WolframLang: FullForm Syntax

By Xah Lee. Date: .

What is FullForm

WolframLang has a purely nested syntax, called FullForm, similar to lisp.

FullForm syntax are like this:

where any of the f, a, b, c again has the form f[etc], nesting arbitrarily, or they are Atomic Expression, such as a number, Symbol, String.

Convert Expression to FullForm

You can type

FullForm[Hold[expr]]

to see the fully nested form of any WolframLang code.

Example of FullForm vs Shortcut Syntax

Example of FullForm syntax:

CompoundExpression[

 Set[ cArray,
  CoordinateBoundsArray[
   List[List[-1, 1], List[-1, 1]],
   Into[4]
  ]
 ],

 Set[
  hLines,
  Map[
   Function[
    BlockMap[Line, Slot[1], 2, 1]
   ],
   cArray
  ]
 ]
]

Here's the above code using short syntax, called InputForm:

cArray = CoordinateBoundsArray[{{-1, 1}, {-1, 1}}, Into[4]];
hLines = (BlockMap[Line, #1, 2, 1] & ) /@ cArray
WolframLang FullForm 2022-05-04
WolframLang InputForm and FullForm

WolframLang Syntax