I am working on the Coursera's Scala tutorials. One of the exercises asks to implement a map function to sets type that are defined as follows:
type Set = Int => Boolean. There was a stub for the function:
/**
* Returns a set transformed by applying `f` to each element of `s`.
*/
def map(s: Set, f: Int => Int): Set = ???
I thought that one can check if an element is in s, by doing the following:
(x: Int) => s(x). Which I am thinking should be equivalent to whatever the definition of a set is. Thus, if we want to apply transformation on the set, we can do:
(x: Int) => s(f(x)). And so the definition of function is:
def map(s: Set, f: Int => Int): Set = s(f(x)). But this gives me some weird set if I try it on:
def map(s: Set, f: Int => Int): Set = (x: Int) => s(f(x))
def toStringH(s: Set): String = {
val xs = for (i <- -bound to bound if contains(s, i)) yield i
xs.mkString("{", ",", "}")
}
def printSet(s: Set) { println(toStringH(s)) }
val squaredSet = map((x: Int) => (x> -3 & x<3), (x:Int) => (x+1))
printSet(squaredSet)
So I am wondering where I went wrong. Thanks.
I expect that you mean the progfun1 course by Martin Odersky and its Week 2 task. I believe that generally there is no solution for this problem (it requires finding a reverse function for a given function which I doubt is really possible) and the course authors know about that. Thus they added an additional restriction that you probably missed (I highlighted the important part):
Note that there is no direct way to find which elements are in a set. contains only allows to know whether a given element is included. Thus, if we wish to do something to all elements of a set, then we have to iterate over all integers, testing each time whether it is included in the set, and if so, to do something with it. Here, we consider that an integer x has the property -1000 <= x <= 1000 in order to limit the search space.
Although it is a comment for the forall task it is in the same section and just a few paragraphs above the map task.
Related
I have a type of set and union function as follow
type Set = Int => Boolean
def union(s: Set, t: Set): Set = (e: Int) => s(e) || t(e)
val xs = Set(12001,12002, 12003, 12004)
val ys = Set(13001,13002, 13003, 13004)
When i use the union operation,
union(xs,ys)
It should return me another set which contains all the elements of both sets xs and ys
Edited Section:
I am sorry i was not clear on my question, i have my own implementation of the iterator for both Set xs and ys
var i = xs.iterator;
while(i.hasNext)
println(i.next())
But i was not satisfied with this implementation and found that you can implement the condition with the function (after some googling) but i was unable to get it to work in my eclipse worksheet.
val rs = union(xs,ys) //> rs : Learn2.Set = <function1>
I am guessing it returns a function.
so my questions,
1. is it possible to implement as described above in the edited section? if so, then what am i missing to get it working?
2. I don't understand how the element e in (e: Int) => s(e) || t(e) is iterating over the elements in both the sets
Look at your Set type: Int => Boolean. So it takes an Int and returns a Boolean. What that means is that it is not a collection that you can iterate over to retrieve all its values, because it actually contains no values.
If you want to know what Int values return true then you have to iterate over the entire range of possible inputs (or some subset thereof) and filter for the condition you're looking for.
scala> val res = union(xs,ys)
res: Set = $$Lambda$1091/332405156#2c30c81d
scala> (0 to 20000).filter(res).foreach(println)
12001
12002
12003
12004
13001
13002
13003
13004
scala>
update
Your confusion stems from the fact that you've named your function after an existing collection in the standard library. xs.itorator works because xs is not an example of your Set, it is a Set from the standard library with all the associated methods. Rename your type alias to something like Xet and you'll see what I mean.
type Xet = Int => Boolean
def union(s: Xet, t: Xet): Xet = (e: Int) => s(e) || t(e)
val xx: Xet = _ == 12001
val yx: Xet = _ == 13002
val zx: Xet = union(xx, yx)
xx.itrerator // Error, won't compile
(1 to 20000).filter(zx).foreach(println) // output: 12001 & 13002
I have superficially read a couple of blog articles/Wikipedia about continuation-passing style. My high-level goal is to find a systematic technique to make any recursive function (or, if there are restrictions, being aware of them) tail-recursive. However, I have trouble articulating my thoughts and I'm not sure if what my attempts of it make any sense.
For the purpose of the example, I'll propose a simple problem. The goal is, given a sorted list of unique characters, to output all possible words made out of these characters in alphabetical order. For example, sol("op".toList, 3) should return ooo,oop,opo,opp,poo,pop,ppo,ppp.
