Expression

Polynomial expression supporting symbolic arithmetic, constraint creation, and encoding.

An Expression represents a real-valued mathematical function composed of variables, scalars, and coefficients. Expressions may include constant, linear, quadratic, and higher-order terms (cubic and beyond). They are used to build objective functions and constraints in symbolic optimization models.

Expressions support both regular and in-place arithmetic, including addition and multiplication with integers, floats, Variable instances, and other Expressions.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
env	Environment	Environment used to scope the expression when explicitly instantiating it. Typically, expressions are constructed implicitly via arithmetic on variables.	...

Examples:

Constructing expressions from variables:

>>> from luna_quantum import Environment, Variable
>>> with Environment():
...     x = Variable("x")
...     y = Variable("y")
...     expr = 1 + 2 * x + 3 * x * y + x * y * y

Inspecting terms:

>>> expr.get_offset()
1.0
>>> expr.get_linear(x)
2.0
>>> expr.get_quadratic(x, y)
3.0
>>> expr.get_higher_order((x, y, y))
1.0

In-place arithmetic:

>>> expr += x
>>> expr *= 2

Creating constraints:

>>> constraint = expr == 10.0
>>> constraint2 = expr <= 15

Serialization:

>>> blob = expr.encode()
>>> restored = Expression.decode(blob)

Supported Arithmetic

The following operations are supported:

• Addition:

  • expr + expr → Expression
  • expr + variable → Expression
  • expr + int | float → Expression
  • int | float + expr → Expression

• In-place addition:

  • expr += expr
  • expr += variable
  • expr += int | float

• Multiplication:

  • expr * expr
  • expr * variable
  • expr * int | float
  • int | float * expr

• In-place multiplication:

  • expr *= expr
  • expr *= variable
  • expr *= int | float

• Constraint creation:

  • expr == constant → Constraint
  • expr <= constant → Constraint
  • expr >= constant → Constraint

Notes

• Expressions are mutable: in-place operations (+=, *=) modify the instance.
• Expressions are scoped to an environment via the variables they reference.
• Comparisons like expr == expr return bool, not constraints.
• Use ==, <=, >= with numeric constants to create constraints.

num_variables property

num_variables: int

Return the number of distinct variables in the expression.

Returns:

Type	Description
int	Number of variables with non-zero coefficients.

__add__ method descriptor

__add__(value) -> Expression

Return self+value.

__eq__ method descriptor

__eq__(value) -> Constraint

Return self==value.

__ge__ method descriptor

__ge__(value) -> Constraint

Return self>=value.

__init__

__init__() -> None

__init__(env: Environment) -> None

__init__(env: Environment | None = ...) -> None

Create a new empty expression scoped to an environment.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
env	Environment	The environment to which this expression is bound.	...

Raises:

Type	Description
NoActiveEnvironmentFoundError	If no environment is provided and none is active in the context.

__le__ method descriptor

__le__(value) -> Constraint

Return self<=value.

__mul__ method descriptor

__mul__(value) -> Expression

Return self*value.

__neg__ method descriptor

__neg__() -> Expression

-self

__pow__ method descriptor

__pow__(value, mod=None) -> Expression

Return pow(self, value, mod).

__radd__ method descriptor

__radd__(value) -> Expression

Return value+self.

__repr__ method descriptor

__repr__() -> str

Return repr(self).

__rmul__ method descriptor

__rmul__(value) -> Expression

Return value*self.

__rsub__ method descriptor

__rsub__(value)

Return value-self.

__str__ method descriptor

__str__() -> str

Return str(self).

__sub__ method descriptor

__sub__(value) -> Expression

Return self-value.

decode builtin

decode(data: bytes, env) -> Expression

Reconstruct an expression from encoded bytes.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
data	bytes	Binary blob returned by encode().	required

Returns:

Type	Description
Expression	Deserialized expression object.

Raises:

Type	Description
DecodeError	If decoding fails due to corruption or incompatibility.

deserialize builtin

deserialize(data: bytes, env) -> Expression

Alias for decode().

See decode() for full documentation.

encode method descriptor

encode(compress: bool | None = True, level: int | None = 3) -> bytes

Serialize the expression into a compact binary format.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
compress	bool	Whether to compress the data. Default is True.	True
level	int	Compression level (0–9). Default is 3.	3

Returns:

Type	Description
bytes	Encoded representation of the expression.

Raises:

Type	Description
IOError	If serialization fails.

equal_contents method descriptor

equal_contents(other)

get_higher_order method descriptor

get_higher_order(variables: tuple[Variable, ...]) -> float

Get the coefficient for a higher-order term (degree ≥ 3).

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
variables	tuple of Variable	A tuple of variables specifying the term.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
float	The coefficient, or 0.0 if not present.

Raises:

Type	Description
VariableOutOfRangeError	If any variable is out of bounds for the environment.

get_linear method descriptor

get_linear(variable: Variable) -> float

Get the coefficient of a linear term for a given variable.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
variable	Variable	The variable whose linear coefficient is being queried.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
float	The coefficient, or 0.0 if the variable is not present.

Raises:

Type	Description
VariableOutOfRangeError	If the variable index is not valid in this expression's environment.

get_offset method descriptor

get_offset() -> float

Get the constant (offset) term in the expression.

Returns:

Type	Description
float	The constant term.

get_quadratic method descriptor

get_quadratic(u: Variable, v: Variable) -> float

Get the coefficient for a quadratic term (u * v).

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
u	Variable		required
v	Variable		required

Returns:

Type	Description
float	The coefficient, or 0.0 if not present.

Raises:

Type	Description
VariableOutOfRangeError	If either variable is out of bounds for the expression's environment.

is_equal method descriptor

is_equal(other: Expression) -> bool

Compare two expressions for equality.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
other	Expression	The expression to which self is compared to.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
bool	If the two expressions are equal.

items method descriptor

items() -> ExpressionIterator

Iterate over the single components of an expression. An component refers to a single constant, linear, quadratic, or higher-order term of an expression.

Returns:

Type	Description
ExpressionIterator	The iterator over the expression's components.

serialize method descriptor

serialize(compress: bool | None = True, level: int | None = 3) -> bytes

Alias for encode().

See encode() for full documentation.

substitute method descriptor

substitute(target: Variable, replacement: Expression | Variable) -> Expression

Substitute every occurrence of a variable in an expression with another expression.

Given an expression self, this method replaces all occurrences of target with replacement. If the substitution would cross differing environments (e.g. captures from two different scopes), it returns a DifferentEnvsError.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
target	VarRef	The variable reference to replace.	required
replacement	Expression | Variable	The expression to insert in place of target.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
Expression	The resulting expression after substitution.

Raises:

Type	Description
DifferentEnvsError	If the environments of self, target and replacement are not compatible.