reading files

Sometimes a file will contain a single expression whose value you wish to have access to. For example, it might be a polynomial produced by another program. The function get can be used to obtain the entire contents of a file as a single string. We illustrate this here with a file whose name is expression.

i1 : get "expression"



o1 = z^6+3*x*z^4+6*y*z^4+3*x^2*z^2+12*x*y*z^2+12*y^2*z^2+x^3+6*x^2*y+12*x*y^2+8*y^3



o1 : String

This isn't quite what you want, because a string containing a description of a polynomial is not the same as a polynomial. We may use value to evaluate the string and produce the corresponding polynomial, after first setting up a polynomial ring to contain it.

i2 : R = ZZ/101[x,y,z]



o2 = R



o2 : PolynomialRing

i3 : f = value get "expression"



      6       4       4     2 2          2      2 2    3     2         2     3

o3 = z  + 3x*z  + 6y*z  + 3x z  + 12x*y*z  + 12y z  + x  + 6x y + 12x*y  + 8y 



o3 : R

i4 : factor f



       2          3

o4 = (z  + x + 2y) (1)



o4 : Product

Often a file will contain code written in the Macaulay 2 language. We have a file called sample with two lines of code.

i5 : << get "sample";

sample = 2^100

print sample

To load and execute that code, use load.

i6 : load "sample"

1267650600228229401496703205376

--loaded sample

The command needs can be used to load a file only if it hasn't already been loaded.

i7 : needs "sample"

For debugging or dipslay purposes, it is sometimes useful to be able to simulate entering the lines of a file one by one, so they appear on the screen along with prompts and output lines. We use input for this.

i8 : input "sample"



i9 : sample = 2^100



o9 = 1267650600228229401496703205376



i10 : print sample

1267650600228229401496703205376



i11 :

There are other ways to manipulate the contents of a file with multiple lines. First, let's use peek to observe the extent of this string returned by get.

i12 : peek get "sample"



o12 = "sample = 2^100\nprint sample\n"



o12 : String

The resulting string has newlines in it; we can use lines to break it apart into a list of strings, with one row in each string.

i13 : lines get "sample"



o13 = {sample = 2^100, print sample}



o13 : List

We may use peek to observe the extent of these strings.

i14 : peek lines get "sample"



o14 = {"sample = 2^100","print sample"}



o14 : Net

We could even use stack to assemble the lines of the file into a net.

i15 : stack lines get "sample"



o15 = sample = 2^100

      print sample



o15 : Net