LISP filter function - lisp

I have to define a function filter that has as arguments a predicate and a list and returns as value the initial list with THE ONLY ATOMS -for every level of depth- which satisfy the initial predicate (keeping attention at NIL value in order to mantain the list structure).
Example:
(filter 'evenp '(24 5 (7) d (((4))) 3 ()))
(24 () (((4))) ())
The code i was thinking is like this:
(defun filter (pred list)
(cond ((null list) nil)
((funcall pred (car list))
(cons (car list)
(filter pred (cdr list))))
(T (filter pred (cdr list)))))
How can i implement the depth fact, keeping so the round bracket as displayed in the example?
thank you all

Here is a possible solution:
(defun filter (predicate x)
(if (consp x) ; if x is a cons, that is a tree:
(let ((ca (car x))
(cd (filter predicate (cdr x)))) ; filter always the cdr
(if (listp ca) ; if the car of x is a list (nil or cons)
(cons (filter predicate ca) cd) ; then filter also the car
(if (funcall predicate ca) (cons ca cd) cd))) ; car is a non-nil atom!
x)) ; if x is a atom (nil or the last cdr of an improper list), return x
CL-USER> (filter 'evenp '(24 5 (7) 5 (((4))) 3 ()))
(24 NIL (((4))) NIL)

Related

Common LISP: Make Your Own Union Function

I'm trying to make my own union function and realizing how much I dislike LISP. The goal is to give the function two lists and it will return a set theoretic union of the two. My attempted solution has grown increasingly complex with the same result: NIL. I can't change that from being the result no matter what I do.
I was thinking of building a separate list in my "removeDuplicates" function below, but then idk how I'd return that with recursion. I think what's happening is my "removeDuplicates" function eventually returns an empty list (as intended) but then an empty list is return at every level of the stack when the recursion unfurls (starts returning values up the stack) but I could be wrong. I've always had trouble understanding recursion in detail. The code is below.
(defun rember (A LAT)
(cond
((null LAT) ())
((EQ (car LAT) A) (cdr LAT))
(T (cons (car LAT)(rember A (cdr LAT))))
)
)
(defun my_member (A LAT)
(cond
((null LAT) nil)
((EQ (car LAT) A) T)
(T (my_member A (cdr LAT)))
)
)
(defun removeDuplicates (L)
(cond
((null L) '())
((my_member (car L) (cdr L)) (rember (car L) L) (removeDuplicates (cdr L)))
(T (removeDuplicates (cdr L)))
)
)
(defun my_union (A B)
(setq together(append A B))
(removeDuplicates together)
)
I'm aware most people are not a fan of this format of LISP code, but I prefer it. It allows me to see how parentheses line up better than if you just put all the closing parentheses together at the end of functions and condition blocks.
If I run (my_union '(a b) '(b c)) for example, the result is NIL.
When you call removeDuplicates recursively in the last condition, you're not combining the result with the car of the list, so you're discarding that element.
You're also not using the result of rember.
(defun removeDuplicates (L)
(cond
((null L) '())
((my_member (car L) (cdr L))
(cons (car L)
(removeDuplicates
(rember (car L) (cdr L))
))
)
(T (cons (car L) (removeDuplicates (cdr L))))
)
)
Here's a simple, obvious, union function:
(defun union/tfb (&rest lists)
;; compute the union of any number of lists, implicitly using EQL
(labels ((union/spread (l1 ls)
;; UNION/SPREAD just exists to avoid the impedance
;; mismatch in argument convention
(if (null ls)
l1
(let ((result l1))
(destructuring-bind (l2 . more) ls
(dolist (e l2 (union/spread result more))
(pushnew e result)))))))
(union/spread (first lists) (rest lists))))
I think this is reasonably natural CL, although of course the whole point of using a language like CL is avoiding endless wheel-reinvention like this.
So the rules of the game perhaps say you're not allowed to use PUSHNEW: well, you can easily can replace it with a conditional involving MEMBER:
(defun union/tfb (&rest lists)
;; compute the union of any number of lists, implicitly using EQL
(labels ((union/spread (l1 ls)
;; UNION/SPREAD just exists to avoid the impedance
;; mismatch in argument convention
(if (null ls)
l1
(let ((result l1))
(destructuring-bind (l2 . more) ls
(dolist (e l2 (union/spread result more))
;; Really use PUSHNEW for this
(unless (member e result)
(setf result (cons e result)))))))))
(union/spread (first lists) (rest lists))))
And perhaps you are also not allowed to use MEMBER: well you can easily write a predicate which does what you need:
(defun union/tfb (&rest lists)
;; compute the union of any number of lists, implicitly using EQL
(labels ((union/spread (l1 ls)
;; UNION/SPREAD just exists to avoid the impedance
;; mismatch in argument convention
(if (null ls)
l1