My recursive solution is the following:
def sol(chars: List[Char], n: Int) = {
def recSol(n: Int): List[List[Char]] = (chars, n) match {
case (_ , 0) => List(Nil)
case (Nil, _) => Nil
case (_ , _) =>
val tail = recSol(n - 1)
chars.map(ch => tail.map(ch :: _)).fold(Nil)(_ ::: _)
}
recSol(n).map(_.mkString).mkString(",")
}
I did try to rewrite this by adding a function as a parameter but I did not manage to make something I was convinced to be tail-recursive. I prefer not including my attempt(s) in the question as I'm ashamed of their naiveness, so please excuse me for this.
Therefore the question is basically: how would the function above be written in CPS ?
Try that:
import scala.annotation.tailrec
def sol(chars: List[Char], n: Int) = {
#tailrec
def recSol(n: Int)(cont: (List[List[Char]]) => List[List[Char]]): List[List[Char]] = (chars, n) match {
case (_ , 0) => cont(List(Nil))
case (Nil, _) => cont(Nil)
case (_ , _) =>
recSol(n-1){ tail =>
cont(chars.map(ch => tail.map(ch :: _)).fold(Nil)(_ ::: _))
}
}
recSol(n)(identity).map(_.mkString).mkString(",")
}
The first order of business in performing the CPS transform is deciding on a representation for continuations. We can think of continuations as a suspended computation with a "hole". When the hole is filled in with a value, the remainder of the computation can be computed. So functions are a natural choice for representing continuations, at least for toy examples:
type Cont[Hole,Result] = Hole => Result
Here Hole represents the type of the hole that needs to be filled in, and Result represents the type of value the computation ultimately computes.
Now that we have a way to represent continuations, we can worry about the CPS transform itself. Basically, this involves the following steps:
The transformation is applied recursively to an expression, stopping at "trivial" expressions / function calls. In this context, "trivial" includes functions defined by Scala (since they are not CPS-transformed, and thus do not have a continuation parameter).
We need to add a parameter of type Cont[Return,Result] to each function, where Return is the return type of the untransformed function and Result is the type of the ultimate result of the computation as a whole. This new parameter represents the current continuation. The return type for the transformed function is also changed to Result.
Every function call needs to be transformed to accommodate the new continuation parameter. Everything after the call needs to be put into a continuation function, which is then added to the parameter list.
For example, a function:
def f(x : Int) : Int = x + 1
becomes:
def fCps[Result](x : Int)(k : Cont[Int,Result]) : Result = k(x + 1)
and
def g(x : Int) : Int = 2 * f(x)
becomes:
def gCps[Result](x : Int)(k : Cont[Int,Result]) : Result = {
fCps(x)(y => k(2 * y))
}
Now gCps(5) returns (via currying) a function that represents a partial computation. We can extract the value from this partial computation and use it by supplying a continuation function. For example, we can use the identity function to extract the value unchanged:
gCps(5)(x => x)
// 12
Or, we can print it by using println instead:
gCps(5)(println)
// prints 12
Applying this to your code, we obtain:
def solCps[Result](chars : List[Char], n : Int)(k : Cont[String, Result]) : Result = {
#scala.annotation.tailrec
def recSol[Result](n : Int)(k : Cont[List[List[Char]], Result]) : Result = (chars, n) match {
case (_ , 0) => k(List(Nil))
case (Nil, _) => k(Nil)
case (_ , _) =>
recSol(n - 1)(tail =>
k(chars.map(ch => tail.map(ch :: _)).fold(Nil)(_ ::: _)))
}
recSol(n)(result =>
k(result.map(_.mkString).mkString(",")))
}
As you can see, although recSol is now tail-recursive, it comes with the cost of building a more complex continuation at each iteration. So all we've really done is trade space on the JVM's control stack for space on the heap -- the CPS transform does not magically reduce the space complexity of an algorithm.
Also, recSol is only tail-recursive because the recursive call to recSol happens to be the first (non-trivial) expression recSol performs. In general, though, recursive calls would be take place inside a continuation. In the case where there is one recursive call, we can work around that by transforming only calls to the recursive function to CPS. Even so, in general, we would still just be trading stack space for heap space.
My assignment is to write a custom repeat control structure that can be used like this:
var i = 0
repeat {
i = i + 1
}(i > 5)
I currently have the following code for that:
def repeat(f: => Unit): ((=> Boolean) => Unit) = {
(x) => {
while (x) f
}
}
When running this, it seems f (i = i + 1) is never executed.
I have to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the current type of x is. It's clearly not correct, but I don't have enough knowledge to know where to go from here.
