Tutorial

Local Variables

There is some syntax for the software which is convenient when performing operations on variables that we need for just a temporary operation. For example, to calculate 2^3, we may proceed as we have been doing:

atlas> set x=2
Variable x: int
atlas> x^3
Value: 8
atlas> set y=x^3
Variable y: int
atlas>

Another way is to do:

atlas> let a=2 in a^3
Value: 8
atlas>

So a here is a local variable that goes away after the operation is performed:

atlas> a
Error during analysis of expression at <standard input>:16:0-1
  Undefined identifier 'a'
Expression analysis failed
atlas>

Here are other examples where the expressions can be more complicated or more than one local variable is used:

atlas> let a=2 in 3*a^2+4*a+1
Value: 21
atlas>
atlas> let a=2 in let b=3 in a^b
Value: 8
atlas> let a=2 in let b=3 in let c=4 in a*b*c
Value: 24
atlas>
atlas> let a=2 then b=3 then c=4 in a*b*c
Value: 24
atlas>
atlas> let a=2,  b=3, c=4 in a*b*c
Value: 24
atlas>
atlas> set d=let a=2 then b=3 then c=4 in a*b*c
Variable d: int
atlas> d
Value: 24
atlas>

Note the last four examples involve the same expression, except we use different syntax that makes the operation more readable and more natural and, in the last case, we assign the value of the whole expression to a new variable d. So this is something we can do in case we need to use d in the future. You can check that the other variables are gone and only d remains in the atlas memory

We just need to make sure that the strings of let = something are terminated with in . There are times when the nested expressions you want can get complicated and it is hard to keep track. So the software keeps track and reminds you that more information is needed to finish the expression:

atlas> let a=2
L > in let b=3
L > in a*b
Value: 6
atlas>

Another thing to notice, for example, if we use y in the expression above, this will not interfere with the process even though y was assigned a different value before:

atlas> let a=2, y=3 in a*y
Value: 6
atlas> a
Error during analysis of expression at <standard input>:71:0-1
  Undefined identifier 'a'
Expression analysis failed
atlas> y
Value: 8
atlas>

So, a did go away since it was a local variable. However, the local value of y inside the let syntax dissapeared after the operation was performed and did not interfere with anything outside. Moreover, its first assigned (non-local) value was retained.

The ; syntax

Another useful syntax symbol is ;. It is used between expressions to ask atlas to just perform the last operation:

atlas> let x=2 in let y=3 in x^y; x+y
Value: 5
atlas>

A more useful application of this is, for example, with the prints statements. We may ask atlas to print some output. But if we want atlas to perform an operation with te output and print both the intitial output and the result, we may run into the following types of problems:

atlas> let x=2 in let y=3 in prints("x=" ,x,"y=",y)
x=2y=3
set t=prints("x=" ,x,"y=",y)
x=2y=8
Variable t: void
atlas> t
atlas>

There are two problems happenning here. When we ask on the first line to print the values of the local variables atlas lists them as part of the string. However, atlas did not keep in memory the values of the local variables x and y. So when we assign a value to the new variable t, it looked elsewhere for the values of x and y. Since we had set y=2^3, this was not done as a local variable and atlas gives that value for y.

The second problem is that regardles of whether the variables were local or not, the prints command returns type void and typing t again does not give us back what we had asked atlas to print.

This second problem does not get fixed by redefining x and y:

atlas> x:=2
Value: 2
atlas> y:=3
Value: 3
atlas> t:=prints("x=" ,x,"y=",y)
x=2y=3
atlas> t
atlas>

So, as before, typing t again does not recall the values of x and y.

If we want to perform an operation on x and y and have atlas provide the values we had for those variables. Here is how we can do this:

atlas> let x=2 in let y=3 in prints("x=" ,x,"y=",y);x^y
x=2y=3
Value: 8
atlas>

Or, if we want to use the most natural syntax,

atlas> let x=2, y=3 in prints("x=" ,x,"y=",y);x^y
x=2y=3
Value: 8
atlas>

And to make the first output look nicer we can split the prints command in two:

atlas> let x=2, y=3 in prints("x=" ,x);prints("y=",y);x^y
x=2
y=3
Value: 8
atlas>

Use of ; and local variables in for statements

Recall some examples of for loops:

atlas> for i:4 do i od
Value: [0,1,2,3]
atlas> for i:4 do 2*i od
Value: [0,2,4,6]
atlas>

atlas> for i:4 do v#:=2*i od
Value: [[0],[0,2],[0,2,4],[0,2,4,6]]
atlas> v
Value: [0,2,4,6]
atlas>

The last for loop uses # which means append the ith expression to the previous one. Now if we only care about the last value of v, we can use ; as follows:

atlas> v:=[]
Value: []
atlas> for i:4 do v#:=2*i od;v
Value: [0,2,4,6]
atlas>

We can repeat the proces to tack on the same string to the previous one:

atlas> set w=for i:4 do v#:=2*i od;v
Variable w: [int]
atlas> w
Value: [0,2,4,6,0,2,4,6]
atlas> set w=for i:4 do v#:=2*i od;v
Variable w: [int] (overriding previous instance, which had type [int])
atlas> w
Value: [0,2,4,6,0,2,4,6,0,2,4,6]
atlas>

Another way of getting the same output v is using local variables

atlas> v:=[]
Value: []
atlas> v
Value: []
atlas> let a=for i:4 do v#:=2*i od in v
Value: [0,2,4,6]
atlas>