Hi Chris,

Well there is information on the vocabulary page for Table  
http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/d420.htm

also Nuvoc has good information on this verb  
http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Vocabulary/slash#dyadic

The actual shape of a box is empty since the box is an atom. In the case of 1 2 
+/ i. 4 the shape is actually 2 4 i.e. 2 rows of 4 not 2 1

   < 1 2 +/ i. 4
┌───────┐
│1 2 3 4│
│2 3 4 5│
└───────┘
   $ < 1 2 +/ i. 4
   $ each < 1 2 +/ i. 4
┌───┐
│2 4│
└───┘
   
If you wanted the two rows to be in their own boxes then you could do

   ;/  1 2 +/ i. 4 
┌───────┬───────┐
│1 2 3 4│2 3 4 5│
└───────┴───────┘
   or

   <"1 [ 1 2 +/ i. 4
┌───────┬───────┐
│1 2 3 4│2 3 4 5│
└───────┴───────┘
  
   $ <"1 [ 1 2 +/ i. 4
2
 
The above shows that the shape of the two boxes is not actually 1 2 because 
each box is an atom the shape is actually just 2.

You are correct that an understanding of rank and shape is key to getting J to 
work for you. If you are looking for information I have always found Henry 
Rich's J for C Programmers much more accessible than the J dictionary.  
Chapters 5 and 6 are really good at explaining rank and shape with regard to 
verbs. http://www.jsoftware.com/help/jforc/contents.htm

Also, look at Nuvoc on the wiki. This is a crowd sourced resource organized by 
Ian Clark and Henry Rich which many have found useful.  
http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/NuVoc

Enjoy the ride as you learn J. Welcome aboard.

Cheers, bob 

 
On Sep 24, 2014, at 10:35 PM, Chris Wright <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi
> 
> Could I work out from the docs that
> 
>  < 1 2 +/ i. 4
> 
> ┌───────┐
> 
> │1 2 3 4│
> 
> │2 3 4 5│
> 
> └───────┘
> 
> will give the above (2 1) shape result
> 
> 
> and not a (1 2) result like below?
> 
> 
> ┌───────┬───────┐
> 
> │1 2 3 4│2 3 4 5│
> 
> └───────┴───────┘
> 
> 
> 
> 
> With the (2,1) it's obvious that two 1-cells are returned,  and with (1,2)
> it's not obvious (where is the boundary b/n them), but I wonder if I could
> have worked out the shape of the output from the docs alone?
> 
> 
> with thanks
> 
> 
> Chris
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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