3.5 Mathematical Syntax and Operations

As mentioned in the previous section, the definitions of numeric scalars and arrays are interpreted as mathematical expressions. These are simple algebraic expressions, using numbers, named variables (scalars and arrays), mathematical operations, and intrinsic functions. The syntax is fairly standard, and the case of the operators and variable names is ignored.

When arrays are used in an expression, the result will typically be an array, with each element of the array being operated on. For example,

 Ifeffit> my.y =  sin(my.x)

will define my.y as an array of the same size as my.x, with the sine operation done on each element of the array. In addition, arrays can be built with IFEFFIT using functions such as range,

 Ifeffit> my.x =  range(1,4,1)
 Ifeffit> print my.x
   1.0000  2.0000  3.0000 4.0000

Several more functions for creating and manipulating array data, as well as details of built-in math functions are given in the following sections.