Other Definitions
polish notation (dict)
|
Polish NotationPolish notation, also known as prefix notation, is a method of mathematical expression. It was created by Jan Łukasiewicz. Its distinguishing feature is that it places operators before operands. For example, this expression: + 1 2 evaluates to 3. Polish notation is not limited to only two values, nor to just addition. For example, this expression: ( (+ 0 1) (+ 2 3)) evaluates to 5. While the examples above use parentheses, one of the benefits of Polish notation is that, assuming the arity of each operator is known, parentheses are unnecessary: the order of operations is unique and easy to determine, provided that the expression is well-formed. For example, assuming and + are binary, then this expression: + 0 1 + 2 3 can mean only this: ( (+ 0 1) (+ 2 3)) Polish notation is used in some computer programming languages, including Lisp and its dialect Scheme. See also
|
 |