I used to have this:
def repeat(f: => Unit): ((=> Boolean) => Void) = {
(x: (=> Boolean)) => {
while (x) f
}
}
Although this is apparently incorrect Scala, I think it demonstrates my intent better.
I'm sorry if my question is a bit broad/demonstrates effortlessness, but the concept of by-name parameters is very new to me and not explained in my book (Programming in Scala) beyond the basics.
You should also be aware that Scala supports multiple parameter lists. So you could
def compare(a: Int, b: Int)(p: (Int,Int) => Boolean) = p(a,b)
and then write
compare(5,2)(_ > _)
This type of strategy will simplify your logic.
Also, you have your comparison backwards. i starts out at 0 and your loop condition is i > 5, which it is not.
A few extra notes: => X means "compute an X each time one is needed", so ((=> Boolean) => Unit) takes something that will compute a Boolean as needed (and i > 5 can do that, if the check is performed each time, which it will be). (=> Boolean) => Unit means a function that takes as input something that produces Booleans and gives no output. (Well, strictly speaking, Unit type is an output, namely (), which is done for consistency. But it serves the same role as void.)
Given a key k in a SortedMap, how can I efficiently find the largest key m that is less than or equal to k, and also the smallest key n that is greater than or equal to k. Thank you.
Looking at the source code for 2.9.0, the following code seems about to be the best you can do
def getLessOrEqual[A,B](sm: SortedMap[A,B], bound: A): B = {
val key = sm.to(x).lastKey
sm(key)
}
I don't know exactly how the splitting of the RedBlack tree works, but I guess it's something like a O(log n) traversal of the tree/construction of new elements and then a balancing, presumable also O(log n). Then you need to go down the new tree again to get the last key. Unfortunately you can't retrieve the value in the same go. So you have to go down again to fetch the value.
In addition the lastKey might throw an exception and there is no similar method that returns an Option.
I'm waiting for corrections.
Edit and personal comment
The SortedMap area of the std lib seems to be a bit neglected. I'm also missing a mutable SortedMap. And looking through the sources, I noticed that there are some important methods missing (like the one the OP asks for or the ones pointed out in my answer) and also some have bad implementation, like 'last' which is defined by TraversableLike and goes through the complete tree from first to last to obtain the last element.
Edit 2
Now the question is reformulated my answer is not valid anymore (well it wasn't before anyway). I think you have to do the thing I'm describing twice for lessOrEqual and greaterOrEqual. Well you can take a shortcut if you find the equal element.
Scala's SortedSet trait has no method that will give you the closest element to some other element.
It is presently implemented with TreeSet, which is based on RedBlack. The RedBlack tree is not visible through methods on TreeSet, but the protected method tree is protected. Unfortunately, it is basically useless. You'd have to override methods returning TreeSet to return your subclass, but most of them are based on newSet, which is private.
So, in the end, you'd have to duplicate most of TreeSet. On the other hand, it isn't all that much code.
Once you have access to RedBlack, you'd have to implement something similar to RedBlack.Tree's lookup, so you'd have O(logn) performance. That's actually the same complexity of range, though it would certainly do less work.
Alternatively, you'd make a zipper for the tree, so that you could actually navigate through the set in constant time. It would be a lot more work, of course.
Using Scala 2.11.7, the following will give what you want:
scala> val set = SortedSet('a', 'f', 'j', 'z')
set: scala.collection.SortedSet[Char] = TreeSet(a, f, j, z)
scala> val beforeH = set.to('h').last
beforeH: Char = f
scala> val afterH = set.from('h').head
afterH: Char = j
Generally you should use lastOption and headOption as the specified elements may not exist. If you are looking to squeeze a little more efficiency out, you can try replacing from(...).head with keysIteratorFrom(...).head
Sadly, the Scala library only allows to make this type of query efficiently:
and also the smallest key n that is greater than or equal to k.
val n = TreeMap(...).keysIteratorFrom(k).next
You can hack this by keeping two structures, one with normal keys, and one with negated keys. Then you can use the other structure to make the second type of query.
val n = - TreeMap(...).keysIteratorFrom(-k).next
Looks like I should file a ticket to add 'fromIterator' and 'toIterator' methods to 'Sorted' trait.
Well, one option is certainly using java.util.TreeMap.
It has lowerKey and higherKey methods, which do excatly what you want.
I had a similar problem: I wanted to find the closest element to a given key in a SortedMap. I remember the answer to this question being, "You have to hack TreeSet," so when I had to implement it for a project, I found a way to wrap TreeSet without getting into its internals.
I didn't see jazmit's answer, which more closely answers the original poster's question with minimum fuss (two method calls). However, those method calls do more work than needed for this application (multiple tree traversals), and my solution provides lots of hooks where other users can modify it to their own needs.