(let ((result l1))
(destructuring-bind (l2 . more) ls
(dolist (e l2 (union/spread result more))
;; Really use MEMBER for this, and in fact
;; PUSHNEW
(unless (found-in-p e result)
(setf result (cons e result))))))))
(found-in-p (e list)
;; is e found in LIST? This exists only because we're not
;; meant to use MEMBER
(cond ((null list) nil)
((eql e (first list)) t)
(t (found-in-p e (rest list))))))
(union/spread (first lists) (rest lists))))
If you want the result to be a set with unique elements even if the first list is not you can trivially do that (note CL's UNION does not promise this, and you can get the same result with the earlier version of UNION/TFB by (union/tfb '() ...)):
(defun union/tfb (&rest lists)
;; compute the union of any number of lists, implicitly using EQL
(labels ((union/spread (l1 ls)
;; UNION/SPREAD just exists to avoid the impedance
;; mismatch in argument convention
(if (null ls)
l1
(let ((result l1))
(destructuring-bind (l2 . more) ls
(dolist (e l2 (union/spread result more))
;; Really use MEMBER for this, and in fact
;; PUSHNEW
(unless (found-in-p e result)
(setf result (cons e result))))))))
(found-in-p (e list)
;; is e found in LIST? This exists only because we're not
;; meant to use MEMBER
(cond ((null list) nil)
((eql e (first list)) t)
(t (found-in-p e (rest list))))))
(union/spread '() lists)))
Finally if the rules prevent you using iterative constructs and assignment you can do that too:
(defun union/tfb (&rest lists)
;; compute the union of any number of lists, implicitly using EQL
(labels ((union/spread (l1 ls)
;; UNION/SPREAD just exists to avoid the impedance
;; mismatch in argument convention
(if (null ls)
l1
(union/loop l1 (first ls) (rest ls))))
(union/loop (result l more)
;; UNION/LOOP is just an iteration
(if (null l)
(union/spread result more)
(destructuring-bind (e . remainder) l
(union/loop (if (found-in-p e result)
result
(cons e result))
remainder more))))
(found-in-p (e list)
;; is e found in LIST? This exists only because we're not
;; meant to use MEMBER
(cond ((null list) nil)
((eql e (first list)) t)
(t (found-in-p e (rest list))))))
(union/spread '() lists)))
The final result of all these changes is something which is, perhaps, very pure, but is not natural CL at all: something like it might be more natural in Scheme (albeit not gratuitously replacing MEMBER with a home-grown predicate like this).
One way to test your Common Lisp code is to ask your interpreter to TRACE functions:
(trace removeDuplicates my_member rember)
To avoid having too many traces, use small examples.
First, let's try with an empty list; this is an example from the REPL ("read eval print loop"), tested with SBCL, while in the "SO" package (StackOverflow); the trace is printed a bit indented, a is numbered according to the depth of the recursion. Here the call is not recursive and terminates right away:
SO> (removeduplicates nil)
0: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES NIL)
0: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned NIL
NIL
This works, let's try an example with a singleton list, where there is obviously no duplicate:
SO> (removeduplicates '(1))
0: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES (1))
1: (SO::MY_MEMBER 1 NIL)
1: MY_MEMBER returned NIL
1: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES NIL)
1: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned NIL
0: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned NIL
NIL
removeDuplicate calls my_member, which correctly returns nil, followed by a recursive call to removeDuplicates with nil, which correctly returns nil. There is however a problem because then, the outermost call returns nil too, which is incorrect.
Looking at the trace, we have to look back at the code to find a place where my_member is called, followed by a recursive call to removeDuplicates. There is only one place wher my_member is called, as a test to the second clause in the cond;
Since the result is nil for that test, the next clause is tried, in that case the default case:
(cond
...
;; this is the call to my_member (= nil)
((my_member (car L) (cdr L)) ...)
;; this is the recursive call
(t (removeDuplicates (cdr L))))
The value of the cond is the one given by the last (removeDuplicates (cdr L)), which just does not retain the existing elements in front of L. If you were mutating a sequence, you could just recurse down the subsequence and ignore the previous elements: in that case the caller would still hold a reference to the original sequence, which would get its element removed by a side-effect of your functions. But here you are following a strictly immutable approach, and you have to recontruct a list as a return value.
