Scala primitives as reference types? - scala

Does Scala provide a means of accessing primitives by reference (e.g., on the heap) out of the box? E.g., is there an idiomatic way of making the following code return 1?:
import scala.collection.mutable
val m = new mutable.HashMap[String, Int]
var x = m.getOrElseUpdate("foo", 0)
x += 1
m.get("foo") // The map value should be 1 after the preceding update.
I expect I should be able to use a wrapper class like the following as the map's value type (thus storing pointers to the WrappedInts):
class WrappedInt(var theInt:Int)
...but I'm wondering if I'm missing a language or standard library feature.

You can't do that with primitives or their non-primitives counter parts in Java nor Scala. Don't see any other way but use the WrappedInt.

If your goal is to increment map values by key, than you can use some nicer solutions instead of wrapper.
val key = "foo"
val v = m.put(key, m.getOrElse(key, 0) + 1)
or another approach would be to set a default value 0 for the map:
val m2 = m.withDefault(_ => 0)
val v = m2.put(key, m2(key) + 1)
or add extension method updatedWith
implicit class MapExtensions[K, V](val map: Map[K, V]) extends AnyVal {
def updatedWith(key: K, default: V)(f: V => V) = {
map.put(key, f(map.getOrElse(key, default)))
}
}
val m3 = m.updatedWith("foo", 0) { _ + 1 }

Related

Scala HashMap#contains expects Nothing

I am trying to use a Scala HashMap like below, and when I try to operate on the HashMap, I get type mismatches. Besides using Java HashMap, how can I write this?
import scala.collection.mutable._
object Solution {
def twoSum(nums: Array[Int], target: Int): Array[Int] = {
var lookupTable = new HashMap()
for(i <- nums.indices) {
if (lookupTable.contains(target - nums(i)))
return Array(lookupTable(i), i)
lookupTable.put(nums(i), i)
}
throw new Exception
}
}
In the absence of a type ascription, an empty HashMap is a HashMap[Nothing, Nothing], which, because mutable HashMaps are invariant means you have a collection which you can't put anything into or get anything out of.
There are thus two ways to fix this:
You can use a mutable HashMap[Int, Int]:
val lookupTable = HashMap[Int, Int]()
Alternatively, you can use an immutable HashMap, which is covariant in the value type and technically invariant in the key type, but there's a way around that:
var lookupTable = scala.collection.immutable.HashMap()
for (i <- nums.indices) {
if (lookupTable.contains(target - nums(i))) return Array(lookupTable(i), i)
else lookupTable = lookupTable ++ Seq((nums(i), i))
}

Type mismatch from partition in Scala (expected (Set[String]...), actual (Set[String]...) )

I have a partition method that creates tuple of two sets of string.
def partition(i:Int) = {
dictionary.keySet.partition(dictionary(_)(i) == true)
}
I also have a map that maps integer to the return value from the partition method.
val m = Map[Int, (Set[String], Set[String])]()
for (i <- Range(0, getMaxIndex())) {
m(i) = partition(i)
}
The issue is that I have type mismatch error, but the error message does not make sense to me.
What might be wrong?
This is the code:
import scala.collection.mutable.Map
import scala.collection.{BitSet}
case class Partition(dictionary:Map[String, BitSet]) {
def max(x:Int, y:Int) = if (x > y) x else y
def partition(i:Int) = {
dictionary.keySet.partition(dictionary(_)(i) == true)
}
def getMaxIndex() = {
val values = dictionary.values
(0 /: values) ((m, bs) => max(m, bs.last))
}
def get() = {
val m = Map[Int, (Set[String], Set[String])]()
for (i <- Range(0, getMaxIndex())) {
m(i) = partition(i)
}
m
}
}
When I compile your example, the error is clear:
<console>:64: error: type mismatch;
found : (scala.collection.Set[String], scala.collection.Set[String])
required: (scala.collection.immutable.Set[String], scala.collection.immutable.Set[String])
m(i) = partition(i)
^
Looking into the API, the keySet method of a mutable map does not guarantee that the returned set is immutable. Compare this with keySet on an immutable Map—it does indeed return an immutable set.
Therefore, you could either
use an immutable Map and a var
force the result of your partition method to return an immutable set (e.g. toSet)
define the value type of your map to be collection.Set instead of Predef.Set which is an alias for collection.immtuable.Set.
To clarify these types, it helps to specify an explicit return type for your public methods (get and partition)