Here it is:
import scala.collection.immutable.TreeSet
import scala.collection.SortedMap
// generalize the idea of an Ordering to metric sets
trait MetricOrdering[T] extends Ordering[T] {
def distance(x: T, y: T): Double
def compare(x: T, y: T) = {
val d = distance(x, y)
if (d > 0.0) 1
else if (d < 0.0) -1
else 0
}
}
class MetricSortedMap[A, B]
(elems: (A, B)*)
(implicit val ordering: MetricOrdering[A])
extends SortedMap[A, B] {
// while TreeSet searches for an element, keep track of the best it finds
// with *thread-safe* mutable state, of course
private val best = new java.lang.ThreadLocal[(Double, A, B)]
best.set((-1.0, null.asInstanceOf[A], null.asInstanceOf[B]))
private val ord = new MetricOrdering[(A, B)] {
def distance(x: (A, B), y: (A, B)) = {
val diff = ordering.distance(x._1, y._1)
val absdiff = Math.abs(diff)
// the "to" position is a key-null pair; the object of interest
// is the other one
if (absdiff < best.get._1)
(x, y) match {
// in practice, TreeSet always picks this first case, but that's
// insider knowledge
case ((to, null), (pos, obj)) =>
best.set((absdiff, pos, obj))
case ((pos, obj), (to, null)) =>
best.set((absdiff, pos, obj))
case _ =>
}
diff
}
}
// use a TreeSet as a backing (not TreeMap because we need to get
// the whole pair back when we query it)
private val treeSet = TreeSet[(A, B)](elems: _*)(ord)
// find the closest key and return:
// (distance to key, the key, its associated value)
def closest(to: A): (Double, A, B) = {
treeSet.headOption match {
case Some((pos, obj)) =>
best.set((ordering.distance(to, pos), pos, obj))
case None =>
throw new java.util.NoSuchElementException(
"SortedMap has no elements, and hence no closest element")
}
treeSet((to, null.asInstanceOf[B])) // called for side effects
best.get
}
// satisfy the contract (or throw UnsupportedOperationException)
def +[B1 >: B](kv: (A, B1)): SortedMap[A, B1] =
new MetricSortedMap[A, B](
elems :+ (kv._1, kv._2.asInstanceOf[B]): _*)
def -(key: A): SortedMap[A, B] =
new MetricSortedMap[A, B](elems.filter(_._1 != key): _*)
def get(key: A): Option[B] = treeSet.find(_._1 == key).map(_._2)
def iterator: Iterator[(A, B)] = treeSet.iterator
def rangeImpl(from: Option[A], until: Option[A]): SortedMap[A, B] =
new MetricSortedMap[A, B](treeSet.rangeImpl(
from.map((_, null.asInstanceOf[B])),
until.map((_, null.asInstanceOf[B]))).toSeq: _*)
}
// test it with A = Double
implicit val doubleOrdering =
new MetricOrdering[Double] {
def distance(x: Double, y: Double) = x - y
}
// and B = String
val stuff = new MetricSortedMap[Double, String](
3.3 -> "three",
1.1 -> "one",
5.5 -> "five",
4.4 -> "four",
2.2 -> "two")
println(stuff.iterator.toList)
println(stuff.closest(1.5))
println(stuff.closest(1000))
println(stuff.closest(-1000))
println(stuff.closest(3.3))
println(stuff.closest(3.4))
println(stuff.closest(3.2))
I've been doing:
val m = SortedMap(myMap.toSeq:_*)
val offsetMap = (m.toSeq zip m.keys.toSeq.drop(1)).map {
case ( (k,v),newKey) => (newKey,v)
}.toMap
When I want the results of my map off-set by one key. I'm also looking for a better way, preferably without storing an extra map.
I have a recursive function that takes a Map as single parameter. It then adds new entries to that Map and calls itself with this larger Map. Please ignore the return values for now. The function isn't finished yet. Here's the code:
def breadthFirstHelper( found: Map[AIS_State,(Option[AIS_State], Int)] ): List[AIS_State] = {
val extension =
for(
(s, v) <- found;
next <- this.expand(s) if (! (found contains next) )
) yield (next -> (Some(s), 0))
if ( extension.exists( (s -> (p,c)) => this.isGoal( s ) ) )
List(this.getStart)
else
breadthFirstHelper( found ++ extension )
}
In extension are the new entries that shall get added to the map. Note that the for-statement generates an iterable, not a map. But those entries shall later get added to the original map for the recursive call. In the break condition, I need to test whether a certain value has been generated inside extension. I try to do this by using the exists method on extension. But the syntax for extracting values from the map entries (the stuff following the yield) doesn't work.
