I'm trying to find the maximum number within a list, then do something with it:
(defun maxList (l)
(if (= (length l) 1)
(first l)
(if (> (first l) (maxList (rest l)))
(first l)
(maxList (rest l))
);if
);if
);defun
(defun try-let (l)
(let (a (maxList l))
(print a)
);let
);defun
However it prints null, yet maxList works. What am I doing wrong ?
You're missing a pair of parentheses:
(let ((a (maxList l)))
This is because let takes a list of bindings as in
(let ((a 1) (b 2) (c 'foo))
expr)
so in this case you have to pass a one-element list containing the binding (a (maxList l))
(defun maxList (l)
(if (= (length l) 1)
Calling LENGTH is not a good idea. It traverses the whole list.
(first l)
(if (> (first l) (maxList (rest l)))
(first l)
(maxList (rest l)))))
Above calls MAXLIST twice. Maybe here a LET is useful? How about the function MAX?
If you compile your function, a Common Lisp system will complain.
CL-USER 35 > (defun try-let (l)
(let (a (maxList l))
(print a)))
TRY-LET
CL-USER 36 > (compile 'try-let)
;;;*** Warning in TRY-LET: MAXLIST is bound but not referenced
This shows that the Lisp compiler thinks MAXLIST is a variable. Something is wrong. Next look up the syntax of LET.
See Special Operator LET, LET*
let ({var | (var [init-form])}*) declaration* form* => result*
Which says that it is a list of variables or a list of (variable initform). So you can see that you have missed to make it a list. You have just written one binding.
Related
I am having the following trouble: when trying to use APPLY function with a MAPCAR call, the lambda function passed to APPLY, which contains only one parameter, the list returned by MAPCAR, gives the following error :
*** - EVAL/APPLY: too many arguments given to :LAMBDA
The following code identifies if a heterogenous list has the last atom at any level a numerical atom.
(DEFUN hasLastNumeric (L)
(COND
((NUMBERP L) T)
((ATOM L) NIL)
((LISTP L)
(APPLY #'(LAMBDA (Lst)
(COND ((EQ (LAST Lst) T) T)
(T NIL)))
(MAPCAR 'hasLastNumeric L)))))
(WRITE (hasLastNumeric '(1 2 5)))
You don't need APPLY. Why would you use it? Remember: APPLY calls a function and uses the provided list as the list of arguments.
MAPCAR returns a list.
(let ((foo (mapcar #'1+ '(1 2 3 4))))
(cond ((eql (last foo) ...) ...)
...))
Check also what last actually returns...
If you call a function eg. (#'(lambda (a b) (+ a b)) 2 3) there is a requirement that the number of arguments fits the number of provided arguments. When using apply the requirements are the same so (apply #'(lambda (one) ...) lst) require that lst is only one element list like '(a), but it cannot be '() or '(a b). The only way to support variable number of arguments you need to use &rest arguments eg. (apply #'(lambda (&rest lst) ...) '(a b))
Looking at the logic I don't understand it. You want to return t when you have encountered a list with the last element as a number but also searched list elements on the way and returned early had you found them. It should be possible without the use of last at each step. eg.
(defun has-a-last-numeric (lst)
(labels ((helper (lst)
(loop :for (e . rest) :on lst
:if (and (null rest) (numberp e))
:do (return-from has-a-last-numeric t)
:if (listp e)
:do (helper e))))
(helper lst)))
I want to ask why this function doesn't work...
(defun nenum(ls)
(cond
((null ls) nil)
((listp car(ls)) (nenum (rest ls)))
((numberp car(ls)) (nenum (rest ls)))
(t (cons (car ls) (nenum (rest ls))))))
Example: (nenum '(l 1 i (b) (5) s -2 p)) --> (l i s p)
Thank you!
Looking at the predicate you have in one of your cond terms:
(listp car (ls))
Thus apply the function listp with the two arguments car and the result of calling the function ls with no arguments. car and ls both need to be free variables and listp needs to be a different function than the one defined in CLHS since it only takes one argument.
Perhaps you have though you were writing Algol? An Algol function call look like operator(operand) but not CL. CL is a LISP dialect and we have this form on our function calls:
(operand operator)
If we nest we do the same:
(operand (operand operator))
You got it right in the alternative (cons (car ls) (nenum (rest ls)))
Replace car(ls) with (car ls).
Here's a much easier way to write that function:
(defun nenum (list)
(remove-if (lambda (item)
(or (listp item)
(numberp item)))
list))
Note that NIL doesn't need its own test because listp covers it.
