How do I make a function use the altered version of a list in Mathematica? - wolfram-mathematica

Question

I want to make a list with its elements representing the logic map given by
x_{n+1} = a*x_n(1-x_n)
I tried the following code (which adds stuff manually instead of a For loop):
x0 = Input["Enter x0"]
a = Input["a"]
M = {x0}
L[n_] := If[n < 1, x0, a*M[[n]]*(1 - M[[n]])]
Print[L[1]]
Append[M, L[1]]
Print[M]
Append[M, L[2]]
Print[M]
The output is as follows:
0.3
2
{0.3}
0.42
{0.3,0.42}
{0.3}
Part::partw: Part 2 of {0.3`} does not exist. >>
Part::partw: Part 2 of {0.3`} does not exist. >>
{0.3, 2 (1 - {0.3}[[2]]) {0.3}[[2]]}
{0.3}
It seems that, when the function definition is being called in Append[M,L[2]], L[2] is calling M[[2]] in the older definition of M, which clearly does not exist.
How can I make L use the newer, bigger version of M?
After doing this I could use a For loop to generate the entire list up to a certain index.
P.S. I apologise for the poor formatting but I could find out how to make Latex code work here.
Other minor question: What are the allowed names for functions and lists? Are underscores allowed in names?

Answer 1

It looks to me as if you are trying to compute the result of
FixedPointList[a*#*(1-#)&, x0]
Note:
Building lists element-by-element, whether you use a loop or some other construct, is almost always a bad idea in Mathematica. To use the system productively you need to learn some of the basic functional constructs, of which FixedPointList is one.
I'm not providing any explanation of the function I've used, nor of the interpretation of symbols such as # and &. This is all covered in the documentation which explains matters better than I can and with which you ought to become familiar.
Mathematica allows alphanumeric (only) names and they must start with a letter. Of course, Mathematic recognises many Unicode characters other than the 26 letters in the English alphabet as alphabetic. By convention (only) intrinsic names start with an upper-case letter and your own with a lower-case.
The underscore is most definitely not allowed in Mathematica names, it has a specific and widely-used interpretation as a short form of the Blank symbol.
Oh, LaTeX formatting doesn't work hereabouts, but Mathematica code is plenty readable enough.

Answer 2

It seems that, when the function definition is being called in
Append[M,L2], L2 is calling M[2] in the older definition of M,
which clearly does not exist.
How can I make L use the newer, bigger version of M?
M is never getting updated here. Append does not modify the parameters you pass to it; it returns the concatenated value of the arrays.
So, the following code:
A={1,2,3}
B=Append[A,5]
Will end up with B={1,2,3,5} and A={1,2,3}. A is not modfied.
To analyse your output,
0.3 // Output of x0 = Input["Enter x0"]. Note that the assignment operator returns the the assignment value.
2 // Output of a= Input["a"]
{0.3} // Output of M = {x0}
0.42 // Output of Print[L[1]]
{0.3,0.42} // Output of Append[M, L[1]]. This is the *return value*, not the new value of M
{0.3} // Output of Print[M]
Part::partw: Part 2 of {0.3`} does not exist. >> // M has only one element, so M[[2]] doesn't make sense
Part::partw: Part 2 of {0.3`} does not exist. >> // ditto
{0.3, 2 (1 - {0.3}[[2]]) {0.3}[[2]]} (* Output of Append[M, L[2]]. Again, *not* the new value of M *)
{0.3} // Output of Print[M]
The simple fix here is to use M=Append[M, L[1]].
To do it in a single for loop:
xn=x0;
For[i = 0, i < n, i++,
M = Append[M, xn];
xn = A*xn (1 - xn)
];
A faster method would be to use NestList[a*#*(1-#)&, x0,n] as a variation of the method mentioned by Mark above.
Here, the expression a*#*(1-#)& is basically an anonymous function (# is its parameter, the & is a shorthand for enclosing it in Function[]). The NestList method takes a function as one argument and recursively applies it starting with x0, for n iterations.
Other minor question: What are the allowed names for functions and lists? Are underscores allowed in names?
No underscores, they're used for pattern matching. Otherwise a variable can contain alphabets and special characters (like theta and all), but no characters that have a meaning in mathematica (parentheses/braces/brackets, the at symbol, the hash symbol, an ampersand, a period, arithmetic symbols, underscores, etc). They may contain a dollar sign but preferably not start with one (these are usually reserved for system variables and all, though you can define a variable starting with a dollar sign without breaking anything).