Re: [Bug-apl] scalar/array

[Elias Mårtenson]

In GNU APL, try this instead :

"a"[1]

The reason this seems inconsistent is because single quote is used to define a string, i.e. an array of characters. Except the case where there is only a single  character, in which case it represents a scalar character. 

GNU APL allows you to use double quote instead which doesn't have this inconsistency. 

That should make things a bit more clear, I hope. 

Regards, 

Elias 

On 4 Mar 2017 01:29, <address@hidden> wrote:

i just watched a great video on apl   and this was discussed    i still don't know what the harm/problem would be if instead of returning 'nothing'

      ⍴'a'                 why doesn't it return 1   - there is something there    please don't mention scalar i know all about it - but to me this has always been an inconsistency in apl that made no sense to me

      ⍴'aa'               the ,   isn't required in   ⍴,'aa'    to be consistent ??
2
      ⍴,'a'
1


      'a'[1]
RANK ERROR
      'a'[1]
      ^  ^
      'ab'[1]
a
      (,'a')[1]
a



under what condition would   'a'[1]    returning 'a'  be a problem?