Hello,
Suppose I have a function f(x,y) which does different operations for
different types of arguments. How can I parse the arguments of f(x,y)
and decide what properties x and y have?
For instance, the function f(x,y) = x*y already does this, say for x, y
real numbers or matrices.
How can I do this for other types of arguments?
For instance, consider real closed intervals [a,b] denoted by Interval(a,b).
Then, the usual definition of the multiplication is
Interval(a,b)*Interval(c,d) = Interval(min(ac,ad,bc,bd),max(ac,ad,bc,bd))
Suppose f(x,y) = x*y
Then, I would like to have '*' defined so that
if x, y are real numbers, then f(x,y) = x*y is the usual product,
but if x=Interval(a,b) and y=Interval(c,d), then
f(Interval(a,b),Interval(c,d)) =
Interval(min(ac,ad,bc,bd),max(ac,ad,bc,bd))
Is there a simple way this can be done?
TIA for any suggestions.
-sen