# derivative at a given point

I often see the following:

$$\left. \frac{\partial q}{\partial \alpha} \right|_{\alpha = 0}$$

Where $q$ is a function $q(q', t, \alpha)$.

Is that just the same as that?

$$\frac{\partial}{\partial \alpha} q(\alpha=0)$$

If they are the same, why do people write the first one? I find the second easier.

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I understand that $$\frac{\partial q(0)}{\partial \alpha}$$ is just 0. But with the function written behind the operator also? –  queueoverflow Jul 13 '12 at 18:29

The vertical line $\bigg\lvert_{\alpha = 0}$ simply means that you take the expression before the line and evaluate it at $\alpha = 0$. The notation is also used in other cases than when evaluating derivatives. Usually I would interpret $\frac{\partial f}{\partial x}$ as a function again, and so if I wanted to use a notation similar to your second option I would probably write $$\frac{\partial q}{\partial \alpha}(q',t,0).$$ In my opinion it seems a bit more messy when you put in the $(\alpha = 0)$. So if for example $f(x) = 2x + 1$, I wouldn't write $f(x=1) = 3$ (but some might do that). If you have a function of several variables, like $f(x,y) = xy + 2$, I would write $f(0,y)$ if I wanted to out the variable $x$ equal to zero. Also, I would say that the notation that you have in your comment to your question isn't good since it isn't clear if you are putting $\alpha = 0$ or if it is $q'$ or $t$ that is zero.
Notation with derivatives often get awkward, especially for functions of several variables and derivatives of compositions. Consider expressions like $$\frac{\partial f(x,g(x))}{\partial x},\quad \frac{\partial f(x,g(x,y))}{\partial y}.$$ It gets even messier if you throw evaluations in...