# An Old Adage in MATLAB2

Posted by Loren Shure,

I have to admit, I enjoy puns and plays on words of almost any kind. As I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking about the MATLAB function eval. And something just clicked for me. I am sure the person sitting in the car beside me at the light thought I was crazy.

$$zip(\) = \sqrt{all(e^{val})}$$

Of course, later I looked on the internet, and, of course, found variants dozens of times over. Oh well.

To understand the equation I wrote, it may help to know some tennis terminology.

It may also help to know some synonyms for 0 :-).

Of course, we, at MathWorks, might say something a bit different. See this article, and this one, for examples. They discuss why not too "poof" variables into the workspace.

$$eval = \sqrt[n]{bad \ surprises}$$

Bragging rights

Bragging rights go to the first correct English "translation" from a non-native English speaker. Post your answers here.

Get the MATLAB code

Published with MATLAB® R2015b

### Note

Guilherme replied on : 1 of 2
I'd guess it means "The love of money is the root of all evil." Though one might think that love of money is the root of every eval statement. Anyway, if I'm right, may I have a cookie? (I'm Brazilian, BTW)
Loren Shure replied on : 2 of 2
Well done, Guilherme, MATLAB doesn't use cookies - though MathWorks employees are frequently fueled by them,