Error when invoking macro - macros

My task is to do harmonic mean using macros.
So I wrote something like that:
macro mean(arr)
ex = Expr(:call, :/, 1, arr[1])
for i = 2:length(arr)
ex = Expr(:call, :+, ex, Expr(:call, :/, 1, arr[i]))
end
println(arr[1])
Expr(:call, :/, length(arr), ex)
end
and then executed with 4 arguments
#mean(2,2,5,7)
which caused error:
MethodError: no method matching #mean(::Int64, ::Int64, ::Int64, ::Int64)
So here comes my question: what is wrong and how should I correct this?
It is worth to mention that this program works for my friend, but not for me.

The problem here is that you inserted values as multiple arguments and not as an array. You should do #mean([2, 2, 5, 7])

Related

Informative feedback from assert with matrices in Matlab

Does there exist a simple function in Matlab that will give more informative feedback when using assert with matrices than the simple application of the assert function?
My simple application is:
>> assert(all([1 2; 3 4] == [1 2; 3 5], 'all'))
Assertion failed.
In Python, with numpy.testing.assert_equal the feedback from a failed assertion shows the two arrays.
I guess it would be possible to define further the arguments to the assert function errmsg, value1 and value2.
assert is to validate intermediate values inside your code, so you get an error when something is not as you expect, and you can debug it. This is the “fail early” philosophy. You don’t need to get a detailed output here, it tells you that you need to break out the debugger.
Your use case seems closer to testing the output of a function, to verify it works as intended. This is a very different use case, for which MATLAB has the testing framework.
For example, your equality comparison would be implemented through verifyEqual:
testCase = matlab.unittest.TestCase.forInteractiveUse;
verifyEqual(testCase,A,B)
Here's one of the many ways assert can be used in conjunction with the try/catch and throw commands to catch errors and take specific actions (e.g. print a message and throw an exception that can be captured by the calling function:
function out = myfun(A, B)
out = 0;
try
assert(all(size(A)==size(B)), 'Matrix sizes do not match')
catch exc % contains the message passed by assert
fprintf('Size of A is: %d, %d\n',size(A)); % show the actual dimensions
fprintf('Size of B is: %d, %d\n',size(B));
out = 1;
throw(exc) % throws exc and returns control to the caller
end
try
assert(isequal(A,B), 'Matrix are not identical.')
catch exc % contains the message passed by assert
disp(A==B) % show 0 where elements don't match
out = 1;
throw(exc) % throws exc and returns control to the caller
end
end
Calling myfun with A=ones(4,4) and B=ones(4,5) produces the following output:
Calling myfun with A=ones(4,4) and B=2*ones(4,4) leads to:
As I mentioned at the very beginning, the function above represent one of the possible implementations.

Calling macro from within generated function in Julia

I have been messing around with generated functions in Julia, and have come to a weird problem I do not understand fully: My final goal would involve calling a macro (more specifically #tullio) from within a generated function (to perform some tensor contractions that depend on the input tensors). But I have been having problems, which I narrowed down to calling the macro from within the generated function.
To illustrate the problem, let's consider a very simple example that also fails:
macro my_add(a,b)
return :($a + $b)
end
function add_one_expr(x::T) where T
y = one(T)
return :( #my_add($x,$y) )
end
#generated function add_one_gen(x::T) where T
y = one(T)
return :( #my_add($x,$y) )
end
With these declarations, I find that eval(add_one_expr(2.0)) works just as expected and returns and expression
:(#my_add 2.0 1.0)
which correctly evaluates to 3.0.
However evaluating add_one_gen(2.0) returns the following error:
MethodError: no method matching +(::Type{Float64}, ::Float64)
Doing some research, I have found that #generated actually produces two codes, and in one only the types of the variables can be used. I think this is what is happening here, but I do not understand what is happening at all. It must be some weird interaction between macros and generated functions.
Can someone explain and/or propose a solution? Thank you!
I find it helpful to think of generated functions as having two components: the body and any generated code (the stuff inside a quote..end). The body is evaluated at compile time, and doesn't "know" the values, only the types. So for a generated function taking x::T as an argument, any references to x in the body will actually point to the type T. This can be very confusing. To make things clearer, I recommend the body only refer to types, never to values.
Here's a little example:
julia> #generated function show_val_and_type(x::T) where {T}
quote
println("x is ", x)
println("\$x is ", $x)
println("T is ", T)
println("\$T is ", $T)
end
end
show_val_and_type
julia> show_val_and_type(3)
x is 3
$x is Int64
T is Int64
$T is Int64
The interpolated $x means "take the x from the body (which refers to T) and splice it in.
If you follow the approach of never referring to values in the body, you can test generated functions by removing the #generated, like this:
julia> function add_one_gen(x::T) where T
y = one(T)
quote
#my_add(x,$y)
end
end
add_one_gen
julia> add_one_gen(3)
quote
#= REPL[42]:4 =#
#= REPL[42]:4 =# #my_add x 1
end
That looks reasonable, but when we test it we get
julia> add_one_gen(3)
ERROR: UndefVarError: x not defined
Stacktrace:
[1] macro expansion
# ./REPL[48]:4 [inlined]
[2] add_one_gen(x::Int64)
# Main ./REPL[48]:1
[3] top-level scope
# REPL[49]:1
So let's see what the macro gives us
julia> #macroexpand #my_add x 1
:(Main.x + 1)
It's pointing to Main.x, which doesn't exist. The macro is being too eager, and we need to delay its evaluation. The standard way to do this is with esc. So finally, this works:
julia> macro my_add(a,b)
return :($(esc(a)) + $(esc(b)))
end
#my_add
julia> #generated function add_one_gen(x::T) where T
y = one(T)
quote
#my_add(x,$y)
end
end
add_one_gen
julia> add_one_gen(3)
4