Questions:
How do I get my break condition (the boolean statement to the if) to work?
Is it a good idea to do recursive work on a immutable Map like this? Is this good functional style?
When using a pattern-match (e.g. against a Tuple2) in a function, you need to use braces {} and the case statement.
if (extension.exists { case (s,_) => isGoal(s) } )
The above also uses the fact that it is more clear when matching to use the wildcard _ for any allowable value (which you subsequently do not care about). The case xyz gets compiled into a PartialFunction which in turn extends from Function1 and hence can be used as an argument to the exists method.
As for the style, I am not functional programming expert but this seems like it will be compiled into a iterative form (i.e. it's tail-recursive) by scalac. There's nothing which says "recursion with Maps is bad" so why not?
Note that -> is a method on Any (via implicit conversion) which creates a Tuple2 - it is not a case class like :: or ! and hence cannot be used in a case pattern match statement. This is because:
val l: List[String] = Nil
l match {
case x :: xs =>
}
Is really shorthand/sugar for
case ::(x, xs) =>
Similarly a ! b is equivalent to !(a, b). Of course, you may have written your own case class ->...
Note2: as Daniel says below, you cannot in any case use a pattern-match in a function definition; so while the above partial function is valid, the following function is not:
(x :: xs) =>
This is a bit convoluted for me to follow, whatever Oxbow Lakes might think.
I'd like first to clarify one point: there is no break condition in for-comprehensions. They are not loops like C's (or Java's) for.
What an if in a for-comprehension means is a guard. For instance, let's say I do this:
for {i <- 1 to 10
j <- 1 to 10
if i != j
} yield (i, j)
The loop isn't "stopped" when the condition is false. It simply skips the iterations for which that condition is false, and proceed with the true ones. Here is another example:
for {i <- 1 to 10
j <- 1 to 10
if i % 2 != 0
} yield (i, j)
You said you don't have side-effects, so I can skip a whole chapter about side effects and guards on for-comprehensions. On the other hand, reading a blog post I made recently on Strict Ranges is not a bad idea.
So... give up on break conditions. They can be made to work, but they are not functional. Try to rephrase the problem in a more functional way, and the need for a break condition will be replaced by something else.
Next, Oxbow is correct in that (s -> (p,c) => isn't allowed because there is no extractor defined on an object called ->, but, alas, even (a :: b) => would not be allowed, because there is no pattern matching going on in functional literal parameter declaration. You must simply state the parameters on the left side of =>, without doing any kind of decomposition. You may, however, do this:
if ( extension.exists( t => val (s, (p,c)) = t; this.isGoal( s ) ) )
Note that I replaced -> with ,. This works because a -> b is a syntactic sugar for (a, b), which is, itself, a syntactic sugar for Tuple2(a, b). As you don't use neither p nor c, this works too:
if ( extension.exists( t => val (s, _) = t; this.isGoal( s ) ) )
Finally, your recursive code is perfectly fine, though probably not optimized for tail-recursion. For that, you either make your method final, or you make the recursive function private to the method. Like this:
final def breadthFirstHelper
or
def breadthFirstHelper(...) {
def myRecursiveBreadthFirstHelper(...) { ... }
myRecursiveBreadthFirstHelper(...)
}
On Scala 2.8 there is an annotation called #TailRec which will tell you if the function can be made tail recursive or not. And, in fact, it seems there will be a flag to display warnings about functions that could be made tail-recursive if slightly changed, such as above.
EDIT
Regarding Oxbow's solution using case, that's a function or partial function literal. It's type will depend on what the inference requires. In that case, because that's that exists takes, a function. However, one must be careful to ensure that there will always be a match, otherwise you get an exception. For example:
scala> List(1, 'c') exists { case _: Int => true }
res0: Boolean = true
scala> List(1, 'c') exists { case _: String => true }
scala.MatchError: 1
at $anonfun$1.apply(<console>:5)
... (stack trace elided)
scala> List(1, 'c') exists { case _: String => true; case _ => false }
res3: Boolean = false
scala> ({ case _: Int => true } : PartialFunction[AnyRef,Boolean])
res5: PartialFunction[AnyRef,Boolean] = <function1>
scala> ({ case _: Int => true } : Function1[Int, Boolean])
res6: (Int) => Boolean = <function1>
EDIT 2
The solution Oxbow proposes does use pattern matching, because it is based on function literals using case statements, which do use pattern matching. When I said it was not possible, I was speaking of the syntax x => s.