Variable definition - Rop%

[gshockxcc]

I have an old file that colleagues developed and they created variables like this: Rop%.  I'm trying to re-create and improve some plots, which use this variable, among other similar definitions.  When I retype the variable name, Mathcad tells me the variable is invalid; undefined. 

For the life of me, I can't figure out why.  But it looks like the percent signs (%) have different fonts.  So it looks like there's something different about them, but I can't replicate it.  Please see attached.

[Werner_E · Accepted solution]

The trick is: You start by typing double quotes (") as if creating a string (actually thats what you do).

Then Type "rop%" (without the quotes as they are already there

and now press the Del button! this removes the quotes and what remains is a variable name you can use at will.

Once you have created a variable name like this and used it, its usually easier to copy and paste it rather than to create from anew, but this may also depend on what kind of special characters you used for the name and how convenient they are accessible.

[gshockxcc]

Fantastic!  Thank you.  There are so many tricks like that.  How do you find all these neat little workarounds?  Is it just time and experience, or are there "cheat sheets" with shortcuts like these?

[Werner_E]

I am not aware of any "cheat sheets" for Prime, but if you work longer with something, you will get one or the other undocumented feature.

I don't think that I found it out by myself but chances are that I read about it here in the forum.

Other undocumented tricks are using the inline evaluation after the definition of a range variable to turn it into a vector or pressing Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Q to get a popup debug window where you can change a few parameters and colors.