In other words, removeDuplicates is expressed as: return a new list which contains the same elements as the original list, but without duplicates.
So you have to add (car L) in front of (removeDuplicates (cdr L)).
(defun removeDuplicates (L)
(cond
((null L) '())
((my_member (car L) (cdr L)) (rember (car L) L) (removeDuplicates (cdr L)))
(T (cons (car L)
(removeDuplicates (rest L))))))
Let's test:
SO> (removeduplicates '())
0: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES NIL)
0: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned NIL
NIL
SO> (removeduplicates '(1))
0: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES (1))
1: (SO::MY_MEMBER 1 NIL)
1: MY_MEMBER returned NIL
1: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES NIL)
1: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned NIL
0: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned (1)
(1)
You can test with a longer list (without duplicates), the result is correct, but the trace is longer.
Now, let's add duplicates:
SO> (removeduplicates '(1 2 2 1))
0: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES (1 2 2 1))
1: (SO::MY_MEMBER 1 (2 2 1))
2: (SO::MY_MEMBER 1 (2 1))
3: (SO::MY_MEMBER 1 (1))
3: MY_MEMBER returned T
2: MY_MEMBER returned T
1: MY_MEMBER returned T
1: (SO::REMBER 1 (1 2 2 1))
1: REMBER returned (2 2 1)
1: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES (2 2 1))
2: (SO::MY_MEMBER 2 (2 1))
2: MY_MEMBER returned T
2: (SO::REMBER 2 (2 2 1))
2: REMBER returned (2 1)
2: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES (2 1))
3: (SO::MY_MEMBER 2 (1))
4: (SO::MY_MEMBER 2 NIL)
4: MY_MEMBER returned NIL
3: MY_MEMBER returned NIL
3: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES (1))
4: (SO::MY_MEMBER 1 NIL)
4: MY_MEMBER returned NIL
4: (SO::REMOVEDUPLICATES NIL)
4: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned NIL
3: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned (1)
2: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned (2 1)
1: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned (2 1)
0: REMOVEDUPLICATES returned (2 1)
(2 1)
The result is correct (order does not matter).
So far, our tests are good.
You might not have identified the other problem in that function, namely that all calls to rember are useless, and frankly this is not necessarily easy to spot with the trace. But looking at the code, it should be clear if you write code to have little side-effects that the following clause calls (rember ...) for nothing:
((my_member (car L) (cdr L)) (rember (car L) L) (removeDuplicates (cdr L)))
A cond clause has for syntax (TEST . BODY), where BODY is a sequence of expressions that evaluates like a PROGN: the value of a PROGN is the value of its last clause, all intermediate clauses are only used for their side-effects. For example:
(progn
(print "I am here")
(* 10 3))
Here above, the call to PRINT returns a value, but it is discarded: the value of the enclosing PROGN is 30.
In your code, rember does no side-effect, and its return value is discarded. Just remove it:
(defun removeDuplicates (L)
(cond
((null L) '())
((my_member (car L) (cdr L))
(removeDuplicates (cdr L)))
(T (cons (first L)
(removeDuplicates (rest L))))))
I would write the same code as follows, personally:
(defun remove-duplicate-elements (list)
(when list
(let ((head (first list))
(tail (remove-duplicate-elements (rest list))))
(if (member head tail) tail (cons head tail)))))
Here is a remove-dupes that removes duplicates from a list in O(n) time using a hash table. It supports a custom equality function (which must be eq, eql, equal or `equalp) and a custom test function, so that any aspect of an item can be treated as the key.
(defun remove-dupes (list &key (test #'eql) (key #'identity))
(let ((hash (make-hash-table :test test)))
(loop for item in list
for item-key = (funcall key item)
for seen = (gethash item-key hash)
unless seen collect item and
do (setf (gethash item-key hash) t))))
For instance, suppose we have the assoc list ((a . 1) (a . 2) (b . 3) (c . 4) (b . 4)). We'd like to remove duplicates by car:
[1]> (remove-dupes '((a . 1) (a . 2) (b . 3) (c . 4) (b . 4)) :key #'car)
((A . 1) (B . 3) (C . 4))
Only the leftmost A, B and C entries are reported; the duplicates are suppressed. Now let's do it by cdr:
[2]> (remove-dupes '((a . 1) (a . 2) (b . 3) (c . 4) (b . 4)) :key #'cdr)
((A . 1) (A . 2) (B . 3) (C . 4))
The (b . 4) got culled due to the duplicated 4 value.
But, why do all this, when Common Lisp provides a remove-duplicates function (not to mention union).
remove-duplicates is more general than what I have here: it handles sequences, rather than just lists, so it works on vectors and strings. It has more keyword parameters.

