3.5.2 Special characters

The following characters and operators have special meaning:

=

assignment

(, )

in expressions, for indexed names and for argument lists

[, ]

access operator for strings, integer vectors, ideals, matrices, polynomials, resolutions, and lists. Used to build vectors of polynomials. Example: s[3], m[1,3], i[1..3], [f,g+x,0,0,1].

+

addition operator

-

subtraction operator

*

multiplication operator

/

division operator. See Miscellaneous oddities, for the difference between the division operators / and div.

%

modulo operator

^ or **

exponentiation operator

==

comparison operator equal

!= or <>

comparison operator not equal

>=

comparison operator bigger or equal

>

comparison operator bigger

<=

comparison operator smaller or equal

<

comparison operator smaller. Also used for file input. See filecmd.

!

boolean operator not

&&

boolean operator and

||

boolean operator or

"

delimiter for string constants

`

delimiter for name substitution

?

synonym for help

//

comment delimiter. Comment extends to end of line.

/*

comment delimiter. Starts a comment which ends with */.

*/

comment delimiter. Ends a comment which starts with /*.

;

statement separator

,

separator for expression lists and function arguments

\

escape character for " and \ within strings

..

interval specifier returning intvec. E.g., 1..3 which is equivalent to the intvec 1, 2, 3.

_

value of expression last displayed

~

breakpoint in procedures

#

list of parameters in procedures without explicit parameter list

$

terminates SINGULAR