The cat function is commonly used to concatenate strings and names together. The arguments are concatenated to form either a string, a name, or an object of type `||` .

The type of the result returned by cat will be `||` when one or more of the arguments are of type '||' or type 'function'. When the arguments contain an integer or character range, a sequence will be returned. When trailing arguments are of type 'indexed', the base name will be concatenated. In all other cases the argument will be turned into a string or name. See the examples later.

Note that if the result of cat is a name, then it is in fact a global name, even though there might be a local variable of the same name currently active.

To form a sequence of names (or strings), specify a symbol (or string) as the first argument, then one or more integer ranges as the subsequent arguments. Maple returns the sequence of names (or strings) formed by concatenating the symbol (or string) with the integers produced by iterating over the ranges.

When called with no arguments, or with arguments that evaluate to NULL, cat returns the empty name, ``.

The cat command is thread-safe as of Maple 15.

For more information on thread safety, see index/threadsafe.

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,b\right)$

$\mathrm{ab}$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''a''\,''b''\right)$

$''ab''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(\mathrm{``}\,''b''\right)$

$b$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''''\,b\right)$

$''b''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,2\right)$

$\mathrm{a2}$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''a''\,2\right)$

$''a2''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''a''\,2\,x^2+1\right)$

$''a2x^2+1''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''a\; =''\,2.5\right)$

$''a\; =\; 2.5''$

$l≔''left''\:$

$r≔''right''\:$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(l\,r\right)$

$''leftright''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left('l'\,r\right)$

$\mathrm{lright}$

$i≔5$

$i≔5$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''The\; value\; of\; i\; is''\,i\,''.''\right)$

$''The\; value\; of\; i\; is\; 5.''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''a''\,b\left(\right)\right)$

$''a''\Vert \left(b\left(\right)\right)$

f := proc() local a, b; a,b; end proc:

$\mathrm{cat}\left(f\left(\right)\,c\right)$

$\mathrm{abc}$

$\mathrm{cat}\left('f\left(\right)'\,c\right)$

$f\left(\right)\Vert c$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,b\,c\left[1\right]\right)$

${\mathrm{abc}}_1$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''''\,a\,b\left[1\right]\,c\right)$

$''ab[1]c''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(''a''\,F\left(\right)\left[1\right]\right)$

$''aF()[1]''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,F\left(\right)\left[1\right]\right)$

$\mathrm{aF()[1]}$

$\mathrm{lprint}\left(\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,f\left(\right)\left[1\right]\right)\right)$

aa

tr := proc(s::string,src::string,dst::string)
cat( op( map( x -> `if`( x = src, dst, x ), [ seq( i, i = s ) ] ) ) );
end proc;

$\mathrm{tr}≔\mathbf{proc}\left(s::\mathrm{string}\,\mathrm{src}::\mathrm{string}\,\mathrm{dst}::\mathrm{string}\right)\mathbf{local}i\;\mathrm{cat}\left(\mathrm{op}\left(\mathrm{map}\left(x\→\mathrm{if}\left(x\=\mathrm{src}\,\mathrm{dst}\,x\right)\,\left[\mathrm{seq}\left(i\,i\=s\right)\right]\right)\right)\right)\mathbf{end\; proc}$

$\mathrm{tr}\left(\,''''\,'':''\right)$

$''The:value:of:i:is:5.''$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,1..10\right)$

$\mathrm{a1},\mathrm{a2},\mathrm{a3},\mathrm{a4},\mathrm{a5},\mathrm{a6},\mathrm{a7},\mathrm{a8},\mathrm{a9},\mathrm{a10}$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,1..2\,5..6\right)$

$\mathrm{a15},\mathrm{a16},\mathrm{a25},\mathrm{a26}$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,1..2\,5..6\,3..4\right)$

$\mathrm{a153},\mathrm{a154},\mathrm{a163},\mathrm{a164},\mathrm{a253},\mathrm{a254},\mathrm{a263},\mathrm{a264}$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(a\,''x''..''z''\right)$

$\mathrm{ax},\mathrm{ay},\mathrm{az}$

$\mathrm{cat}\left(A..\mathrm{D}\,a\right)$

$\mathrm{Aa},\mathrm{Ba},\mathrm{Ca},\mathrm{Da}$

gassign := proc(n::name,e::anything)
  assign(cat(n),e);
end proc:

g := proc()
  local a;
  a := 5;
  gassign( 'a', 2 );
end proc:

$a$

$a$

$g\left(\right)$

$a$

$2$

The cat command was updated in Maple 2015.