About HP Prime factorization

[dah145]

(11-02-2020 07:32 PM)Albert Chan Wrote:  Hi, dah145

You can isolate the terms to be factorize, like this.

XCas> factor2(mess,s) := poly2symb(factor(symb2poly(mess,s)),s)

XCas> factor2(a^2 - 2*a*b + b^2 + s^2, a)       → b^2+s^2+a*(a-2*b)
XCas> factor2(a^2 - 2*a*b + b^2 + s^2, s)       → s^2+(a-b)^2

Yes thanks, this definitely is what I was looking for. Now I wonder if it is possible to obtain the expressions in form of a product, say: (a^2 - 2*a*b + b^2 + s^2)*(a^2 - 2*a*b + b^2 + s^2) = (s^2+(a-b)^2)*(s^2+(a-b)^2), as using your custom function outputs a not so friendly expression: s^2*(2*(a^2 + b^2) + s^2)+(a+b)^2*(a-b)^2.