SYNTAX ERROR (change nameclass on assignment) in APL

Question

When I try to assign to a name in Dyalog APL, I get one of these error messages:

• SYNTAX ERROR: Can't change nameclass on assignment
• SYNTAX ERROR: Invalid modified assignment, or an attempt was made to change nameclass on assignment

What exactly does it mean to "change nameclass on assignment", why isn't it allowed, and how can I work around this issue?

Answer 1

What exactly does it mean to "change nameclass on assignment"?

APL distinguishes between syntactic roles, and each role is identified by a number. The ⎕NC function takes one or more names, and returns their Name Class, for example 2 for variable and 3 for function, 4 for operator, and 9 for ref.

As per the assignment documentation:

Re-Assignment

A name that already exists may be assigned a new value if the assignment will not alter its name class, or will change it from 2 to 9 or vice versa. The table of permitted re-assignments is as follows:

	Ref	Variable	Function	Operator
Ref	Yes	Yes
Variable	Yes	Yes
Function			Yes	Yes
Operator			Yes	Yes

Why isn't it allowed?

The prohibition against certain re-assignments is necessary to disambiguate when an augmented assignment is performed, or when the value of an assignment is used (whatever is on the right of the assignment arrow is returned as result). For example:

      Plus←+
      a←100
      a Plus←10
      a
110
      Double←{2×⍵}
      Double b←10
20

Without this restriction, it would be impossible to distinguish these cases from parallel assignment:

      c d←10
      c
10
      d
10

How can I work around this issue?

Reusing a name for something entirely different is probably a bad idea in production code, and adoption of a strict naming convention (e.g. mine) is recommended. However, when experimenting in an interactive session (REPL), simply removing the definition of an existing name, opens up its usage for all purposes. The ⎕EX (expunge) system function and the )ERASE system command both do this:

      a←10
      a←+
SYNTAX ERROR: Can't change nameclass on assignment
      a←+
       ∧
      ⎕EX'a'
      a←+
      a←10
SYNTAX ERROR: Invalid modified assignment, or an attempt was made to change nameclass on assignment
      a←10
      ∧
      )erase a
      a←10