Update a mutable map with default value in Scala

Consider the following code that counts the frequency of each string in the list and stores the results in the mutable map. This works great, but I don't understand where the += method is defined?! Is this some weird implicit conversion thing or what? I saw this code somewhere but it didn't include an explanation for the +=.
val list = List("a", "b", "a")
val counts = new scala.collection.mutable.HashMap[String, Int]().withDefaultValue(0)
list.foreach(counts(_) += 1)
counts
//> res7: scala.collection.mutable.Map[String,Int] = Map(a -> 2, b -> 1)
The apply of map returns an Int, but Int doesn't have a += and this method updates the map with a new value, so it looks as if the apply returns a mutable integer that has a += method...
This is not an implicit conversion - it is a desugaring.
Writing:
x += 1
desugars to:
x = x + 1
if the class of x does not have a += method defined on it.
In the same way:
counts("a") += 1
desugars to:
counts("a") = counts("a") + 1
because counts("a") is an Int, and Int does not have a += method defined.
On the other hand, writing:
x(expression1) = expression2
desugars to a call to the update method in Scala:
x.update(expression1, expression2)
Every mutable Map has an update method defined - it allows setting keys in the map.
So the entire expression is desugared to:
list.foreach(x => counts.update(x, counts(x) + 1))
This += is not to be confused with the += method on mutable.Maps in Scala. That method updates the entry in the map if that key already existed, or adds a new key-value pair. It returns the this reference, that is, the same map, so you can chain += calls. See ScalaDoc or the source code.
For these moments where you wonder what compiler magic is happening in a part of your code, scalac -print is your best friend (see this question).
If you do a scalac -print C.scala where C.scala is
package test
class C {
def myMethod() {
val counts = new scala.collection.mutable.HashMap[String, Int]().withDefaultValue(0)
counts("a") += 1
}
}
you get
package test {
class C extends Object {
def myMethod(): Unit = {
val counts: collection.mutable.Map = new collection.mutable.HashMap().withDefaultValue(scala.Int.box(0));
counts.update("a", scala.Int.box(scala.Int.unbox(counts.apply("a")).+(1)))
};
def <init>(): test.C = {
C.super.<init>();
()
}
}
It came as a surprise for me also, but apparently scalac will transform
map(key) =<op> rhs
to
map.update(key, map.apply(key) <op> rhs)

