Functional Equations and Weierstrass Transforms

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the utility of the Weierstrass transform in the study of functional equations (and systems) of the form 1 $${\mathop \sum^N\limits_{k=0}}\alpha_{k}f(x+r_{k})=f_{0}(x)\ \ \ \, x\in\ {\rm R}.$$ One may think of α₀, α₁,…, α_N as given complex numbers, r₀, r₁,…, r_N as given real numbers, ?₀: ? → C as a given function and ? as the unknown.