Unique: Difference between revisions

Jump to navigation Jump to search
2,258 bytes added ,  14:46, 12 March 2020
History
m (12 revisions imported: Migrate from miraheze)
(History)
Line 61: Line 61:
</source>
</source>
{{Works in|[[Dyalog APL]]}}
{{Works in|[[Dyalog APL]]}}
== History ==
The function Nub was proposed in 1978 by [[Ken Iverson|Iverson]] as one of a collection of set functions (including [[Union]], [[Intersection]], and [[Difference]]) with the symbol <source lang=apl inline>∪</source> and definition <source lang=apl inline>∪w</source> {{←→}} <source lang=apl inline>((⍳⍴w)=w⍳w)/w←,w</source>.<ref>[[Ken Iverson|Iverson, Ken]]. [https://www.jsoftware.com/papers/opfns.htm ''Operators and Functions'']. IBM Research Report #RC7091. 1978-04-26.</ref> It was implemented as part of [[STSC]]'s [[NARS]] in 1981 with the name Unique and the same definition, except that the argument was restricted to be a vector or scalar.<ref>Cheney, Carl. ''APL*PLUS Nested Arrays Reference Manual. [[STSC]] Inc. 1981.</ref> Later APLs such as [[Dyalog APL]] generally adopted this version of the primitive, and it is featured in the [[ISO/IEC 13751:2001]] standard. Dyalog extended Unique to higher-rank arrays in [[Dyalog APL 17.0]], following the much earlier extension made by [[J]].
Iverson continued to refine his definition of Nub. He included it in his [[Rationalized APL]] specification with no changes in 1983, but modified it to work on [[major cell]]s (thus aligning it with [[leading axis theory]]) in his 1987 [[A Dictionary of APL]]. Iverson's dictionary also changed the symbol for Nub to <source lang=apl inline>↑</source>, added the functions [[Nub Sieve]] (<source lang=apl inline>≠</source>) and [[Nub in]] (<source lang=apl inline>=</source>), and defined Nub in terms of Nub Sieve. These definitions were adopted by [[IPSA]] in the [[SHARP APL]] successor [[SAX]]. [[J]] uses similar definitions: its Nub-related functions are Nub (<source lang=j inline>~.</source>), [[Nub Sieve]] (<source lang=j inline>~:</source>), and [[Self-Classify]] (<source lang=j inline>=</source>). However, Self-Classify is indicated as deprecated in J's NuVoc because its result can be much larger than its argument.
[[A+]] does not include Unique or any related functions, but [[K]]'s function range (<source lang=k inline>?</source>) gives the unique elements of a list argument. While APLs allow a [[scalar]] argument ([[scalar rank extension]]), K gives a [[RANK ERROR]] if the argument is not a list.


== APL model ==
== APL model ==

Navigation menu