A varaible independent its local scope

I tried to solve the twoSum Problem with primitive tools of car and cdr
Given an array of integers, return indices of the two numbers such
that they add up to a specific target.
You may assume that each input would have exactly one solution, and
you may not use the same element twice.
Example:
Given nums = [2, 7, 11, 15], target = 9,
Because nums[0] + nums[1] = 2 + 7 = 9, return [0, 1].
The idea is to take a x from nums, then check if x's complement (target -x) is member of set nums-x
The key logic is
if ((memberp complement (remove-first x nums))
then (list x complement))
Begin with a helper function try nums
(defun two-sum (nums target)
(try nums))
The main function:
(defun try (nums)
(let ((x (car nums))
(complement (- target x)))
(cond
((null x) '())
((memberp complement (remove-first x nums))
(list x complement))
(t (try (cdr nums)))
)))
Then I realize that nums in ((memberp complement (remove-first x nums)) should be stay unchanged and independent from the local scope of let.
How could get such a nums?
memberp and `remove-first'
(defun remove-first (item sequence)
(filter (lambda (x) (not (= x item)))
sequence))
(defun filter (predicate sequence)
(cond ((null sequence) nil)
((funcall predicate (car sequence))
(cons (car sequence)
(filter predicate
(cdr sequence))))
(t (filter predicate
(cdr sequence)))))
(defun memberp(item x)
(cond ((null x) 'false)
((equal item (car x)) x)
(t (memq item (cdr x)))))
Here is a simple recursive function to compute the indexes:
(defun two-sum (list target &optional (pos 0))
(if (null (cdr list))
nil
(let ((p (my-position (- target (car list)) list)))
(if p
(list pos (+ pos p))
(two-sum (cdr list) target (1+ pos))))))
(defun my-position (element list &optional (pos 0))
(cond ((null list) nil)
((eql element (car list)) pos)
(t (my-position element (cdr list) (1+ pos)))))
The function is initially called with the list and the target. The parameter pos, which initially is not passed to the function, is assigned automatically to 0, and in the subsequent calls it will be incremented by one, so that it tracks the index of the current element of the list.
The first condition checks if the list has less than two elements: if it is empty (or its cdr is empty) the result is nil since no solution is possibile (note that in Common Lisp (cdr nil) is nil).
Otherwise we compute the position of the “complement” of the number in the rest of the list (note that position is a primitive function, so I called my-position its rewriting). If the element is present, we return both pos and (+ pos p) (since the position found is relative to the current position), otherwise (my-position returns nil when no element is found) we recur on the rest of the list.
Note that with this method there is no need to consider every time all the elements of the list.

