Algebraic Equations with SymPy

Introduction | Output Formatting | Installation | Try Live | Issues or Comments | Change Log | License | GIT Repository | PyPi Link

Website/Documentation (including API)

Introduction

This tool defines relations that all high school and college students would recognize as mathematical equations. They consist of a left hand side (lhs) and a right hand side (rhs) connected by the relation operator "=". In addition, it sets some convenient defaults and provides some controls of output formatting that may be useful even if you do not use the Equation class (see Conveniences for SymPy).

This tool applies operations to both sides of the equation simultaneously, just as students are taught to do when attempting to isolate (solve for) a variable. Thus the statement Equation/b yields a new equation Equation.lhs/b = Equation.rhs/b

The intent is to allow using the mathematical tools in SymPy to rearrange equations and perform algebra in a stepwise fashion using as close to standard mathematical notation as possible. In this way more people can successfully perform algebraic rearrangements without stumbling over missed details such as a negative sign.

A simple example as it would appear in a Jupyter notebook is shown immediately below:

The last cell illustrates how it is possible to substitute numbers with units into the solved equation to calculate a numerical solution with proper units. The units(...) operation is part this package, not Sympy.

In IPython environments (IPython, Jupyter, Google Colab, etc...) there is also a shorthand syntax for entering equations provided through the IPython preparser. An equation can be specified as eq1 =@ a/b = c/d.

If no Python name is specified for the equation (no eq_name to the left of =@), the equation will still be defined, but will not be easily accessible for further computation. The =@ symbol combination was chosen to avoid conflicts with reserved python symbols while minimizing impacts on syntax highlighting and autoformatting.

More examples of the capabilities of Algebra with Sympy are here.

Many math packages such as SageMath and Maxima have similar capabilities, but require more knowledge of command syntax, plus they cannot easily be installed in a generic python environment.

Convenience Tools and Defaults for Interactive Use of SymPy

Even if you do not use the Equation class, there are some convenience tools and defaults that will probably make interactive use of SymPy in Jupyter/IPython environments easier:

• By default, all numbers in Sympy expressions without decimal points are interpreted as integers (e.g. 2/3*x, where x is a sympy symbol, -> 2*x/3 not x*0.6666..., but if x is just a plain Python object then 2/3*x -> x*0.66666...). This can be turned off with unset_integers_as_exact(), which leads to standard Python behavior (2/3*x -> x*0.6666...) even for Sympy expressions. Turn on with set_integers_as_exact(). When on the flag algwsym_config.numerics.integers_as_exact = True.
• Results of solve() are wrapped in FiniteSet() to force pretty-printing of all of a solution set. See Controlling the Format of Interactive Outputs.
• It is possible to set the default display to show both the pretty-printed result and the code version simultaneously. See Controlling the Format of Interactive Outputs.

Controlling the Format of Interactive Outputs

• These controls impact all Sympy objects and the Equation class.

• In graphical environments (Jupyter) you will get rendered Latex such as $\frac{a}{b} = \frac{c}{d}$ or $e^{\frac{-x^2}{\sigma^2}}$. To also see the code representation (what can be copied and pasted for additional computation) set algwsym_config.output.show_code = True. This will print the code version (e.g. Equation(a,b/c)) of equations and sympy expression in addition to the human readable version. This code version can be accessed directly by calling repr() on the equation or expression.

• In interactive text environments (IPython and command line) The human readable string version of Sympy expressions are returned (for Equations a = b rather than Equation(a,b)). This is equivalent to Calling print() or str() on an expression.

  • To have the code version (can be copied and pasted as a Python statement) returned, set algwsym_config.output.human_text = False.
  • Setting both algwsym_config.output.human_text = True and algwsym_config.output.show_code = True, will return both the code and human readable versions.

• The equation label can be turned off by setting algwsym_config.output.label = False.

• Automatic wrapping of Equations as Latex equations can be activated by setting algwsym_config.output.latex_as_equations to True. The default is False. Setting this to True wraps output as LaTex equations, wrapping them in \begin{equation}...\end{equation}. Equations formatted this way will not be labeled with the internal name for the equation, independent of the setting of algwsym_config.output.label.

• By default solutions output by solve() are returned as a SymPy FiniteSet() to force typesetting of the included solutions. To get Python lists instead you can override this for the whole session by setting algwsym_config.output.solve_to_list = True. For a one-off, simply wrap the output of a solve in list() (e.g. list(solve(...))). One advantage of list mode is that lists can be ordered. When algwsym_config.output.solve_to_list = True solve() maintains the solutions in the order the solve for variables were input.

Setup/Installation

1. Use pip to install in your python environment: pip install -U Algebra-with-SymPy
2. To use in a running python session issue the following command : from algebra_with_sympy import *. This will also import the SymPy tools.
3. If you want to isolate this tool from the global namespace you are working with change the import statement to import algebra_with_sympy as spa, where spa stands for "SymPy Algebra". Then all calls would be made to spa.funcname(). WARNING: Doing this makes shorthand equation input and control of interactive output formats unavailable. To recover this functionality the following code must be run in the interactive session.

Equation = spa.Equation
Eqn = Equation
algwsym_config = spa.algwsym_config

Try in binder

Issues or Comments

• Issues and bug reports should be filed on github.
• Comments, questions, show and tell, etc. should go in the project discussions.

