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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
StepMonitor
  • See Also
    • EvaluationMonitor
    • Sow
    • Monitor
    • Print
    • Method
    • MaxSteps
  • Related Guides
    • Tuning & Debugging
    • Differential Equations
    • Numerical Evaluation & Precision
  • Tech Notes
    • Monitoring and Selecting Algorithms
    • See Also
      • EvaluationMonitor
      • Sow
      • Monitor
      • Print
      • Method
      • MaxSteps
    • Related Guides
      • Tuning & Debugging
      • Differential Equations
      • Numerical Evaluation & Precision
    • Tech Notes
      • Monitoring and Selecting Algorithms

StepMonitor

is an option for iterative numerical computation functions that gives an expression to evaluate whenever a step is taken by the numerical method used.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Applications  
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • EvaluationMonitor
    • Sow
    • Monitor
    • Print
    • Method
    • MaxSteps
  • Related Guides
    • Tuning & Debugging
    • Differential Equations
    • Numerical Evaluation & Precision
  • Tech Notes
    • Monitoring and Selecting Algorithms
    • See Also
      • EvaluationMonitor
      • Sow
      • Monitor
      • Print
      • Method
      • MaxSteps
    • Related Guides
      • Tuning & Debugging
      • Differential Equations
      • Numerical Evaluation & Precision
    • Tech Notes
      • Monitoring and Selecting Algorithms

StepMonitor

StepMonitor

is an option for iterative numerical computation functions that gives an expression to evaluate whenever a step is taken by the numerical method used.

Details

  • The option setting is normally given as StepMonitor:>expr.
  • The :> is used instead of -> to avoid expr being immediately evaluated.
  • Whenever expr is evaluated, all variables in the numerical computation are assigned their current values.
  • Block[{var1=val1,…},expr] is effectively used.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Monitor steps taken for a numerical minimization with FindMinimum:

Count steps:

Use Reap and Sow to collect step data:

Show steps on a plot of the function:

Scope  (4)

Monitor the solution progress when solving the sine-Gordon PDE:

Monitor steps taken to numerically solve a system of equations:

Show steps on a surface plot of the functions:

Steps in parameter space for a nonlinear fit:

Sequence of plots showing the evolution of the model over the steps:

Plot the spatial (x) solution for time (t) steps used numerically solving a PDE with NDSolve:

Show the steps with a surface plot of the solution:

Applications  (4)

Show how precision is adapted for high-precision root finding:

The quadratic convergence of Newton's method allows eventual precision doubling at each step:

Investigate steps and evaluations for a numerical minimization:

Show evaluations in red, steps in yellow, and the final point in green:

Get step sizes for the numerical solution of an ODE with NDSolve:

Show the solution and step size as a function of t:

Compare steps, evaluations, and timing for different ODE integration methods in NDSolve:

See Also

EvaluationMonitor  Sow  Monitor  Print  Method  MaxSteps

Tech Notes

    ▪
  • Monitoring and Selecting Algorithms

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Tuning & Debugging
  • ▪
  • Differential Equations
  • ▪
  • Numerical Evaluation & Precision

History

Introduced in 2003 (5.0)

Wolfram Research (2003), StepMonitor, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StepMonitor.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2003), StepMonitor, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StepMonitor.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2003. "StepMonitor." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StepMonitor.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2003). StepMonitor. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StepMonitor.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_stepmonitor, author="Wolfram Research", title="{StepMonitor}", year="2003", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StepMonitor.html}", note=[Accessed: 30-November-2025]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_stepmonitor, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={StepMonitor}, year={2003}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/StepMonitor.html}, note=[Accessed: 30-November-2025]}

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