In[3]:= x = 0;
For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++,
  x = x + 1;
  ] x

The For loop does not produce any result, that is - it produces Null. The
space is understood as a multiplication operator by the Mathematica parser.
Thus your result. Put a semicolon after the closing bracket of the For  loop
and you will get what you expect.

Regards,
Leonid

Your inclusion of the final semicolon inside the For doesn't change
that.  In fact, there's no reason for that semicolon: remember, in
Mathematica, a semicolon is NOT a line terminator; rather, it is a
separator for forming compound expressions, and an expression such as
expr1; expr2; means the same thing as expr1; expr2; Null.

Ordinarily, when an expression returns a Null, it is suppressed in the
output.  As in:

   1+1;     (* means same thing as 1+1; Null *)

However, you don't have just the Null-returning For expression, but you
multiply its result by x. And so Mathematica does exactly what you asked
it to do, namely, to multiply that returned value Null by the current
value x, namely 10.  And Mathematica sorts the factors of the product in
its usual way, outputting 10 Null rather than Null 10.

To obtain as result just the current value (10) of x after the loop
terminates, you can do one of two things:

   (* Version 1: put x on a separate line *)
   x = 0;
   For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++, x = x + 1]
   x

   (* Version 2: build compound expression ending in x *)
   x = 0;
   For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++, x = x + 1]; x

   (* Version 3: [same thing as Version 2!]: *)
   x = 0;
   For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++, x = x + 1];
   x

What happens in those three ways is slightly different -- although not
different in the effect you see.  In the first, the For returns one
result, a Null, which gets suppressed in output, and then the x returns
the 10. In the second, only the complete compound expression returns a
result, namely the value 10 of x.

But why does your original version, which I condense here to...

  x = 0;
For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++, x = x + 1; ] x

act differently from my first version?  Because in my first version,
Mathematica keeps going swallowing one line after another until it
reaches the end of an entire, complete expression -- here with the final
] of For, and it then evaluates that expression.  But in your original
version, you have an (implicit) multiplication between the closing ] and
the x, so Mathematica keeps on swallowing until it reaches the end of
the line.

Hope this helps.

You can illustrate this by doing something like

In[]:= x = 0; s = For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++, x = x + 1;]

In[]:= s

There will be no result, as the For[] expression itself has no value.

Also, though this seems to be just a test problem, whatever you're
trying to accomplish here may better be done with Table[] or, in the
really simple case, Range[].

Table[i, {i, 10}]

Range[10]

-Michael Stern
Merrin Capital Management

=46or[i = 1, i <= 10, i++,
   x = x + 1;
   ]; x

Or even better

The output of the For is Null (from documentation on For: "Unless an explicit Return is used, the value returned by For is Null."). When multiplied by x (i.e., 10) gives 10*Null. Put the semi-colon after the right bracket.

x = 0;
For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++, x = x + 1]; x

10

Bob Hanlon

---- Joe Hays <joeh...@vt.edu> wrote:

=============
Can anyone tell me why the output is not a simple "10" instead of "10 Null"?

In[3]:= x = 0;
For[i = 1, i <= 10, i++,
  x = x + 1;
  ] x

hth,

On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 6:49 AM, Murray Eisenberg <mur...@math.umass.edu>wrote: