

SubValues
Details and Options

- You can specify the subvalues for f by making an assignment of the form SubValues[f]=list.
- The list returned by SubValues has elements of the form HoldPattern[lhs]:>rhs.
Examples
open all close allScope (4)
Applications (3)
Create a data object for properties that can be extracted:
These definitions are stored as SubValues:
Extract all the properties from a given object:
Properties & Relations (5)
Values can be defined by immediate or delayed assignments:
HoldPattern is used to protect the rules from their own definitions:
Without the HoldPattern, the left-hand side would have evaluated:
SubValues["sym"] will issue a message if the specified symbol does not exist:

If the symbol exists but has no definitions, an empty list is returned:
Definition and Information display subvalues but do not return them as values:
SubValues returns a value that can be used in a program:
Evaluation of an expression involves applying matching subvalues:
Related Guides
History
Introduced in 1991 (2.0) | Updated in 1996 (3.0) ▪ 2022 (13.2)
Text
Wolfram Research (1991), SubValues, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SubValues.html (updated 2022).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 1991. "SubValues." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2022. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SubValues.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (1991). SubValues. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SubValues.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_subvalues, author="Wolfram Research", title="{SubValues}", year="2022", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SubValues.html}", note=[Accessed: 04-August-2025]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_subvalues, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={SubValues}, year={2022}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SubValues.html}, note=[Accessed: 04-August-2025]}