Quote-unquote idiom in Julia & concatenating Expr objects

I'd like to write a simple macro that shows the names & values of variables. In Common Lisp it would be
(defmacro dprint (&rest vars)
`(progn
,#(loop for v in vars
collect `(format t "~a: ~a~%" ',v ,v))))
In Julia I had two problems writing this:
How can I collect the generated Expr objects into a block? (In Lisp, this is done by splicing the list with ,# into progn.) The best I could come up with is to create an Expr(:block), and set its args to the list, but this is far from elegant.
I need to use both the name and the value of the variable. Interpolation inside strings and quoted expressions both use $, which complicates the issue, but even if I use string for concatenation, I can 't print the variable's name - at least :($v) does not do the same as ',v in CL...
My current macro looks like this:
macro dprint(vars...)
ex = Expr(:block)
ex.args = [:(println(string(:($v), " = ", $v))) for v in vars]
ex
end
Looking at a macroexpansion shows the problem:
julia> macroexpand(:(#dprint x y))
quote
println(string(v," = ",x))
println(string(v," = ",y))
end
I would like to get
quote
println(string(:x," = ",x))
println(string(:y," = ",y))
end
Any hints?
EDIT: Combining the answers, the solution seems to be the following:
macro dprint(vars...)
quote
$([:(println(string($(Meta.quot(v)), " = ", $v))) for v in vars]...)
end
end
... i.e., using $(Meta.quot(v)) to the effect of ',v, and $(expr...) for ,#expr. Thank you again!
the #show macro already exists for this. It is helpful to be able to implement it yourself, so later you can do other likes like make one that will show the size of an Array..
For your particular variant:
Answer is Meta.quot,
macro dprint(vars...)
ex = Expr(:block)
ex.args = [:(println($(Meta.quot(v)), " = ", $v)) for v in vars]
ex
end
See with:
julia> a=2; b=3;
julia> #dprint a
a = 2
julia> #dprint a b
a = 2
b = 3
oxinabox's answer is good, but I should mention the equivalent to ,#x is $(x...) (this is the other part of your question).
For instance, consider the macro
macro _begin(); esc(:begin); end
macro #_begin()(args...)
quote
$(args...)
end |> esc
end
and invocation
#begin x=1 y=2 x*y
which (though dubiously readable) produces the expected result 2. (The #_begin macro is not part of the example; it is required however because begin is a reserved word, so one needs a macro to access the symbol directly.)
Note
julia> macroexpand(:(#begin 1 2 3))
quote # REPL[1], line 5:
1
2
3
end
I consider this more readable, personally, than pushing to the .args array.

