Consider the following definition:
(define foo
(lambda (x y)
(if (= x y)
0
(+ x (foo (+ x 1) y)))))
What is the test expression? (write the actual expression, not its value)
I would think it is just (if (= x y) but the MIT 6.001 On Line Tutor is not accepting that answer.
The test would be:
(= x y)
That's the expression that actually returns a boolean value, and the behaviour of the if conditional expression depends on it - if it's #t (or in general: any non-false value) the consequent part will be executed: 0. Only if it's #f the alternative part will be executed: (+ x (foo (+ x 1) y)).
Related
I am trying to write a recursive code to do x^y but the problem no mater how I update the code it gives me an error.
The Code:
(defun power(x y) (if(> y 0) (* x (power(x (- y 1)))) (1)))
Error:
CL-USER 11 : 5 >Power 2 3
Error: Undefined operator X in form (X (- Y 1)).
Error:
CL-USER 11 : 5 >power(2 3)
Illegal argument in functor position: 2 in (2 3).
You're calling the function in the wrong way. In lisps function calls have the form:
(f a b c)
not
f(a b c)
You had (power (x (- y 1))) in your recursive definition, which in turn had (x (- y 1)) hence the error: x is not a function.
Use (power x (- y 1)) so your definition becomes:
(defun power (x y)
(if (> y 0)
(* x
(power x (- y 1)))
1))
and call it as (power 2 3)
To expand slightly on the previous (correct) answer, this version uses some idiomatic functions:
(defun power (x y)
(if (plusp y)
(* x (power x (1- y)))
1))
You cannot use parenthesis for grouping since CL thinks you want to call function x and function 1. Remove the excess like this:
(defun power(x y)
(if (> y 0)
(* x (power x (- y 1)))
1))
Parenthesis goes on the outside, just as in your function:
(power 2 3) ;==> 8
When you write (X ...) in a Lisp expression, you are asserting that X is a function to be called on the arguments ....
Your problem is you have too many parentheses in your expression. When you write (power (x ..
you've made this assertion. Write (power x ... instead.
You're calling, among others, this code:
(power (x (- y 1)))
So power is called with (x (- y 1)) as a parameter. Are you sure you want to call x as a function?
I was wondering if anyone could explain this lambda expression and how the output is derived. I put it into the interpreter and am getting ((2) 2). I'm just not sure why it's giving me that instead of just (2 2).
((lambda x (cons x x)) 2)
The expression (lambda x (cons x x)) produces a function; the function puts all arguments into a list x; the function returns (cons x x).
Your expression calls the above function with an argument of 2. In the function x is (2) (a list of all the arguments). The function (cons '(2) '(2)) returns ((2) 2)
(cons x x)
is not the same as
(list x x)
since it produces dotted pairs, e.g. (cons 2 2) returns (2 . 2).
But when the right side of a dotted pair is a list, the whole thing is a list. (lambda x expr) takes an arbitrary number of arguments, puts them in a list x, so that's (2) here. The dotted pair ((2) . (2)) is printed as ((2) 2) per Lisp conventions.
Yep, you've ran off the deep end of scheme.
You've stublled across the notation that allows you to write a function that accepts zero or more arguments. (any number really)
(define add-nums
(lambda x
(if (null? x)
0
(+ (car x) (apply add-nums (cdr x))))))
(add-nums 1 87 203 87 2 4 5)
;Value: 389
If you just want one argument you need to enclose x in a set of parenthesis.
And you want to use
(list x x)
or
(cons x (cons x '())
as the function body, as a properly formed list will have an empty list in the tail position.
You probably wanted to write:
((lambda (x) (cons x x)) 2)
(note the brackets around x).
In the following code, I am trying to understand how the variable whatami gets its value. In following the logic, I see that the procedure (lambda (y) (/ x y)) is the parameter that I am passing to the method average-damp, and is represented within that method as the variable f. It seems as though (/ x y) and (average (f whatami) whatami) need to be executed, but I can't figure out the order of execution. Any help is appreciated.
(define (average x y)
(/ (+ x y) 2))
(define (fixed-point f start)
(define tolerance 0.00001)
(define (close-enuf? u v)
(< (abs (- u v)) tolerance))
(define (iter old new)
(if (close-enuf? old new)
new
(iter new (f new))))
(iter start (f start)))
(define average-damp
(lambda (f)
(lambda (whatami) (average (f whatami) whatami))))
; square root with average damping
(define (_sqrt x)
(fixed-point
(average-damp (lambda (y) (/ x y)))
1))
(_sqrt 4.0)
The average-damp procedure takes a procedure as its argument and returns a procedure as its value. When given a procedure that takes one argument, average-damp returns another procedure that computes the average of the values before and after applying the original function f to its argument. It's inside the fixed-point procedure where that returned function is applied (iteratively).
So the average-damp procedure doesn't execute either (/ x y) or (average(f whatami) whatami) at all, it just uses the function passed to it to create a new function that it returns.
