Setting parts of a list

Question

Suppose I have list

a = Range[10]

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}

in which I want to set some elements to be a list

a[[4 ;; 7]] = {1, 2, 3}; 

{1, 2, 3, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, 8, 9, 10}

Which is fine and dandy unless my part span is the same length as my list:

a[[4 ;; 6]] = {1, 2, 3};

{1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10}

How can I force the assignment to behave consistently? In my case, I always want the first behaviour. But conceivably someone might always want the second behaviour with errors if the lengths don't match.

Answer 1

Perhaps

a = Range[10]

a[[4 ;; 6]] = Sequence@{1, 2, 3};

Returns

{1, 2, 3, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, 7, 8, 9, 10}

However, as Mr.Wizard noted in a comment, this is a LIIIEEE. If you do Information[a] you see that the Sequence is actually being saved. I find this weird, but anyway, can be solved with an extra

a=a

Also, forcing the lhs and rhs lists to be a different size should work a[[{4,5,6,4}]]={1, 2, 3}

Answer 2

(a[[#]] = {1, 2, 3}) & /@ Range[4, 6];

You get:

In[1]:= a

Out[1]= {1, 2, 3, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, 7, 8, 9, 10}

A convenient thing to remember is that if your elements are not sequential it is still easy to set up:

(a[[#]] = {1, 2, 3}) & /@ {1, 3, 10};

In[2]:= a

Out[2]= {{1, 2, 3}, 2, {1, 2, 3}, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, {1, 2, 3}}

Answer 3

Here's a way that's in two-steps, but works nevertheless:

a[[4 ;; 6]] = \[FormalF][1, 2, 3];
a = a /. \[FormalF] -> List
Out[1]= {1, 2, 3, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, 7, 8, 9, 10}

Here's another solution using MapAt, but this loses the convenience of indexing with Span.

a = MapAt[{1, 2, 3} &, a, Transpose[{Range[4, 6]}]]
Out[2]= {1, 2, 3, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, 7, 8, 9, 10}

But the standard way to replace elements in a safe manner and for cases where you want different replacements for each, is to use ReplacePart as:

a = ReplacePart[a, Transpose[{Range[4, 6]}] -> {1, 2, 3}]
Out[3]= {1, 2, 3, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, 7, 8, 9, 10}

Answer 4

After reading the answers, this is one way more to do it (maybe too simple):

a[[4 ;; 6]] = ConstantArray[{1, 2, 3}, 3];

Thinking in it, you can do your own simple Set:

Attributes[simpleSet] = {HoldFirst};
simpleSet[lhs_, rhs_] := 
  With[{newrhs = ConstantArray[rhs, Length[lhs]]}, lhs = newrhs];

And use it as Set:

simpleSet[a[[4 ;; 6]], {1, 2, 3}];

{{1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}}

And it returns the same as Set returns: what it is assigned.

a

{1, 2, 3, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, 7, 8, 9, 10}