Basic Maple Commands
Command
Description
1. General Commands and Conventions
f (a)
evaluating a function f at a; e.g. sin(P i)
command end/result displayed
/result not displayed
% (previously: )
output of previous line
cursor on name, click on help
help for name
settime := time(); expression;
time() settime;
a := expression;
to get elapsed time for computing an expression
an;
n-th power of a
sqrt(a);
the (exact) square root of a
evalf (expression, n);
numerical value of expression to n-digit accuracy
evalb(a = b);
logical comparison (gives true or f alse)
a[n];
n-th element of list a
plot(expression, x = a..b);
2-dim plot of expression for x between a and b
plot3d(expr, x = a..b, y = c..d);
3-dim plot of expr for x between a and b and y between c and d
f := x> expr
definition of a one-variable function f (x)
f := [x, y, . . .]> expr
definition of multi-variable function f (x, y, . . .)
a := proc(x, y) local z, w; ...; end;
definition of subroutine a
assignment
2. Elementary Number Theory
iquo(a, b); or f loor(a/b);
integral part of the quotient a/b
irem(a, b); or modp(a, b);
remainder of division of a by b
f rac(x);
the fractional part of x
igcd(a, b);
the gcd of a and b
igcdex(a, b,0 x0 ,0 y 0 );
the extended gcd
x; y;
to extract the values of the above extended gcd
ithprime(n);
the n-th prime number
isprime(n);
test whether or not n is prime (gives true or f alse)
if actor(n);
factor n into its prime factors
a& n mod m; or P ower(a, n) mod m;
compute an mod m efficiently
mpl1
Command
Description
3. Sets and Lists: Basic Structure
s := {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
defines a set s: an unordered sequence of elements
a := [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
defines a list a: an ordered sequence of elements
s := {seq(f, i = 1..5)};
create the set s consisting of the elements f (1),. . . ,
f (5); here f is an expression (depending on i)
a := [seq(f, i = 1..5)];
create the list a consisting of the elements f (1), . . . ,
f (5); here f is an expression (depending on i)
nops(a);
the number of elements in list a
a[i]
the ith element of the list a
[a[i..j]] or [op(i..j, a)]
the list consisting of elements i through j (inclusive)
select(k> k < m or k > n, a);
list a with elements m through n dropped
member(e, a);
test whether e occurs in list a (true or f alse)
member(e, a, p ); p;
the position(s) at which e occurs in a
type(s, set);
check whether s is a set (has type set); gives true
or f alse
type(a, list);
check whether s is a list (has type list); gives true
or f alse
4. Operations on Sets and Lists
s := convert(a, set);
convert a list to a set
a := convert(s, list);
convert a set to a list
s union t; or union(s, t, . . .)
combine sets s, t, . . . , removing repeated elements
s intersect t;
intersection of sets s and t
s minus t
the set of elements which are in s but not in t
[op(a), op(b), . . .]
concatenate (join) the lists a, b, . . .
a := [e, op(a)];
add element e at the beginning of list a
a := [op(a), e];
add element e at the end of list a
a := subsop(i = e, a);
replace the ith element of the list a by e
a := subsop(i = N U LL, a);
delete ith element from list a
[a[1..n 1], e, a[n..nops(a)];
insert e at position n in list a
sort(a);
sort the elements of list a (into a standard order)
[select(bool, a)];
list consisting of the elements of a for which the
boolean-valued function bool is true
map(f, a);
apply the function f to each element of the list a
mpl2
Command
Description
5. Character Strings
str := T his is a string;
defining a character string
length(str);
the number of characters in a string
substring(str, m..n);
extract a substring from string str starting with the
mth and ending with the nth character
[seq(substring(str, k..k), k = 1..
length(str)]
give the list of characters in a string
searchtext(st, str)
find the place where st occurs in string str
s1.s2. . . . or cat(s1, s2, . . .)
join the strings s1, s2, . . . together
convert(expr, string);
convert an expression to a string (textual form)
type(str, string)
check whether str is a string (true or f alse)
6. Boolean expressions
b := true; b := f alse;
assigning true/false to the variable b
=, <>, <, <=, >, >=
relation operators (equal, not equal, less than, etc.);
can be used to form boolean expressions
and, or, not
logical operators ( boolean expressions)
evalb(bool)
evaluate the boolean expression bool (gives true or
f alse)
type(b, boolean)
check whether b is a boolean expression (true or
f alse)
7. Looping control
f or i to m do; expr; od;
evaluate expr repeatedly with i varying from 1 to m
in steps of 1
f or i f rom n to m by s do; expr; od;
evaluate expr repeatedly with i varying from n to m
in steps of s
while test do; expr; od;
evaluate expr until test becomes false
f or i f rom n to m by s while test
do; expr; od;
evaluate expr repeatedly with i varying from n to m
in steps of s as long as test is true
RET U RN (expr)
(explicit) return from a subroutine, assigning the
value expr to the subroutine
8. Conditionals
if test then statmt f i;
execute the statement (sequence) statmt only if test
is true
if test then statmt1 else statmt2 f i;
execute the statement (sequence) statmt1 if test is
true, otherwise execute statmt2
mpl3
Command
Description
9. Complex Numbers
z := x + y I;
defining a complex number
abs(expr);
the absolute value of expr
argument(expr)
the argument of expr
Re(expr); Im(expr);
the real and imaginary part of expr
conjugate(expr);
the complex conjugate of expr
evalc(expr)
evaluating an expression (as a complex number)
convert(expr, polar)
convert expr to its polar form
type(expr, complex)
check that expr has type complex
10. Polynomials
f := x n + a1 x (n 1) + . . . ;
defining a polynomial f = f (x) (assuming that x has
no value)
type(f, polynom(integer, x))
check that f is an integer polynomial in x
degree(f, x)
degree of f in x
coef f (f, x, n)
extract the coefficient of xn in f
coef f s(f, x)
list of coefficients of f (x)
lcoef f (f, x)
the leading (highest) coefficient of f (x)
tcoef f (f, x)
the constant (trailing) coefficient of f (x)
collect(f, x)
collect all coefficients of f which have the same powers in x
expand(expr)
distribute products over sums
sort(f )
sort into decreasing order
subs(x = a, f )
evaluate f (x) at x = a
Eval(f, x = a) mod p;
evaluate f (x) (mod p) at x = a
f mod n;
reduce the coefficients of f modulo n
quo(f, g, x); rem(f, g, x);
the quotient and remainder of division of f by g
(viewed as polynomials in x)
gcd(f, g, x)
the greatest common divisor of f (x) and g(x)
0 0 0 0
gcd(f, g, x, s , t )
the extended Euclidean algorithm of f (x) and g(x);
i.e. s, t satisfy f s + g t = g := gcd(f, g)
f actor(f )
factor f into its irreducible factors
F actor(f ) mod p
factor f modulo p
roots(f )
find the rational roots of f
interp(x, y, t)
The Lagrange Interpolation polynomial
mpl4
