pad - mathematica: PadRight[] and \[PlusMinus] -

is there way

padright[a \[plusminus] b,2,""]  

returns

{a \[plusminus] b,""} 

instead of

 \[plusminus] b \[plusminus] "" 

?

i believe need somehow deactivate operator properties of [plusminus].

why need this?

i'm creating program display tables physical quantities. me, means tables entries (value of a) [plusminus] (uncertainty of a)

when have several columns different heights, i'm stuffing shorter ones "", can use transpose numeric part of table.

if column has more 1 entrie, there's no problem:

padright[{a \[plusminus] b,c \[plusminus] d},4,""] 

gives want:

{a \[plusminus] b,c \[plusminus] d,"",""} 

it when column has 1 entrie problem appears.

this code constructs body stuffed "":

if[tested[sbody],1,   body = padright[body, {length[a], max[map[length, body]] 

with

tested[a__] :=    if[length[deleteduplicates[map[dimensions, {a}]]] != 1, false,     true]; 

, function discovers if arguments have same dimension

and

a={quantity1,quantity2,...} 

where quantities one's want on table.

thanks

first need aware of expression in mathematica in form of head[body] body may empty, single expression or sequence of expressions separated commas length operate on expressions, not lists length[plusminus[a,b]] returns 2 since body of expression contains expressions (atoms in case) , b

read documentation on padright. second argument define final length of expression padright[{a,b},4,c] results list of length 4 last 2 elements equal padright[{a,b},2,c] results original list since of length 2 therefore padright[plusminus[a,b],2,anything] returns same plusminus[a,b] unchanged since of length 2 so, youר first example wrong. not able result head list using padright when try pad expression head plusminus

there no problem of executing padright[plusminus[a,b],3,""] result looks funny (at best) , logically meaningless, if wanted in first place it, , following explanations above can figure out why

hth

best

yehuda