Substitutes a value for a variable temporarily.
expression
Menu Location
Press the
This command works on all calculators.
1 byte
The | operator (which nobody seems to know how to pronounce, although TI suggests "with") temporarily sets a variable to some value, just for a single evaluation. For example:
:x^2+2x+1|x=5
6
Using the | operator doesn't actually affect the value of the variable. However, it will work both if the variable is undefined, and if the variable already has a different value.
Only one | can occur in a single expression: if you have more, this will either cause an error or ignore all but the first substitution, depending on placement. However, one | is enough for any number of variables: just separate the values to use with and:
:x+y|x=2 and y=2
4
Advanced Uses
The | operator has a more complicated use: rather than giving a specific value for a variable, you might give a condition (or several conditions) for its value, using the >, ≥, <, and ≤ operators. This condition will be used if it helps simplify the expression, especially with solve(). For instance:
:abs(x)|x<0
-x
Weird things can happen if you do this to a variable whose value is already defined, however:
:5→x
5
:abs(x)|x<0
|undef|
Optimization
If a complicated expression has a repeating element, you may be able to make the calculation smaller and faster by replacing this repeating element with a variable, for which you substitute the correct value. For example (here the repeating element is √(1-x^2)):
:x√(1-x^2)+tanֿ¹(x/√(1-x^2))
can be
:x*a+tanֿ¹(x/a)|a=√(1-x^2)
A related trick is to make a substitution with a function, for an operation that has to be done several times in a single line. For example:
:a*(a-1)/2+b*(b-1)/2+c*(c-1)/2
can be
:f(a)+f(b)+f(c)|f(x)=x*(x-1)/2
Error Conditions
200 - Constraint expression invalid happens when the condition doesn't make sense to the calculator.