Question:
((lambda (x y) (x y)) (lambda (x) (* x x)) (* 3 3))
This was #1 on the midterm, I put "81 9" he thought I forgot to cross one out lawl, so I cross out 81, and he goes aww. Anyways, I dont understand why it's 81.
I understand why (lambda (x) (* x x)) (* 3 3) = 81, but the first lambda I dont understand what the x and y values are there, and what the [body] (x y) does.
So I was hoping someone could explain to me why the first part doesn't seem like it does anything.
This needs some indentation to clarify
((lambda (x y) (x y))
(lambda (x) (* x x))
(* 3 3))
(lambda (x y) (x y)); call x with y as only parameter.
(lambda (x) (* x x)); evaluate to the square of its parameter.
(* 3 3); evaluate to 9
So the whole thing means: "call the square function with the 9 as parameter".
EDIT: The same thing could be written as
((lambda (x) (* x x))
(* 3 3))
I guess the intent of the exercise is to highlight how evaluating a scheme form involves an implicit function application.
Let's look at this again...
((lambda (x y) (x y)) (lambda (x) (* x x)) (* 3 3))
To evaluate a form we evaluate each part of it in turn. We have three elements in our form. This one is on the first (function) position:
(lambda (x y) (x y))
This is a second element of a form and a first argument to the function:
(lambda (x) (* x x))
Last element of the form, so a second argument to the function.
(* 3 3)
Order of evaluation doesn't matter in this case, so let's just start from the left.
(lambda (x y) (x y))
Lambda creates a function, so this evaluates to a function that takes two arguments, x and y, and then applies x to y (in other words, calls x with a single argument y). Let's call this call-1.
(lambda (x) (* x x))
This evaluates to a function that takes a single argument and returns a square of this argument. So we can just call this square.
(* 3 3)
This obviously evaluates to 9.
OK, so after this first run of evaluation we have:
(call-1 square 9)
To evaluate this, we call call-1 with two arguments, square and 9. Applying call-1 gives us:
(square 9)
Since that's what call-1 does - it calls its first argument with its second argument. Now, square of 9 is 81, which is the value of the whole expression.
Perhaps translating that code to Common Lisp helps clarify its behaviour:
((lambda (x y) (funcall x y)) (lambda (x) (* x x)) (* 3 3))
Or even more explicitly:
(funcall (lambda (x y) (funcall x y))
(lambda (x) (* x x))
(* 3 3))
Indeed, that first lambda doesn't do anything useful, since it boils down to:
(funcall (lambda (x) (* x x)) (* 3 3))
which equals
(let ((x (* 3 3)))
(* x x))
equals
(let ((x 9))
(* x x))
equals
(* 9 9)
equals 81.
The answers posted so far are good, so rather than duplicating what they already said, perhaps here is another way you could look at the program:
(define (square x) (* x x))
(define (call-with arg fun) (fun arg))
(call-with (* 3 3) square)
Does it still look strange?
(define (repeated f n)
if (= n 0)
f
((compose repeated f) (lambda (x) (- n 1))))
I wrote this function, but how would I express this more clearly, using simple recursion with repeated?
I'm sorry, I forgot to define my compose function.
(define (compose f g) (lambda (x) (f (g x))))
And the function takes as inputs a procedure that computes f and a positive integer n and returns the procedure that computes the nth repeated application of f.
I'm assuming that (repeated f 3) should return a function g(x)=f(f(f(x))). If that's not what you want, please clarify. Anyways, that definition of repeated can be written as follows:
(define (repeated f n)
(lambda (x)
(if (= n 0)
x
((repeated f (- n 1)) (f x)))))
(define (square x)
(* x x))
(define y (repeated square 3))
(y 2) ; returns 256, which is (square (square (square 2)))
(define (repeated f n)
(lambda (x)
(let recur ((x x) (n n))
(if (= n 0)
args
(recur (f x) (sub1 n))))))
Write the function the way you normally would, except that the arguments are passed in two stages. It might be even clearer to define repeated this way:
(define repeated (lambda (f n) (lambda (x)
(define (recur x n)
(if (= n 0)
x
(recur (f x) (sub1 n))))
(recur x n))))
You don't have to use a 'let-loop' this way, and the lambdas make it obvious that you expect your arguments in two stages.
(Note:recur is not built in to Scheme as it is in Clojure, I just like the name)
> (define foonly (repeat sub1 10))
> (foonly 11)
1
> (foonly 9)
-1
The cool functional feature you want here is currying, not composition. Here's the Haskell with implicit currying:
repeated _ 0 x = x
repeated f n x = repeated f (pred n) (f x)
I hope this isn't a homework problem.
What is your function trying to do, just out of curiosity? Is it to run f, n times? If so, you can do this.
(define (repeated f n)
(for-each (lambda (i) (f)) (iota n)))