Lisp/Intersection of Lists

Hello i am trying to create a function in common-lisp that takes two lists, and output their intersections, assuming there is no repetition in each list without using intersection function. It seems that it is not working. Can anyone help?
(defun isect (lst_1 lst_2)
(setq newlist nil)
(dolist (x lst_1 newlist)
(dolist (y lst_2)
(if (equal x y) (setf newlist (append newlist x)))
)
)
)
I assume isect with both arguments being the same list should return an equal list and not one that is flattened. In that case (append newlist x) is not adding an element to the end of a list. Here is my suggestion:
(defun intersect (lst-a lst-b &aux result)
(dolist (a lst-a (nreverse result))
(dolist (b lst-b)
(when (equal a b)
(push a result)))))
This is O(n^2) while you can do it in O(n) using a hash table.
A built-in way (that won't work for homeworks ;) ) is to use intersection: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/data-structures.html#intersection-of-lists
What elements are both in list-a and list-b ?
(defparameter list-a '(0 1 2 3))
(defparameter list-b '(0 2 4))
(intersection list-a list-b)
;; => (2 0)
If you can ensure that the lists are sorted (ascending) you could do something like
(defun isect (l1 l2 acc)
(let ((f1 (car l1))
(f2 (car l2))
(r1 (cdr l1))
(r2 (cdr l2)))
(cond ((or (null l1) (null l2)) acc)
((= f1 f2) (isect r1 r2 (cons f1 acc)))
((< f1 f2) (isect r1 l2 acc))
((> f1 f2) (isect l1 r2 acc)))))
Note though, that the result is in reversed order. Also, the example assumes that the
elements are numbers. If you wanted to generalize, you could pass an ordering as an optional argument to make it work with arbitrary elements.
NB: A solution using loop would likely be faster but I could not think of how to partially "advance" the lists when the cars are different.
;; the key function for simple lists
(defun id (x) x)
;; the intersect function for two lists
;; with sorting included:
;; you need an equality-test:
;; default is #'eql (for simple numbers or symbols this is sufficient)
;; - for numbers only #'=
;; - for characters only #'char=
;; - for strings only #'string=
;; - for lists #'equal
;; - for nearly everything #'equalp (case insensitive for char/strings!)
;; then you need also a sorting tester:
;; - increasing number: #'<
;; - decreasing number: #'>
;; - increasing char: #'char<
;; - decreasing char: #'char>
;; - increasing strings: #'string<
;; - decreasing strings: #'string>
;; - other cases I haven't think of - does somebody have an idea?
;; (one could sort by length of element etc.)
;; so sort-test should be a diadic function (function taking 2 arguments to compare)
;; then you also need an accessor function
;; so, how withing each element the to-be-sorted element should be accessed
;; for this, I prepared the `id` - identity - function because this is the
;; sort-key when simple comparison of the elements of the two lists
;; should be compared - and this function is also used for testing
;; for equality in the inner `.isect` function.
(defun isect (lst-1 lst-2 &key (equality-test #'eql) (sort-test #'<) (sort-key #'id))
(let ((lst-1-sorted (stable-sort lst-1 sort-test :key sort-key))
(lst-2-sorted (stable-sort lst-2 sort-test :key sort-key)))
(labels ((.isect (l1 l2 acc)
(cond ((or (null l1) (null l2)) (nreverse acc))
(t (let ((l1-element (funcall sort-key (car l1)))
(l2-element (funcall sort-key (car l2))))
(cond ((funcall sort-test l1-element l2-element)
(.isect (cdr l1) l2 acc))
((funcall equality-test l1-element l2-element)
(.isect (cdr l1) (cdr l2) (cons (car l1) acc)))
(t (.isect l1 (cdr l2) acc))))))))
(.isect lst-1-sorted lst-2-sorted '()))))
Simple tests:
(isect '(0 1 2 3 4 5 6) '(9 0 3 5 12 24 8 6))
;; => (0 3 5 6)
(isect '(#\a #\c #\h #\t #\e #\r #\b #\a #\h #\n)
'(#\a #\m #\s #\e #\l #\s #\t #\a #\r)
:equality-test #'char=
:sort-test #'char<
:key #'id)
;; => (#\a #\a #\e #\r #\t)
(isect '("this" "is" "just" "a" "boring" "test")
'("this" "boring" "strings" "are" "to" "be" "intersected")
:equality-test #'string=
:sort-test #'string<
:key #'id)
;; => ("boring" "this")

