[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #33966] object precedence with concatenating

[Ben Abbott]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?33966>

                 Summary: object precedence with concatenating
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: bpabbott
            Submitted on: Sun 07 Aug 2011 05:52:51 PM EDT
                Category: Interpreter
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Matlab Compatibility
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Ben Abbott
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: dev
        Operating System: Mac OS

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Details:

On the help list a question came up on object precedence with concatenating
objects. Found very little information in either Octave's or Mathworks'
documentation, so I did some experimenting at the command line and found that
ML and Octave give different results.

I've identified seven groups of objects in ML. Objects within groups have
equal precedence.  Group (1/logical) has the lowest pecedence and group
(7/function_handle) has the highest precedence.

(1) logical
(2) double
(3) single
(4) uint8, uint16, uint32, uint64, int8, int16, int32, int64
(5) char
(6) struct, cell
(7) function_handle

Arrays of function handles are not allowed. Thus, they may be ignored  with
regards to precedence when concatenating objects.

If a cell is concatenated with other objects, of lower precedence, they are
each converted to cells. For example, the command below is valid ML syntax and
produces a cell array.

a = [{}, logical(1), double(1), single(1), uint32(1), 'a',
struct('foo','bar')]

ML gives the indicated results for the concatentations below 

class ([true, double(1)]) = "double"
class ([double(1), single(1)]) = "single"
class ([single(1), uint32(1)]) = "uint32"
class ([uint32(1), 'a']) = "char"
class (['a', cell(1)]) = "cell"
class ([cell(1), struct('foo','bar')]) = "cell"

When concatenating objects of equal precedence, Octave and ML return an object
whos class  consistent with that of the fist object.

Octave is also consistent with ML when concatenating numeric and character
classes.

Concatenating matrices with cell arrays gives an error in Octave. For example,
using a trival character scalar ...

a = 'a';
[a, cell(1)]
error: invalid concatenation of cell array with matrix

[cell(1), a]
error: concatenation operator not implemented for `cell' by `scalar'
operations

Structures and cells have equal precedence, and the example below should
produce a cell object.

[cell(1), struct('foo','bar')] 
error: concatenation operator not implemented for `cell' by `scalar struct'
operations

But the one below should (and does) give an error.

>> [struct('foo','bar'), cell(1)] 
error: concatenation operator not implemented for `struct' by `cell'
operations





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