There's no need to write a function like this from scratch. Common Lisp already provides remove-if, and you can give it a predicate that matches numbers and non-atoms:
CL-USER> (remove-if #'(lambda (x)
(or (numberp x)
(not (atom x))))
'(l 1 i (b) (5) s -2 p))
;=> (L I S P)
Or, to make it even clearer that you're keeping non-numeric atoms, you can use remove-if-not with a predicate that checks for numeric atoms:
CL-USER> (remove-if-not #'(lambda (x)
(and (atom x)
(not (numberp x))))
'(l 1 i (b) (5) s -2 p))
;=> (L I S P)
Note that the empty list, which is often written as (), is just the symbol nil. As such, it too is a non-numeric atom. If you'd want to keep other symbols, e.g.,
CL-USER> (remove-if-not #'(lambda (x)
(and (atom x)
(not (numberp x))))
'(li (b) -1 (5) sp))
;=> (LI SP)
then you'll probably want to keep nil as well:
CL-USER> (remove-if-not #'(lambda (x)
(and (atom x)
(not (numberp x))))
'(van (b) () (5) a))
;=> (VAN NIL A)
I'm supposed to write a function that will take in a list, extract the ID number from the list, and then return it as an integer (not a list).
My first function was pretty simple:
(defun idReturn2 (l) (if (eq (car l) '(ID)) (cadr l) (idReturn list)))
Which I called with the function:
(idReturn2 '((name (light bulb)) (mfgr ge) (watts 60) (id 357) (quantity 6)))
The method is supposed to return 357, but instead returns (357). It's the right number to return, but it's part of a list, which my professor outright told us not to do.
I noticed that my quadratic equation function only returned an integer without the parentheses, so I thought I could parse the integer using parse-integer:
(defun idReturn2 (l) (if (eq (car l) '(ID)) (parse-integer (cadr l)) (idReturn list)))
Still returns (357). I've gone over my lisp notes a dozen times, as well as the slides, and I can see absolutely no way to pull the data out of the list. Could anyone offer me some guidance?
So you have a list ((property-name1 value1) (property-name2 value2) ...) if that list is given as argument l then (car l) isn't (property-name1) but (property-name1 value1). Luckily you see that the symbol you should check is in the results first element and that means you should use (car (car l)) or (caar l) for short. (eq (caar l) 'property-name1) ; ==> t
Notice that when you don't find it in the first iteration you call a totally different function IdReturn, not with the rest of l but a different variable list (whatever that is). You haven't supplied it so I cannot tell how you get (357) but it's not from functions supplied in your question.
PS: Any list (a) (a b) or (a b c) you pull the first value with car. (car '(357)) ;==> 357
Maybe it's less confusing if you use the first, second and rest functions:
(defun idReturn (l)
(when l
(let ((c (first l)))
(if (eq (first c) 'id)
(second c)
(idReturn (rest l))))))
which is the same as
(defun idReturn (l)
(when l
(let ((c (car l)))
(if (eq (car c) 'id)
(cadr c)
(idReturn (cdr l))))))
then
? (idReturn '((name (light bulb)) (mfgr ge) (watts 60) (id 357) (quantity 6)))
357
? (idReturn '((name (light bulb)) (mfgr ge) (watts 60) (idx 357) (quantity 6)))
NIL
Note that, using assoc, you can simplify the function to
(defun idReturn (l)
(second (assoc 'id l)))
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)
How can I remove nested parentheses recursively in Common LISP Such as
(unnest '(a b c (d e) ((f) g))) => (a b c d e f g)
(unnest '(a b)) => (a b)
(unnest '(() ((((a)))) ())) => (a)
Thanks
Here's what I'd do:
(ql:quickload "alexandria")
(alexandria:flatten list)
That works mainly because I have Quicklisp installed already.
(defun flatten (l)
(cond ((null l) nil)
((atom l) (list l))
(t (loop for a in l appending (flatten a)))))
I realize this is an old thread, but it is one of the first that comes up when I google lisp flatten. The solution I discovered is similar to those discussed above, but the formatting is slightly different. I will explain it as if you are new to lisp, as I was when I first googled this question, so it's likely that others will be too.
(defun flatten (L)
"Converts a list to single level."
(if (null L)
nil
(if (atom (first L))
(cons (first L) (flatten (rest L)))
(append (flatten (first L)) (flatten (rest L))))))
For those new to lisp, this is a brief summary.
The following line declares a function called flatten with argument L.
(defun flatten (L)
The line below checks for an empty list.
(if (null L)
The next line returns nil because cons ATOM nil declares a list with one entry (ATOM). This is the base case of the recursion and lets the function know when to stop. The line after this checks to see if the first item in the list is an atom instead of another list.
(if (atom (first L))
Then, if it is, it uses recursion to create a flattened list of this atom combined with the rest of the flattened list that the function will generate. cons combines an atom with another list.
(cons (first L) (flatten (rest L)))
If it's not an atom, then we have to flatten on it, because it is another list that may have further lists inside of it.
(append (flatten (first L)) (flatten (rest L))))))
The append function will append the first list to the start of the second list.
Also note that every time you use a function in lisp, you have to surround it with parenthesis. This confused me at first.
