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SciMax Toolbox >> do

do

Maxima Special operator

Calling Sequence

do

Description

The do statement is used for performing iteration. Due to its great generality the do statement will be described in two parts. First the usual form will be given which is analogous to that used in several other programming languages (Fortran, Algol, PL/I, etc.); then the other features will be mentioned.

There are three variants of this form that differ only in their terminating conditions. They are:

(Alternatively, the step may be given after the termination condition or limit.)

initial_value, increment, limit, and body can be any expressions. If the increment is 1 then "step 1" may be omitted.

The execution of the do statement proceeds by first assigning the initial_value to the variable (henceforth called the control-variable). Then: (1) If the control-variable has exceeded the limit of a thru specification, or if the condition of the unless is true, or if the condition of the while is false then the do terminates. (2) The body is evaluated. (3) The increment is added to the control-variable. The process from (1) to (3) is performed repeatedly until the termination condition is satisfied. One may also give several termination conditions in which case the do terminates when any of them is satisfied.

In general the thru test is satisfied when the control-variable is greater than the limit if the increment was non-negative, or when the control-variable is less than the limit if the increment was negative. The increment and limit may be non-numeric expressions as long as this inequality can be determined. However, unless the increment is syntactically negative (e.g. is a negative number) at the time the do statement is input, Maxima assumes it will be positive when the do is executed. If it is not positive, then the do may not terminate properly.

Note that the limit, increment, and termination condition are evaluated each time through the loop. Thus if any of these involve much computation, and yield a result that does not change during all the executions of the body, then it is more efficient to set a variable to their value prior to the do and use this variable in the do form.

The value normally returned by a do statement is the atom done. However, the function return may be used inside the body to exit the do prematurely and give it any desired value. Note however that a return within a do that occurs in a block will exit only the do and not the block. Note also that the go function may not be used to exit from a do into a surrounding block.

The control-variable is always local to the do and thus any variable may be used without affecting the value of a variable with the same name outside of the do. The control-variable is unbound after the do terminates.

(%i1) for a:-3 thru 26 step 7 do display(a)$
                             a = - 3
                              a = 4
                             a = 11
                             a = 18
                             a = 25
(%i1) s: 0$
(%i2) for i: 1 while i <= 10 do s: s+i;
(%o2)                         done
(%i3) s;
(%o3)                          55

Note that the condition while i <= 10 is equivalent to unless i > 10 and also thru 10.

(%i1) series: 1$
(%i2) term: exp (sin (x))$
(%i3) for p: 1 unless p > 7 do
          (term: diff (term, x)/p,
           series: series + subst (x=0, term)*x^p)$
(%i4) series;
                  7    6     5    4    2
                 x    x     x    x    x
(%o4)            -- - --- - -- - -- + -- + x + 1
                 90   240   15   8    2

which gives 8 terms of the Taylor series for e^sin(x).

(%i1) poly: 0$
(%i2) for i: 1 thru 5 do
          for j: i step -1 thru 1 do
              poly: poly + i*x^j$
(%i3) poly;
                  5      4       3       2
(%o3)          5 x  + 9 x  + 12 x  + 14 x  + 15 x
(%i4) guess: -3.0$
(%i5) for i: 1 thru 10 do
          (guess: subst (guess, x, 0.5*(x + 10/x)),
           if abs (guess^2 - 10) < 0.00005 then return (guess));
(%o5)                  - 3.162280701754386

This example computes the negative square root of 10 using the Newton- Raphson iteration a maximum of 10 times. Had the convergence criterion not been met the value returned would have been done.

Instead of always adding a quantity to the control-variable one may sometimes wish to change it in some other way for each iteration. In this case one may use next expression instead of step increment. This will cause the control-variable to be set to the result of evaluating expression each time through the loop.

(%i6) for count: 2 next 3*count thru 20 do display (count)$
                            count = 2
                            count = 6
                           count = 18

As an alternative to for variable: value ...do... the syntax for variable from value ...do... may be used. This permits the from value to be placed after the step or next value or after the termination condition. If from value is omitted then 1 is used as the initial value.

Sometimes one may be interested in performing an iteration where the control-variable is never actually used. It is thus permissible to give only the termination conditions omitting the initialization and updating information as in the following example to compute the square-root of 5 using a poor initial guess.

(%i1) x: 1000$
(%i2) thru 20 do x: 0.5*(x + 5.0/x)$
(%i3) x;
(%o3)                   2.23606797749979
(%i4) sqrt(5), numer;
(%o4)                   2.23606797749979

If it is desired one may even omit the termination conditions entirely and just give do body which will continue to evaluate the body indefinitely. In this case the function return should be used to terminate execution of the do.

(%i1) newton (f, x):= ([y, df, dfx], df: diff (f ('x), 'x),
          do (y: ev(df), x: x - f(x)/y,
              if abs (f (x)) < 5e-6 then return (x)))$
(%i2) sqr (x) := x^2 - 5.0$
(%i3) newton (sqr, 1000);
(%o3)                   2.236068027062195

(Note that return, when executed, causes the current value of x to be returned as the value of the do. The block is exited and this value of the do is returned as the value of the block because the do is the last statement in the block.)

One other form of the do is available in Maxima. The syntax is:

for <span class="replaceable">variable</span> in <span class="replaceable">list</span> <span class="replaceable">end_tests</span> do <span class="replaceable">body</span>

The elements of list are any expressions which will successively be assigned to the variable on each iteration of the body. The optional termination tests end_tests can be used to terminate execution of the do; otherwise it will terminate when the list is exhausted or when a return is executed in the body. (In fact, list may be any non-atomic expression, and successive parts are taken.)

(%i1)  for f in [log, rho, atan] do ldisp(f(1))$
(%t1)                                  0
(%t2)                                rho(1)
                                     %pi
(%t3)                                 ---
                                      4
(%i4) ev(%t3,numer);
(%o4)                             0.78539816
dkummer_u SciMax Toolbox doallmxops