is an attribute that can be assigned to a symbol  to indicate that the function
 to indicate that the function  should automatically be threaded over lists that appear as its arguments.
 should automatically be threaded over lists that appear as its arguments. 
 
     
   Listable
is an attribute that can be assigned to a symbol  to indicate that the function
 to indicate that the function  should automatically be threaded over lists that appear as its arguments.
 should automatically be threaded over lists that appear as its arguments. 
Details
 
   - Listable functions are effectively applied separately to each element in a list, or to corresponding elements in each list if there is more than one list.
- Most built‐in mathematical functions are Listable. »
- All the arguments which are lists in a Listable function must be of the same length. »
- Arguments that are not lists are copied as many times as there are elements in the lists.
Examples
open all close allBasic Examples (4)
Scope (4)
Define a function to be listable:
Most built-in mathematical functions are listable:
Listability works for any nesting depth of lists:
The nesting level of the different arguments need not be the same:
Listability works on other list-like constructs such as SparseArray:
Applications (2)
To apply a function to a vector, take advantage of Listable functions when possible:
Use the listability of Plus, Power, Sin, and Times:
Use Map:
Use Table:
Use Table and Part to access elements of v as might be done in a lower-level language:
The results are the same up to numerical roundoff:
Use efficient sparse arithmetic to numerically solve the heat equation  :
:
Matrix for a second-order approximation to the second derivative on the grid  :
:
Incorporate Dirichlet boundary conditions to form the Jacobian J:
Form sparse matrix  for
 for  using the listability of arithmetic:
 using the listability of arithmetic:
LU decomposition of  in a functional form:
 in a functional form:
Step initial condition on spatial grid x using the listability of UnitStep:
Properties & Relations (7)
Listable, in general, functions effectively apply Thread many times:
Applying listable functions to several arrays of equal dimension is equivalent to using MapThread:
Listable functions applied to several arrays require overlapping dimensions to be equal:
Arguments with equal dimensions:
Arguments with equal overlapping dimensions, i.e. {2} has the same leading dimensions as {2,3}:
Arguments with unequal overlapping dimensions, i.e. {2} does not have the same leading dimensions as {3,2}:
 
      Listable functions applied to arrays can be written as a Table:
A function implemented in terms of a listable operation may not need the Listable attribute:
The system symbols with the Listable attribute:
More than half these are arithmetic functions possessing the NumericFunction attribute as well:
The products given by Dot, Times, and KroneckerProduct are inner, element-wise, and outer:
The inner product of two vectors:
The vector resulting from the product of corresponding elements:
Tech Notes
Related Guides
Related Workflows
- Run a Computation in Parallel
Related Links
History
Introduced in 1988 (1.0)
Text
Wolfram Research (1988), Listable, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Listable.html.
CMS
Wolfram Language. 1988. "Listable." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Listable.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (1988). Listable. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Listable.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_listable, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Listable}", year="1988", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Listable.html}", note=[Accessed: 30-October-2025]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_listable, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Listable}, year={1988}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Listable.html}, note=[Accessed: 30-October-2025]}




 
      