You could define it like this for example:
(defun unnest (x)
(labels ((rec (x acc)
(cond ((null x) acc)
((atom x) (cons x acc))
(t (rec (car x) (rec (cdr x) acc))))))
(rec x nil)))
(defun flatten (l)
(cond ((null l) nil)
((atom (car l)) (cons (car l) (flatten (cdr l))))
(t (append (flatten (car l)) (flatten (cdr l))))))
Lisp has the function remove to remove things. Here I use a version REMOVE-IF that removes every item for which a predicate is true. I test if the thing is a parenthesis and remove it if true.
If you want to remove parentheses, see this function:
(defun unnest (thing)
(read-from-string
(concatenate
'string
"("
(remove-if (lambda (c)
(member c '(#\( #\))))
(princ-to-string thing))
")")))
Note, though, as Svante mentions, one does not usually 'remove' parentheses.
Most of the answers have already mentioned a recursive solution to the Flatten problem. Using Common Lisp Object System's multiple dispatching you could solve the problem recursively by defining 3 methods for 3 possible scenarios:
(defmethod flatten ((tree null))
"Tree is empty list."
())
(defmethod flatten ((tree list))
"Tree is a list."
(append (flatten (car tree))
(flatten (cdr tree))))
(defmethod flatten (tree)
"Tree is something else (atom?)."
(list tree))
(flatten '(2 ((8) 2 (9 (d (s (((((a))))))))))) ; => (2 8 2 9 D S A)
Just leaving this here as I visited this question with the need of only flattening one level and later figure out for myself that (apply 'concatenate 'list ((1 2) (3 4) (5 6 7))) is a cleaner solution in that case.
This is a accumulator based approach. The local function %flatten keeps an accumulator of the tail (the right part of the list that's already been flattened). When the part remaining to be flattened (the left part of the list) is empty, it returns the tail. When the part to be flattened is a non-list, it returns that part prefixed onto the tail. When the part to be flattened is a list, it flattens the rest of the list (with the current tail), then uses that result as the tail for flattening the first part of the list.
(defun flatten (list)
(labels ((%flatten (list tail)
(cond
((null list) tail)
((atom list) (list* list tail))
(t (%flatten (first list)
(%flatten (rest list)
tail))))))
(%flatten list '())))
CL-USER> (flatten '((1 2) (3 4) ((5) 6) 7))
(1 2 3 4 5 6 7)
I know this question is really old but I noticed that nobody used the push/nreverse idiom, so I am uploading that here.
the function reverse-atomize takes out each "atom" and puts it into the output of the next call. At the end it produces a flattened list that is backwards, which is resolved with the nreverse function in the atomize function.
(defun reverse-atomize (tree output)
"Auxillary function for atomize"
(if (null tree)
output
(if (atom (car tree))
(reverse-atomize (cdr tree) (push (car tree) output))
(reverse-atomize (cdr tree) (nconc (reverse-atomize (car tree)
nil)
output)))))
(defun atomize (tree)
"Flattens a list into only the atoms in it"
(nreverse (reverse-atomize tree nil)))
So calling atomize '((a b) (c) d) looks like this:
(A B C D)
And if you were to call reverse-atomize with reverse-atomize '((a b) (c) d) this would occur:
(D C B A)
People like using functions like push, nreverse, and nconc because they use less RAM than their respective cons, reverse, and append functions. That being said the double recursive nature of reverse-atomize does come with it's own RAMifications.
This popular question only has recursive solutions (not counting Rainer's answer).
Let's have a loop version:
(defun flatten (tree &aux todo flat)
(check-type tree list)
(loop
(shiftf todo tree nil)
(unless todo (return flat))
(dolist (elt todo)
(if (listp elt)
(dolist (e elt)
(push e tree))
(push elt flat))))))
(defun unnest (somewhat)
(cond
((null somewhat) nil)
((atom somewhat) (list somewhat))
(t
(append (unnest (car somewhat)) (unnest (cdr somewhat))))))
I couldn't resist adding my two cents. While the CL spec does not require tail call optimization (TCO), many (most?) implementations have that feature.
So here's a tail recursive version that collects the leaf nodes of a tree into a flat list (which is one version of "removing parentheses"):
(defun flatten (tree &key (include-nil t))
(check-type tree list)
(labels ((%flatten (lst accum)
(if (null lst)
(nreverse accum)
(let ((elem (first lst)))
(if (atom elem)
(%flatten (cdr lst) (if (or elem include-nil)
(cons elem accum)
accum))
(%flatten (append elem (cdr lst)) accum))))))
(%flatten tree nil)))
It preserves null leaf nodes by default, with the option to remove them. It also preserves the left-to-right order of the tree's leaf nodes.
Note from Google lisp style guide about TCO:
You should favor iteration over recursion.
...most serious implementations (including SBCL and CCL) do implement proper tail calls, but with restrictions:
The (DECLARE (OPTIMIZE ...)) settings must favor SPEED enough and not favor DEBUG too much, for some compiler-dependent meanings of "enough" and "too much".
And this from SBCL docs:
... disabling tail-recursion optimization ... happens when the debug optimization quality is greater than 2.