Matlab says 'find' is not defined in a function [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:
MATLAB error: "previously appeared to be used as a function or command"
(1 answer)
Closed 8 years ago.
In my command window, I can execute find([0 1 0]), but when I run find in a function, as in x = find([0 1 0]), the compiler tells me that find isn't defined. Why might that be?
The error is:
??? Error: File: frequentTuples.m Line: 12 Column: 21
"find" previously appeared to be used as a function or command, conflicting with its
use here as the name of a variable.
A possible cause of this error is that you forgot to initialize the
variable, or you have initialized it implicitly using load or eval.
and here's the code. The error occurs on the second line of the for loop.
function [ tuples ] = frequentTuples( k, candidates, transactions, min_support )
%FREQUENTTUPLES Get frequent itemsets of size k
% Detailed explanation goes here
candidate_tuple_is_frequent = zeros(size(candidates, 1));
for i = 1:size(candidates, 1)
columns_of_candidate_items = transactions(:, candidates(i, :));
indices_of_transactions_containing_all_items = find(sum(columns_of_candidate_items') == k);
candidate_tuple_is_frequent(i) = size(indices_of_transactions_containing_all_items) >= min_support;
end
tuples = candidates(find(candidate_tuple_is_frequent, :));
end
Ah, I see your problem now. You have a misplaced bracket on line 13. You have
tuples = candidates(find(candidate_tuple_is_frequent, :));
When you should have
tuples = candidates(find(candidate_tuple_is_frequent), :);
You're trying to call find(candidate_tuple_is_frequent, :), which is trying to treat find as a variable. This means that any other call to find in the function will treat it as a variable, hence your error.

try/catch and error with empty string

I'm working with someone else's code and I am unfamiliar with try/catch so I made a small, similar example. On line 11, if I write error(''), it doesn't seem to catch the error and increase the index j. However, writing error(' ') or error('bad!') does.
So does having an error with an empty string ignore the error, or am I doing something wrong?
% Just a file to understand the Matlab command try/catch
M = 3;
j = 1;
k = [Inf, 5, 4];
while M>0
try
M = M-1
u = k(j)
if (isinf(u)||isnan(u)), error(''), end;
catch
j = j+1
end
end
Yes, error('') and error([]) and error(struct([])) all do not actually display an error message and abort running code. I personally consider the use of the single string argument version of error to be bad practice in any real code. You should use always use both a 'MSGID' and a 'ERRMSG' when writing errors for your functions, e.g.
error('FunctionName:SubFunctionName:ErrorMSGID','Error message to be printed.')
Alternatively, you can use MException objects in conjuction with throw, rethrow, and throwAsCaller, which allow you to reuse error information. More here.
It is odd, but it's in the documentation for error, for the error('msgString') syntax:
All string input arguments must be enclosed in single quotation marks. If msgString is an empty string, the error command has no effect.
Similarly, if using the error(msgStruct) syntax:
If msgStruct is an empty structure, no action is taken and error returns without exiting the function.
if you have a look to the try documentation you can have an example.
Else want you want for your code it :
M = 3;
j = 1;
k = [Inf, 5, 4];
while M>0
try
M = M-1
u = k(j)
if (isinf(u)||isnan(u)), error(''), end;
catch
disp('I catch an error!');
j = j+1
end
end
Because If you never get an error in your code, it will never go in the catch. So by including error('');, it just to say, go execute the statement in the catch.
But you can just modify your code by replacing the error() by the statements into your catch like this :
while M>0
M = M-1
u = k(j)
if (isinf(u)||isnan(u)), j = j+1, end;
end
EDIT
If you take a look in the documentation, you can found this :
% ERROR(MSGSTRUCT) reports the error using fields stored in the scalar
% structure MSGSTRUCT. This structure can contain these fields:
%
% message - Error message string
% identifier - See MESSAGE IDENTIFIERS, below
% stack - Struct similar to the output of the DBSTACK function
%
% If MSGSTRUCT is an empty structure, no action is taken and ERROR
% returns without exiting the program. If you do not specify the
% stack, the ERROR function determines it from the current file and line.
So no action is taken as you can read. And nothing, so catch don't get any informations.
Not sure why you need it, but here is how it works.
error function does not throw an error with empty string or empty vector ([]) as an argument.
If you don't specify argument at all the error function itself generates the error "Not enough arguments". So it will go to catch.
Another way is to specify an empty structure as an argument.
s = struct();
error(s)
In this case, the error will be generated, but the code will not stop and in general flow you will hear no beep. In your case it should go to catch.