Selection Sort Generic type implementation

I worked my way implementing a recursive version of selection and quick sort,i am trying to modify the code in a way that it can sort a list of any generic type , i want to assume that the generic type supplied can be converted to Comparable at runtime.
Does anyone have a link ,code or tutorial on how to do this please
I am trying to modify this particular code
'def main (args:Array[String]){
val l = List(2,4,5,6,8)
print(quickSort(l))
}
def quickSort(x:List[Int]):List[Int]={
x match{
case xh::xt =>
{
val (first,pivot,second) = partition(x)
quickSort (first):::(pivot :: quickSort(second))
}
case Nil => {x}
}
}
def partition (x:List[Int])=
{
val pivot =x.head
var first:List[Int]=List ()
var second : List[Int]=List ()
val fun=(i:Int)=> {
if (i<pivot)
first=i::first
else
second=i::second
}
x.tail.foreach(fun)
(first,pivot,second)
}
enter code here
def main (args:Array[String]){
val l = List(2,4,5,6,8)
print(quickSort(l))
}
def quickSort(x:List[Int]):List[Int]={
x match{
case xh::xt =>
{
val (first,pivot,second) = partition(x)
quickSort (first):::(pivot :: quickSort(second))
}
case Nil => {x}
}
}
def partition (x:List[Int])=
{
val pivot =x.head
var first:List[Int]=List ()
var second : List[Int]=List ()
val fun=(i:Int)=> {
if (i<pivot)
first=i::first
else
second=i::second
}
x.tail.foreach(fun)
(first,pivot,second)
} '
Language: SCALA
In Scala, Java Comparator is replaced by Ordering (quite similar but comes with more useful methods). They are implemented for several types (primitives, strings, bigDecimals, etc.) and you can provide your own implementations.
You can then use scala implicit to ask the compiler to pick the correct one for you:
def sort[A]( lst: List[A] )( implicit ord: Ordering[A] ) = {
...
}
If you are using a predefined ordering, just call:
sort( myLst )
and the compiler will infer the second argument. If you want to declare your own ordering, use the keyword implicit in the declaration. For instance:
implicit val fooOrdering = new Ordering[Foo] {
def compare( f1: Foo, f2: Foo ) = {...}
}
and it will be implicitly use if you try to sort a List of Foo.
If you have several implementations for the same type, you can also explicitly pass the correct ordering object:
sort( myFooLst )( fooOrdering )
More info in this post.
For Quicksort, I'll modify an example from the "Scala By Example" book to make it more generic.
class Quicksort[A <% Ordered[A]] {
def sort(a:ArraySeq[A]): ArraySeq[A] =
if (a.length < 2) a
else {
val pivot = a(a.length / 2)
sort (a filter (pivot >)) ++ (a filter (pivot == )) ++
sort (a filter(pivot <))
}
}
Test with Int
scala> val quicksort = new Quicksort[Int]
quicksort: Quicksort[Int] = Quicksort#38ceb62f
scala> val a = ArraySeq(5, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 9, 39 ,219)
a: scala.collection.mutable.ArraySeq[Int] = ArraySeq(5, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 9, 39, 21
9)
scala> quicksort.sort(a).foreach(n=> (print(n), print (" " )))
1 1 2 2 3 5 9 39 219
Test with a custom class implementing Ordered
scala> case class Meh(x: Int, y:Int) extends Ordered[Meh] {
| def compare(that: Meh) = (x + y).compare(that.x + that.y)
| }
defined class Meh
scala> val q2 = new Quicksort[Meh]
q2: Quicksort[Meh] = Quicksort#7677ce29
scala> val a3 = ArraySeq(Meh(1,1), Meh(12,1), Meh(0,1), Meh(2,2))
a3: scala.collection.mutable.ArraySeq[Meh] = ArraySeq(Meh(1,1), Meh(12,1), Meh(0
,1), Meh(2,2))
scala> q2.sort(a3)
res7: scala.collection.mutable.ArraySeq[Meh] = ArraySeq(Meh(0,1), Meh(1,1), Meh(
2,2), Meh(12,1))
Even though, when coding Scala, I'm used to prefer functional programming style (via combinators or recursion) over imperative style (via variables and iterations), THIS TIME, for this specific problem, old school imperative nested loops result in simpler code for the reader. I don't think falling back to imperative style is a mistake for certain classes of problems (such as sorting algorithms which usually transform the input buffer (like a procedure) rather than resulting to a new sorted one
Here it is my solution:
package bitspoke.algo
import scala.math.Ordered
import scala.collection.mutable.Buffer
abstract class Sorter[T <% Ordered[T]] {
// algorithm provided by subclasses
def sort(buffer : Buffer[T]) : Unit
// check if the buffer is sorted
def sorted(buffer : Buffer[T]) = buffer.isEmpty || buffer.view.zip(buffer.tail).forall { t => t._2 > t._1 }
// swap elements in buffer
def swap(buffer : Buffer[T], i:Int, j:Int) {
val temp = buffer(i)
buffer(i) = buffer(j)
buffer(j) = temp
}
}
class SelectionSorter[T <% Ordered[T]] extends Sorter[T] {
def sort(buffer : Buffer[T]) : Unit = {
for (i <- 0 until buffer.length) {
var min = i
for (j <- i until buffer.length) {
if (buffer(j) < buffer(min))
min = j
}
swap(buffer, i, min)
}
}
}
As you can see, rather than using java.lang.Comparable, I preferred scala.math.Ordered and Scala View Bounds rather than Upper Bounds. That's certainly works thanks to many Scala Implicit Conversions of primitive types to Rich Wrappers.
You can write a client program as follows:
import bitspoke.algo._
import scala.collection.mutable._
val sorter = new SelectionSorter[Int]
val buffer = ArrayBuffer(3, 0, 4, 2, 1)
sorter.sort(buffer)
assert(sorter.sorted(buffer))

