Slot

#

represents the first argument supplied to a pure function.

#n

represents the n ^(th) argument.

#name

represents the value associated with key "name" in an association in the first argument.

Details

  • # is used to represent arguments or formal parameters in pure functions of the form body& or Function[body].
  • # is equivalent to Slot[1].
  • #n is equivalent to Slot[n]. n must be a non‐negative integer.
  • #0 gives the head of the function, i.e. the pure function itself.
  • When applied to an association, #name is equivalent to #["name"] and picks out elements in the association.
  • In the form #name, the characters in name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters not beginning with digits.

Background & Context

  • Slot[1] represents the first argument supplied to a pure function. The expression Slot[1] may be compactly denoted with the hash character #, or more explicitly as #1. The ^(th) argument to a pure function is represented by Slot[n], commonly denoted #n. The zeroth slot #0 of a pure function is its head.
  • Slot is typically used inside Function. In pure functions of the form (body &), # is used as part of the body to represent arguments or formal parameters. An example application of Slot is given by f[#3,#2,#1]&[x,y,z], which evaluates to f[z,y,x].
  • A sequence of arguments to be supplied to a pure function is represented using SlotSequence (written in shorthand as ##n).
  • When pure functions are nested, the meaning of slots may become ambiguous, in which case parameters must be specified using an explicit Function construction with named parameters.

Examples

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Basic Examples  (3)

# represents the first argument of a pure function:

Use numbered arguments:

Used named arguments from an association:

Scope  (5)

# is short for #1, the first argument:

#name is effectively a short form of #["name"]:

#name is interpreted as Slot["name"]:

#name always refers to the association in the first argument:

Extract from an association slot other than the first:

Generalizations & Extensions  (1)

#0 stands for the whole pure function:

Applications  (1)

Programmatically create a pure function of 5 arguments:

Properties & Relations  (3)

# allows function arguments to be referenced without giving them names:

Additional arguments are ignored:

## stands for the sequence of all arguments:

Possible Issues  (3)

Use explicit names to set up nested pure functions:

Use # for the inner function:

Use # for the outer function:

Using nested # notation behaves differently:

If too few arguments are provided, a message is generated:

A space between # and the following token will be interpreted as multiplication:

Neat Examples  (1)

A recursive definition for factorial using #0:

Wolfram Research (1988), Slot, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Slot.html (updated 2014).

Text

Wolfram Research (1988), Slot, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Slot.html (updated 2014).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 1988. "Slot." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2014. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Slot.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (1988). Slot. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Slot.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2024_slot, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Slot}", year="2014", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Slot.html}", note=[Accessed: 21-November-2024 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2024_slot, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Slot}, year={2014}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Slot.html}, note=[Accessed: 21-November-2024 ]}