Short

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`Short`

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Short[expr]

prints as a short form of expr, less than about one line long.

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Short[expr,n]

prints as a form of expr about n lines long.

Details

Short[expr] gives a "skeleton form" of expr, with omitted sequences of k elements indicated by k.
In StandardForm, the characters used for this output are \[LeftSkeleton] and .
Omitted sequences of elements are printed as Skeleton objects.
Short prints long strings in skeleton form.
The number of lines specified need not be an integer.
Short can be used with InputForm and other formats as well as OutputForm.
When an input evaluates to Short[expr], Short does not appear in the output. »
Trying to feed k as obtained from Short back as input to the Wolfram Language in StandardForm will generate an error. »

Examples

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Basic Examples (2)Summary of the most common use cases

Shorten the display of a large polynomial to about one line:

In[1]:=1

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-gmu5z9

Allow about three lines:

In[1]:=1

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-j2lmn

Properties & Relations (3)Properties of the function, and connections to other functions

Shortened outputs contain Skeleton objects:

In[1]:=1

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-n5rnq

In[2]:=2

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-c4cxz2

Out[2]=2

Shallow displays with long expressions shortened from the end:

In[1]:=1

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-tz3jr

In[2]:=2

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-ehgs5v

Out[2]//Shallow=2

When an input evaluates to Short[expr], Short does not appear in the output:

In[1]:=1

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-3gx57p

Out is assigned the result Range[50], not Short[Range[50]]:

In[2]:=2

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-i3x8rt

Out[2]=2

Possible Issues (2)Common pitfalls and unexpected behavior

The output of Short cannot be used as input if k appears in the result:

In[2]:=2

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-bw5lje

Copy the output and paste it into an input cell. The k will cause an error:

In[2]:=2

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-zojpmg

Even when an output omits Short from the top level, it is not stripped from subexpressions:

In[1]:=1

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-bb5u70

The output does not have Short in it:

In[2]:=2

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-qxu5u2

Out[2]=2

However, the variable e does have Short in it, which may affect subsequent evaluations:

In[3]:=3

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-8wep7w

This Join is not evaluated due to the intervening Short:

In[4]:=4

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-3mdjew

Out[4]=4

Assign variables first and then apply Short to the result to maintain computability:

In[5]:=5

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-vgf4cy

In[6]:=6

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https://wolfram.com/xid/0gipli-qrlgbe

Out[6]=6

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