# Talk:Argument of a function

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## Indicating argument by subscript?

I recently removed, and User:AnUnnamedUser keeps trying to preserve, this sentence:

When it is clear from the context which argument is meant, the argument may be denoted using subscripts.

This is cited with Google books, but following the link doesn't lead to anything in the book that supports the claim. Personally, I'm not familiar with any practice in mathematical writing that fits this description. Looking back further in the article history, I see that the sentence, in the original revision, said something completely different:

When it is clear from the context which argument is meant, the argument is often denoted by arg.

No citation was given and again, I'm not familiar with any such practice. User:Zy26 modified the claim and added the Google Books link. If he can explain or give an example, that will be fine, but the claim should not be kept on the arbitrary assumption that someone, somewhere knows how to correct or verify it. 73.71.251.64 (talk) 00:52, 13 October 2019 (UTC)

I did modify the statement, but the link has been added by someone else. --zy26 was here. 01:21, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
Comment: I don't agree to any of the versions of the sentence. Instead, I believe that function arguments are most often given as formal parameters, like in all examples in the article, and similar to programming language practice. I can't remember ever having seen "arg" or "arg(f)" in a mathematical expression. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 15:35, 13 October 2019 (UTC)
Another instance of a recent uptick in WP:Subtle vandalism. — Rgdboer (talk) 21:02, 13 October 2019 (UTC)
No idea what you're referring to, Rgdboer. 73.71.251.64 (talk) 20:12, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

A more precise version was added. Feel free to modify it.--zy26 was here. 01:21, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

Could you add an example? I guess, it would be just like ${\displaystyle f({\vec {x}})=(some\;expression)}$ and ${\displaystyle {\frac {\partial f}{\partial x_{i}}}}$, where ${\displaystyle x_{i}}$ denotes the ${\displaystyle i}$th component of ${\displaystyle {\vec {x}}}$. In that case, it would be a matter of referring to vector components, not to arguments. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 10:17, 8 November 2019 (UTC)