10

Can someone explain what is going on with the following ...

func[y_] := func[y] = (Print["Hello world !!!"];)

func[1]

Hello world !!!

func[2]

Hello world !!!

func[1] (*nothing printed*)

func[2] (*nothing printed*)

As I understand it () are used so the function remembers its values, but as you see when I repeat func[1], nothing.

If I take out the y in f[y], it prints. If I define the function as f[y_] := (...) (without f[y] = ), it prints.

I'm sure there is a simple explanation, any help is appreciated.

Mr.Wizard
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Alan Renton
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    There is one tiny syntactic subtlety in your code: (expr;) will return Null regardless of what expr evaluates to. – amr Jan 31 '13 at 02:49

2 Answers2

12

In some languages Print behaves like the identity function. But as noted, Print in Mathematica returns Null.

I want to make clear what is going on with the memoization idiom, for those who might be confused by it. I know I didn't really understand it at first.

func[y_] := func[y] = Print["Hello world !!!"];

This is clearer if it's written like this:

func[y_] := (
    func[y] = Print["Hello world !!!"];
);

:= means evaluate each time.
= means only evaluate this once.

func[y_] means "match any singular pattern"
func[y] means "match only y's current value"

So the internal assignment is specifying an explicit value for a specific y. And the reason this idiom makes sense is because Mathematica essentially allows you to create multiple definitions for a single function. Examples:

myPrint[l_List] := Do[Print[x], {x, l}];
myPrint[else_] := Print[else];

f[1] = 1;
f[2] = 1;
f[n_] := f[n - 1] + f[n - 2];

So the memoization idiom is an automated version of this.

amr
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11

The reason can be learned by inputting the following:

?func

This outputs the values currently assigned to your function func:

Global`func

func[1]=Null

func[2]=Null

func[y_]:=func[y]=Print[Hello world !!!]

When a function is evaluated that only prints, it assigns it a value of Null which is remembered by the memoization. The documentation covers this under "Properties & Relations".

kale
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