Lisp function explanation

I have this example in LISP that removes from every level of a list a given number:
(defun remove_aux (e l)
(cond
((equal e l) nil)
((atom l) (list l))
(t(list(apply 'append (mapcar #'(lambda (l) (remove_aux e l)) l))))))
(defun remove_el (e l)
(car (remove_aux e l)))
So, if it run like this: (remove_el 2 '(1 2 3 ((2 3 2) 4))) => (1 3 ((3) 4))
What I don't exactly understand is how this line works: (t(list(apply 'append (mapcar #'(lambda (l) (sterge_aux e l)) l))))
If I have the line without list and append ((t(mapcar #'(lambda (l) (remove_aux e l)) l))) the result is ((1) NIL (3) ((NIL (3) NIL) (4)))) if it has append but not list ( (t(apply 'append (mapcar #'(lambda (l) (remove_aux e l)) l))) ) then the result is (1 3 3 4) and I don't get why because I did (apply 'append '((1) NIL (3) ((NIL (3) NIL) (4))))) in the Common Lisp console and the result was ((1 3 (NIL (3) NIL) (4))) so I'm really confused. Can somebody explain to me how this all works step by step?
I've annotated the code below to, I hope, explain what's going on. You're probably getting confused because l is getting redefined within a lambda... so the t line (in your example) has 2 "l"s on it but the first one isn't the same as the second one.
(defun remove_aux (e l)
(cond
((equal e l) nil) ;if e equals l return nil
((atom l) (list l)) ;if l is an atom return a list with just l in it
(t ; otherwise...
(list ;create a list
(apply 'append ; whose contents are created by appending
; together the lists that come out of this mapcar
; (apply the append method)
(mapcar #'(lambda (l) ( ; iterate over each of the elements in list l
; the one after the lambda not the one
; being passed to the lambda.
; (this is a horrible name choice
; lambda(l-item) would be much better)
remove_aux e l
; recursively call this method
; with e (which was passed in at the start)
; and l which isn't the l passed in,
; but is an entry of it (see why naming's
; so important?)
; this returns a list
; which will get appended by the append
; with the results of all the other calls
; to remove_aux for each item in the outer l
)
) l)
)))))
(defun remove_el (e l)
(car (remove_aux e l)
)
)
;; append elements of each list in argument together
(append '(a) '(b) '(c d) '(e)) ; ==> (a b c d e)
;; append elements of each sublist in argument
(apply #'append '((a) (b) (c d) (e))) ; ==> (a b c d e)
;; apply function on each element of list into new list
(mapcar #'(lambda (x) (+ x 1)) '(1 3 5 6)) ; ==> (2 4 6 7)
So what does the default case do in your function.. Well it applies itself to each sublist of lst and wrap it in a list so if l is '(a y 2 z) and e is 2, well then the result from mapcar is '((a) (y) () (z)) which is then the argument to apply-append which connects the elements together into one list again. When connecting the lists the element that was to be removed is an empty list and it's effectively ignored in the concatenation process.
Since all the lists appended you create in the helper, you could replace the apply-append with (mapcan #'(lambda (l) (remove_aux e l)) l). A more obvious way to do this would be using reduce while a more efficient way might use loop.
A procedure that achieve what you want to achieve is essentially like below procedure:
(defun remove-all (e l)"Removes all occurrences of e from a list l."
(cond
((null l) '())
((equal e (car l)) (remove-all e (cdr l)))
((not (atom (car l)))
(cons (remove-all e (car l))
(remove-all e (cdr l))))
(t (cons (car l)
(remove-all e (cdr l))))))
;note: the e is not neccessarily an atom, the l is not necessarily a list of atoms.
The procedure in your question has unnecessarily cluttered pieces, like append, maps etc.
if you recomment below i will explain the algorithm.
have a nice hack.

Reverse LISP list in place

I would like to write a function that reverses the elements of a list, but it should happen in place (that is, don't create a new reversed list).
Something like:
>> (setq l ' (a b c d))
((a b c d)
>> (rev l)
(d c b a)
>> l
(d c b a)
What flags should I follow to achieve this?
Have a look at nreverse which will modify the list in place (see HyperSpec).
As per the comments, do note the comments that #Barmar made and this bit from the spec:
For nreverse, sequence might be destroyed and re-used to produce the result. The result might or might not be identical to sequence. Specifically, when sequence is a list, nreverse is permitted to setf any part, car or cdr, of any cons that is part of the list structure of sequence.
It's not difficult to implement this (ignoring fault cases). The keys are to use (setf cdr) to reuse a given cons cell and not to lose the reference to the prior cdr.
(defun nreverse2 (list)
(recurse reving ((list list) (rslt '()))
(if (not (consp list))
rslt
(let ((rest (cdr list)))
(setf (cdr list) rslt)
(reving rest list)))))
(defmacro recurse (name args &rest body)
`(labels ((,name ,(mapcar #'car args) ,#body))
(,name ,#(mapcar #'cadr args))))
[edit] As mentioned in a comment, to do this truly in-place (and w/o regard to consing):
(defun reverse-in-place (l)
(let ((result l))
(recurse reving ((l l) (r (reverse l))
(cond ((not (consp l)) result)
(else (setf (car l) (car r))
(reving (cdr l) (cdr r)))))))
> (defvar l '(1 2 3))
> (reverse-in-place l))
(3 2 1)
> l
(3 2 1)