Change Log

• 1.1.3 ()
  • Moved determination of equation (actually any sympy basic object) python name to this package from the equation object, thus simplifying what is included in sympy.
• 1.1.2 (August 13, 2024)
  • Test updates.
  • Verified compatibility with Sympy 1.13.2.
• 1.1.1 (July 25, 2024)
  • BUG FIX accommodate empty re.search results in preparser. Prevents unnecessary error messages.
• 1.1.0 (July 22, 2024)
  • Setting integers as exact (set_integers_as_exact(), the default) now only sets integers as exact within Sympy and Algebra_with_Sympy expressions. This increases compatibility with other packages that depend on integers being Python integers.
  • Refuse to import Algebra_with_Sympy if an incompatible version of Sympy is installed in the environment.
  • Added warning explaining how to install a compatible version of Sympy.
• 1.0.2 (July 5, 2024)
  • Removed requirements for Jupyter and Jupyterlab as code will work in vanilla python or Google Colab.
  • Workaround for Google Colab's inconsistent handling of mixed Latex and plain text strings. This impacted display of equation labels in Colab.
  • BUG FIX: catch IPython not installed so that can run in plain vanilla python.
• 1.0.1 (May 22, 2024)
  • BUG FIX: equation labels that include underscore characters "_" are now accepted.
  • BUG FIX: wrapping equations formatted as LaTex equation (ie. surrounded by \begin{equation}...\end{equation}) in the $..$ code used to indicate markdown for MathJax was causing output errors in Quarto when outputing to .tex or .pdf. This is now fixed without negatively impacting MathJax rendering.
  • BUG FIX: Singleton results of solve unnecessarily wrapped by extra list or finiteset. No longer double nested.
  • BUG FIX: When returning lists make solve respect user order of solutions.
  • BUG FIX: Equation output threw error when Algebra_with_Sympy was imported as a submodule. Equation labeling turned off for this type of import to avoid error.
  • BUG FIX: Equation labels are now copyable even with the newer MathJax commonHTML rendering.
  • Updates to requirements.txt.
  • Documentation updates.
• 1.0.0 (January 2, 2024)
  • Added convenience operation units(...) which takes a string of space separated symbols to use as units. This simply declares the symbols to be positive, making them behave as units. This does not create units that know about conversions, prefixes or systems of units. This lack is on purpose to provide units that require the user to worry about conversions (ideal in a teaching situation). To get units with built-in conversions see sympy.physics.units.
  • Fixed issue #23 where cos() multiplied by a factor was not the same type of object after simplify() acted on an expression. Required embedding the Equation type in the sympy library. Until Equation is incorporated into the primary Sympy repository a customized version of the latest stable release will be used.
  • Fixed issue where trailing comments (ie. # a comment at the end of a line) lead to input errors using compact =@ notation.
  • algwsym_config.output.latex_as_equations has a default value of False. Setting this to True wraps output as LaTex equations wrapping them in \begin{equation}...\end{equation}. Equations formatted this way will not be labeled with the internal name for the equation.
• 0.12.0 (July 12, 2023)
  • Now defaults to interpreting numbers without decimal points as integers. This can be turned off with unset_integers_as_exact() and on with set_integers_as_exact(). When on the flag algwsym_config.numerics.integers_as_exact = True.
• 0.11.0 (June 5, 2023)
  • Formatting of FiniteSets overridden so that the contents always pretty-print. This removes the necessity of special flags to get pretty output from solve.
  • Sympy solve() now works reliably with equations and outputs pretty-printed solutions.
  • Added option algwsym_config.output.solve_to_list = True which causes solve() to return solutions sets as Python lists. Using this option prevents pretty-printing of the solutions produced by solve().
  • algwsym_config.output.show_code and algwsym_config.output.human_text now work for all sympy objects, not just Equation objects. This works in terminal, IPython terminal and Jupyter. This is achieved by hooking into the python display_hook and IPython display_formatter.
  • Added jupyter to requirements.txt so that virtual environment builds will include jupyter.
  • The way __version__ was handled could break pip install. Changed to generating the internal version during setup. This means the version is now available as algwsym_version.
• 0.10.0 (Sep. 5, 2022)
  • Documentation updates and fixes.
  • Significantly increased test coverage (~98%).
  • Support for Eqn.rewrite(Add)
  • Solving (e.g. solve(Eqn,x)) now supported fully. Still experimental.
  • Bug fix: latex printing now supports custom printer.
  • Substitution into an Equation using Equations is now supported (e.g. eq1.subs(eq2, eq3, ...)).
  • algebra_with_sympy.__version__ is now available for version checking within python.
  • Bug fix: preparsing for =@ syntax no longer blocks obj? syntax for getting docstrings in ipython.
  • More robust determination of equation names for labeling.
• 0.9.4 (Aug. 11, 2022)
  • Update to deal with new Sympy function piecewise_exclusive in v1.11.
  • Added user warning if a function does not extend for use with Equations as expected. This also allows the package to be used even when a function extension does fail.
  • Simplification of documentation preparation.
  • Typo fixes in preparser error messages.
• 0.9.3 (Aug. 9, 2022)
  • Added check for new enough version of IPython to use the preparser.
  • If IPython version too old, issue warning and do not accept =@ shorthand.
• 0.9.2 (Jun. 5, 2022)
  • =@ shorthand syntax for defining equations in IPython compatible environments.
  • Fixed bug where root() override called sqrt() on bare expressions.
• 0.9.1 (Mar. 24, 2022)
  • Equations labeled with their python name, if they have one.
  • Added flags to adjust human readable output and equation labeling.
  • Accept equation as function argument in any position.
  • First pass at solve() accepting equations.
  • Added override of root() to avoid warning messages.
  • More unit tests.
  • First pass at documentation.
• 0.9.0 functionality equivalent to extension of SymPy in PR#21333.

licensed under GNU V3 license

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

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