Leading axis agreement

Leading axis agreement, sometimes called prefix agreement, is a conformability rule designed for leading axis theory and used by J and BQN. It states that a dyadic scalar function can be applied between two arrays only if one of their shapes is a prefix of the other. The shape of the result is that of the argument with higher rank.

Examples

The following examples use J for demonstration purposes.

A scalar dyadic function works when the two arrays have the same shape:

   ]x =: 2 3 $ 10
10 10 10
10 10 10
   ]y =: 2 3 $ i.6
0 1 2
3 4 5
   x + y
10 11 12
13 14 15

Works in: J

as well as when one is a scalar:

   ]x =: 10
10
   ]y =: 2 3 $ i.6
0 1 2
3 4 5
   x + y
10 11 12
13 14 15

Works in: J

The two cases above are already supported in other APLs in the form of scalar extension. J goes one step further, allowing the lower-rank array argument to have nonzero rank, as long as the leading dimensions match:

   ]x =: 10 20
10 20
   ]y =: 2 3 $ i.6
0 1 2
3 4 5
   x + y
10 11 12
23 24 25

Works in: J

In this case, x has shape 2 and y has shape 2 3. Since the leading axes agree and the rank difference is 1, each atom (or 0-cell) of x is matched with each row (or 1-cell) of y, and the two rows in the result are the results of 10 + 0 1 2 and 20 + 3 4 5, respectively.

Model

In dialects that do not feature leading axis agreement, it can nevertheless be utilised by the introduction of an explicit operator:

      _LA←{⍺ ⍺⍺⍤(-⍺⌊⍥(≢⍴)⍵)⊢⍵}
      ⊢x ← 10 20
10 20
      ⊢y ← 2 3 ⍴ ⍳ 6
0 1 2
3 4 5
      x +_LA y
10 11 12
23 24 25

Works in: Dyalog APL

Aligning axes using the Rank operator

When using the Rank operator for dyadic functions as in X (f⍤m n) Y, the frames of X and Y are checked for conformability. Combined with leading axis agreement, the Rank operator can be used to align the axes to be matched.

   NB. $x         : 2|3
   NB. $y         :  |3 2
   NB. ------------------
   NB. $x +"1 2 y : 2 3 2
   ]x =: 2 3 $ 10 20 30 40 50 60
10 20 30
40 50 60
   ]y =: 3 2 $ 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2
3 4
5 6
   x +"1 2 y
11 12
23 24
35 36

41 42
53 54
65 66

Works in: J