Dear Forum,
I'm far from being sophisticated in group theory and GAP, so please
bear with me. In GAP 4.x I can access database of groups by using
function SmallGroup, e.g. SmallGroup(32,1). What I need is to
find out the number of quadratic residues for, say, the group above.
Is it possible for arbitrary SmallGroup(n,k) as long as the group is
in the database? Going further, I would like to construct a
multiplication table for SmallGroup(32,k). Is it possible in GAP?
Thanks a lot
Igor

Dear Igor,
Dear Forum,
As for the 2nd question, I suppose, the answer is YES.
For example, one of my student prepared a program in GAP 3.4.4,
and it works in GAP 4.2 as well, for calculation of the Cayley table
of a group:

Cayley:=function(G)
local s,i,l,m,j,k,max;
l:=Elements(G);
max:=1;
for i in [1..Length(l)] do
  for j in [1..Length(l)] do
    m:=l[i]*l[j];
    s:=String(m);
    if max<Length(String(s)) then
      max:=Length(String(s));
    fi;
  od;
od;
s:=String(" ",max);
Print(s," ");
for i in [1..Length(l)] do
  s:=String(l[i],max);
  Print(s,"  ");
od;
Print("\n");
s:=String(" ",max);
Print(s,"_");
for i in [1..Length(l)*max+2*(Length(l)-1)] do
  Print("_");
od;
Print("\n");
for i in [1..Length(l)] do
  s:=String(l[i],max);
  Print(s,"|");
  for j in [1..Length(l)] do
    m:=l[i]*l[j];
    s:=String(m,max);
    Print(s,"  ");
  od;
  Print("\n");
od;
end;

For example, for S_3 we have (best wiewed in fixed width font):

gap> G:=SymmetricGroup(3);
Sym( [ 1 .. 3 ] )
gap> Cayley(G);
             ()    (2,3)    (1,2)  (1,2,3)  (1,3,2)    (1,3)
       _____________________________________________________
     ()|     ()    (2,3)    (1,2)  (1,2,3)  (1,3,2)    (1,3)
  (2,3)|  (2,3)       ()  (1,2,3)    (1,2)    (1,3)  (1,3,2)
  (1,2)|  (1,2)  (1,3,2)       ()    (1,3)    (2,3)  (1,2,3)
(1,2,3)|(1,2,3)    (1,3)    (2,3)  (1,3,2)       ()    (1,2)
(1,3,2)|(1,3,2)    (1,2)    (1,3)       ()  (1,2,3)    (2,3)
  (1,3)|  (1,3)  (1,2,3)  (1,3,2)    (2,3)    (1,2)       ()
gap>

But i have tried to do this for a group from library, and the function
"String" does not work:

<pc group of size 8 with 3 generators>
gap> a:=Random(G);
f1*f2*f3
gap> String(a);
Error, no method found! For debugging hints type ?Recovery from
NoMethodFound
Error no 1st choice method found for `String' on 1 arguments at
Error( no_method_found );
<function>( <arguments> ) called from read-eval-loop
Entering break read-eval-print loop, you can 'quit;' to quit to outer loop,
or you can return to continue
brk>

And this contradicts to the manual, where it is stated:
"String returns a representation of obj, which may be an object of arbitrary
type, as a string"

What does it mean ?

Sincerely yours,
Alexander B. Konovalov
Associate Professor, Algebra & Geometry Chair
Department of Mathematics & Economy Cybernetics
Zaporozhye State University, Zaporozhye, Ukraine
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