FORMAT difference between APL2/APLX and Dyalog

[mhpcto]

I am in the process of converting my APLX workspaces to Dyalog 16.

With ML cranked to 3 it's actually going pretty well (and Dyalog certainly as some nifty stuff) but I hit one issue with dyadic ⍕ (format):

Assume a vector mixed vector of integers and characters:

A←1 2 '⍵'

Using dyadic format on APLX:

1 0⍕A
12⍵

While in Dyalog I get a domain error. According to the Dyalog language spec, ⍕ is strict and requires a numeric only argument.

"APL2 In Depth" is silent about the mixed case A that works in APLX.

What's the portable way to handle this simple formatting case?

[Veli-Matti]

First: welcome! A person who uses []ML 3 must be a nice one ;)

You are right, number formatting is somewhat different in Dyalog than in APL2 (or APLX). The handy Picture formatting is not supported. But you should have a look, a deep look, at the dyadic []FMT, which is pretty nice tool for almost any formatting purposes. There are some caveats, though!

For example:

      a←1 2 '⍵'
      'I2,I2,A2'⎕FMT a 
DOMAIN ERROR

The right argument has to be matrix. Instead of repeating all identifiers, you can use multipliers:

      '2I2,A2'⎕FMT ⍉⍪a 
 1 2 ⍵

..but after all these years I cannot understand why this mixed formatting is not possible:

      a←1.1 2 '⍵'
      'F5.2,I2,A2'⎕FMT ⍉⍪a
DOMAIN ERROR

-Veli-Matti

[JohnS|Dyalog]

I notice that NARS2000 also allows this. I'll log it as a request-for-enhancement (RFE) for Dyalog.
In the meantime, you could try:

      nfmt ← ⍕@(2|⎕dr¨)   ⍝ format-at-numbers

      1 0 nfmt 1 2'⍵'
12⍵

or, more generally,

      nums ← @(2|⎕dr¨)   ⍝ at-numbers

      1 0 ⍕nums 1 2'⍵'
12⍵
      10 ×nums 1 2'⍵'
10 20 ⍵

John

[mhpcto]

I should probably clarify the problem space a bit.

The vectors being formatted are a combination of numeric and single character elements (actually the rows of a matrix). So the input may look like this:

1 0 0
0 1 ⍵
1 ⍵ 0
1 1 1
0 0 1

1 0⍕ is used to character vector from each row '110' '01⍵' '1⍵0' ...

I think ⎕FMT has the same issue with mixed type arguments not allowed.

[mhpcto]

I notice that NARS2000 also allows this. I'll log it as a request-for-enhancement (RFE) for Dyalog.
In the meantime, you could try:

      nfmt ← ⍕@(2|⎕dr¨)   ⍝ format-at-numbers

      1 0 nfmt 1 2'⍵'
12⍵

or, more generally,

      nums ← @(2|⎕dr¨)   ⍝ at-numbers

      1 0 ⍕nums 1 2'⍵'
12⍵
      10 ×nums 1 2'⍵'
10 20 ⍵

John

That is a cool workaround. I am pretty much a straight APL2 guy but Dyalog sure has some interesting enhancements.