For comments on the use of the forward-difference operator
, the
backward-difference operator
, and the central-difference operator
, see §18.2(ii).

In (18.20.1)
and
are as in Table 18.19.1.
For the Hahn polynomials
and
For the Krawtchouk, Meixner, and Charlier polynomials,
and
are as in Table 18.20.1.
| 1 | 1 |
For the definition of hypergeometric and generalized hypergeometric functions see §16.2.
Here we use as convention for (16.2.1) with
,
, and
that the summation on the right-hand side ends at
.


(For symmetry properties of
with
respect to
,
,
,
see
Andrews et al. (1999, Corollary 3.3.4).)