How to use scala.util.Sorting.quickSort() with arbitrary types?

I need to sort an array of pairs by second element. How do I pass comparator for my pairs to the quickSort function?
I'm using the following ugly approach now:
type AccResult = (AccUnit, Long) // pair
class Comparator(a:AccResult) extends Ordered[AccResult] {
def compare(that:AccResult) = lessCompare(a, that)
def lessCompare(a:AccResult, that:AccResult) = if (a._2 == that._2) 0 else if (a._2 < that._2) -1 else 1
}
scala.util.Sorting.quickSort(data)(d => new Comparator(d))
Why is quickSort designed to have an ordered view instead of usual comparator argument?
Scala 2.7 solutions are preferred.
I tend to prefer the non-implicit arguments unless its being used in more than a few places.
type Pair = (String,Int)
val items : Array[Pair] = Array(("one",1),("three",3),("two",2))
quickSort(items)(new Ordering[Pair] {
def compare(x: Pair, y: Pair) = {
x._2 compare y._2
}
})
Edit: After learning about view bounds in another question, I think that this approach might be better:
val items : Array[(String,Int)] = Array(("one",1),("three",3),("two",2))
class OrderTupleBySecond[X,Y <% Comparable[Y]] extends Ordering[(X,Y)] {
def compare(x: (X,Y), y: (X,Y)) = {
x._2 compareTo y._2
}
}
util.Sorting.quickSort(items)(new OrderTupleBySecond[String,Int])
In this way, OrderTupleBySecond could be used for any Tuple2 type where the type of the 2nd member of the tuple has a view in scope which would convert it to a Comparable.
Ok, I'm not sure exactly what you are unhappy about what you are currently doing, but perhaps all you are looking for is this?
implicit def toComparator(a: AccResult) = new Comparator(a)
scala.util.Sorting.quickSort(data)
If, on the other hand, the problem is that the tuple is Ordered and you want a different ordering, well, that's why it changed on Scala 2.8.
* EDIT *
Ouch! Sorry, I only now realize you said you preferred Scala 2.7 solutions. I have editted this answer soon to put the solution for 2.7 above. What follows is a 2.8 solution.
Scala 2.8 expects an Ordering, not an Ordered, which is a context bound, not a view bound. You'd write your code in 2.8 like this:
type AccResult = (AccUnit, Long) // pair
implicit object AccResultOrdering extends Ordering[AccResult] {
def compare(x: AccResult, y: AccResult) = if (x._2 == y._2) 0 else if (x._2 < y._2) -1 else 1
}
Or maybe just:
type AccResult = (AccUnit, Long) // pair
implicit val AccResultOrdering = Ordering by ((_: AccResult)._2)
And use it like:
scala.util.Sorting.quickSort(data)
On the other hand, the usual way to do sort in Scala 2.8 is just to call one of the sorting methods on it, such as:
data.sortBy((_: AccResult)._2)
Have your type extend Ordered, like so:
case class Thing(number : Integer, name: String) extends Ordered[Thing] {
def compare(that: Thing) = name.compare(that.name)
}
And then pass it to sort, like so:
val array = Array(Thing(4, "Doll"), Thing(2, "Monkey"), Thing(7, "Green"))
scala.util.Sorting.quickSort(array)
Printing the array will give you:
array.foreach{ e => print(e) }
>> Thing(4,Doll) Thing(7,Green) Thing(2,Monkey)