2.9.3 The Representation of Textual FormsLike everything else in Mathematica the textual forms of expressions can themselves be represented as expressions. Textual forms that consist of one-dimensional sequences of characters can be represented directly as ordinary Mathematica strings. Textual forms that involve subscripts, superscripts and other two-dimensional constructs, however, can be represented by nested collections of two-dimensional boxes.
| One-dimensional strings | InputForm, FullForm, etc. | | Two-dimensional boxes | StandardForm, TraditionalForm, etc. |
Typical representations of textual forms. | This generates the string corresponding to the textual representation of the expression in InputForm. | |
In[1]:=
ToString[x^2 + y^3, InputForm]
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Out[1]=
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| FullForm shows the string explicitly. | |
Out[2]//FullForm=
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| Here are the individual characters in the string. | |
Out[3]=
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| Here is the box structure corresponding to the expression in StandardForm. | |
In[4]:=
ToBoxes[x^2 + y^3, StandardForm]
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Out[4]=
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| Here is the InputForm of the box structure. In this form the structure is effectively represented by an ordinary string. | |
In[5]:=
ToBoxes[x^2 + y^3, StandardForm] // InputForm
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Out[5]//InputForm=
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If you use the notebook front end for Mathematica, then you can see the expression that corresponds to the textual form of each cell by using the Show Expression menu item. | Here is a cell containing an expression in StandardForm. | | 
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| Here is the underlying representation of that expression in terms of boxes, displayed using the Show Expression menu item. | | 
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| ToString[expr, form] | create a string representing the specified textual form of expr | | ToBoxes[expr, form] | create a box structure representing the specified textual form of expr |
Creating strings and boxes from expressions.
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