_2.pdf – ullices Apr 02 '19 at 14:10