1
vote
0answers
125 views

Data structure for a list of actions

The idea: I need to generate a sequence of events then run a "propagator" over the list of events where the "propagator" will update the state of the following event. I can then write functions that ...
1
vote
1answer
120 views

pointer like operations in mathematica and evaluation control

I would like to create a data structure of the type "header[pointer]" where pointer would point to a list. I will shown on an example how I'd like this to work, and where the problems are. ...
18
votes
4answers
481 views

Efficient circular buffer?

I wish to create an efficient circular buffer. That is, I wish to keep a fixed length list while appending a new value and dropping the oldest, repeatedly. As we know lists in Mathematica are ...
6
votes
1answer
164 views

Return a Part by Reference? (For accessing hierarchical / structured data)

Is there a way to return a part of a list by reference, for reading and writing? I want to do this so I can easily manipulate "rule-styled structured", i.e., hierarchical data that is loaded from a ...
13
votes
2answers
356 views

Question about designing a particular data structure

Background: I store polygons with a color assigned at the face level. In some occasions I want to use vertex colors but I want to store data efficiently, i.e. don't want to duplicate data to the ...
4
votes
0answers
205 views

Is it possible to construct a function to make a poor man's Mathematica database?

I have a function that is set up to write to a database with 10-20 standard variables with 10 fields each, but the application is going to a place where database access is not available. Can ...
8
votes
2answers
173 views

Cases[data,Colon[key,_]] vs. Cases[data,key:_] toward XPath, XQuery

Exploring methods to index and search tree-structured key:value pairs via named-entity index (key paths) as opposed to Position-based indexing. Using Rule as ...
29
votes
2answers
825 views

What is a Mathematica packed array?

A simple sounding question with a few sub questions: What is the difference between unpacked vs packed array? Are packed arrays more space efficent, how much so? Are packed arrays more time ...
52
votes
7answers
3k views

Struct equivalent in Mathematica?

I really miss having something like a struct in Mathematica. I know of (and regularly use) a couple of programming techniques which feel like a ...