Working scala code using a var in a pure function. Is this possible without a var? - scala

Question

Is it possible (or even worthwhile) to try to write the below code block without a var? It works with a var. This is not for an interview, it's my first attempt at scala (came from java).
The problem: Fit people as close to the front of a theatre as possible, while keeping each request (eg. Jones, 4 tickets) in a single theatre section. The theatre sections, starting at the front, are sized 6, 6, 3, 5, 5... and so on. I'm trying to accomplish this by putting together all of the potential groups of ticket requests, and then choosing the best fitting group per section.
Here are the classes. A SeatingCombination is one possible combination of SeatingRequest (just the IDs) and the sum of their ticketCount(s):
class SeatingCombination(val idList: List[Int], val seatCount: Int){}
class SeatingRequest(val id: Int, val partyName: String, val ticketCount: Int){}
class TheatreSection(val sectionSize: Int, rowNumber: Int, sectionNumber: Int) {
def id: String = rowNumber.toString + "_"+ sectionNumber.toString;
}
By the time we get to the below function...
1.) all of the possible combinations of SeatingRequest are in a list of SeatingCombination and ordered by descending size.
2.) all of the TheatreSection are listed in order.
def getSeatingMap(groups: List[SeatingCombination], sections: List[TheatreSection]): HashMap[Int, TheatreSection] = {
var seatedMap = new HashMap[Int, TheatreSection]
for (sect <- sections) {
val bestFitOpt = groups.find(g => { g.seatCount <= sect.sectionSize && !isAnyListIdInMap(seatedMap, g.idList) })
bestFitOpt.filter(_.idList.size > 0).foreach(_.idList.foreach(seatedMap.update(_, sect)))
}
seatedMap
}
def isAnyListIdInMap(map: HashMap[Int, TheatreSection], list: List[Int]): Boolean = {
(for (id <- list) yield !map.get(id).isEmpty).reduce(_ || _)
}
I wrote the rest of the program without a var, but in this iterative section it seems impossible. Maybe with my implementation strategy it's impossible. From what else I've read, a var in a pure function is still functional. But it's been bothering me I can't think of how to remove the var, because my textbook told me to try to avoid them, and I don't know what I don't know.

Answer 1

You can use foldLeft to iterate on sections with a running state (and again, inside, on your state to add iteratively all the ids in a section):
sections.foldLeft(Map.empty[Int, TheatreSection]){
case (seatedMap, sect) =>
val bestFitOpt = groups.find(g => g.seatCount <= sect.sectionSize && !isAnyListIdInMap(seatedMap, g.idList))
bestFitOpt.
filter(_.idList.size > 0).toList. //convert option to list
flatMap(_.idList). // flatten list from option and idList
foldLeft(seatedMap)(_ + (_ -> sect))) // add all ids to the map with sect as value
}
By the way, you can simplify the second method using exists and map.contains:
def isAnyListIdInMap(map: HashMap[Int, TheatreSection], list: List[Int]): Boolean = {
list.exists(id => map.contains(id))
}
list.exists(predicate: Int => Boolean) is a Boolean which is true if the predicate is true for any element in list.
map.contains(key) checks if map is defined at key.
If you want to be even more concise, you don't need to give a name to the argument of the predicate:
list.exists(map.contains)

Answer 2

Simply changing var to val should do it :)
I think, you may be asking about getting rid of the mutable map, not of the var (it doesn't need to be var in your code).
Things like this are usually written recursively in scala or using foldLeft, like other answers suggest. Here is a recursive version:
#tailrec
def getSeatingMap(
groups: List[SeatingCombination],
sections: List[TheatreSection],
result: Map[Int, TheatreSection] = Map.empty): Map[Int, TheatreSection] = sections match {
case Nil => result
case head :: tail =>
val seated = groups
.iterator
.filter(_.idList.nonEmpty)
.filterNot(_.idList.find(result.contains).isDefined)
.find(_.seatCount <= head.sectionSize)
.fold(Nil)(_.idList.map(id => id -> sect))
getSeatingMap(groups, tail, result ++ seated)
}
btw, I don't think you need to test every id in list for presence in the map - should suffice to just look at the first one. You could also make it a bit more efficient, probably, if instead of checking the map every time to see if the group is already seated, you'd just drop it from the input list as soon as the section is assigned.
#tailrec
def selectGroup(
sect: TheatreSection,
groups: List[SeatingCombination],
result: List[SeatingCombination] = Nil
): (List[(Int, TheatreSection)], List[SeatingCombination]) = groups match {
case Nil => (Nil, result)
case head :: tail
if(head.idList.nonEmpty && head.seatCount <= sect.sectionSize) => (head.idList.map(_ -> sect), result.reverse ++ tail)
case head :: tail => selectGroup(sect, tail, head :: result)
}
and then in getSeatingMap:
...
case head :: tail =>
val(seated, remaining) => selectGroup(sect, groups)
getSeatingMap(remaining, tail, result ++ seated)

Answer 3

Here is how I was able to achieve without using the mutable.HashMap, the suggestion by the comment to use foldLeft was used to do it:
class SeatingCombination(val idList: List[Int], val seatCount: Int){}
class SeatingRequest(val id: Int, val partyName: String, val ticketCount: Int){}
class TheatreSection(val sectionSize: Int, rowNumber: Int, sectionNumber: Int) {
def id: String = rowNumber.toString + "_"+ sectionNumber.toString;
}
def getSeatingMap(groups: List[SeatingCombination], sections: List[TheatreSection]): Map[Int, TheatreSection] = {
sections.foldLeft(Map.empty[Int, TheatreSection]) { (m, sect) =>
val bestFitOpt = groups.find(g => {
g.seatCount <= sect.sectionSize && !isAnyListIdInMap(m, g.idList)
}).filter(_.idList.nonEmpty)
val newEntries = bestFitOpt.map(_.idList.map(_ -> sect)).getOrElse(List.empty)
m ++ newEntries
}
}
def isAnyListIdInMap(map: Map[Int, TheatreSection], list: List[Int]): Boolean = {
(for (id <- list) yield map.get(id).isDefined).reduce(_ || _)
}