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The function ⋈
forms a list of all its arguments. When there's one argument, it's called "Enlist", and with two, it's called "Pair".
⋈ "enlist" # ⟨𝕩⟩
"pa" ⋈ "ir" # ⟨𝕨,𝕩⟩
It's usually preferable to use list notation directly for such arrays, because it's easy to add or remove any number of elements. Pair is useful when a standalone function is needed, for example to be used as an operand.
2‿4‿1 ⋈⌜ "north"‿"south" # Cartesian product
⋈¨ "+-×÷" # Glyphs to strings
Another common pattern is to use Pair in a train, giving the results from applying each of two functions.
'c' (+⋈-) 1‿2
For longer lists, this pattern can be extended with the function <⊸∾
, which prepends a single element to a list.
"e0" <⊸∾ "e1" <⊸∾ "e2" ⋈ "e3"
However, before making a long list of this sort, consider that your goal might be more easily accomplished with a list of functions.
6 (+ <⊸∾ - <⊸∾ × ⋈ ÷) 3
{6𝕏3}¨ +‿-‿×‿÷
Enlist and Pair are closely related to Solo and Couple, in that ⋈
is equivalent to ≍○<
and ≍
is equivalent to >∘⋈
. However, the result of ⋈
is always a list (rank 1) while Solo or Couple return an array of rank at least 1.
"abc" ≍ "def"
"abc" ⋈ "def"
And the arguments to Couple must have the same shape, while Enlist takes any two arguments.
"abc" ≍ "defg"
"abc" ⋈ "defg"
The difference is that Couple treats the arguments as cells, and adds a dimension, while Pair treats them as elements, adding a layer of depth. Couple is a "flat" version of Pair, much like Cells (˘
) is a flat version of Each (¨
). Pair is more versatile, but—precisely because of its restrictions—Couple may allow more powerful array operations on the result.
Enlist and Pair set the result's fill element, while list notation doesn't have to. So the following result is guaranteed:
4 ↑ "a"‿5 ⋈ "b"‿7
This means that ⋈
may not always behave the same as the obvious implementation {⟨𝕩⟩;⟨𝕨,𝕩⟩}
. However, ≍○<
and even >∘{⟨𝕩⟩;⟨𝕨,𝕩⟩}○<
compute the result fill as ⋈
does and are identical implementations.