Feedback on lisp program for project euler 4 [closed] - lisp

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I just started learning common lisp and so I've been working on project euler problems. Here's my solution (with some help from https://github.com/qlkzy/project-euler-cl ). Do you guys have any suggestions for stylistic changes and the sort to make it more lisp-y?
; A palindromic number reads the same both ways. The largest palindrome made
; from the product of two 2-digit numbers is 9009 = 91 99.
; Find the largest palindrome made from the product of two 3-digit numbers.
(defun num-to-list (num)
(let ((result nil))
(do ((x num (truncate x 10)))
((= x 0 ) result)
(setq result (cons (mod x 10) result)))))
(defun palindrome? (num)
(let ((x (num-to-list num)))
(equal x (reverse x))))
(defun all-n-digit-nums (n)
(loop for i from (expt 10 (1- n)) to (1- (expt 10 n)) collect i))
(defun all-products-of-n-digit-nums (n)
(let ((nums (all-n-digit-nums n)))
(loop for x in nums
appending (loop for y in nums collecting (* x y)))))
(defun all-palindromes (n)
(let ((nums (all-products-of-n-digit-nums n)))
(loop for x in nums
when (palindrome? x) collecting x)))
(defun largest-palindrome (n)
(apply 'max (all-palindromes 3)))
(print (largest-palindrome 3))

Answer 1

Barnar's solution is great however there's just a small typo, to return a result it should be:
(defun largest-palindrome (n)
(loop with start = (expt 10 (1- n))
and end = (1- (expt 10 n))
for i from start to end
maximize (loop for j from i to end
for num = (* i j)
when (palindrome? num)
maximize num)))

Answer 2

(setq list (cons thing list))
can be simplified to:
(push thing list)
My other comments on your code are not so much about Lisp style as about the algorithm. Creating all those intermediate lists of numbers seems like a poor way to do it, just write nested loops that calculate and test the numbers.
(defun all-palindromes (n)
(loop for i from (expt 10 (1- n)) to (1- (expt 10 n))
do (loop for j from (expt 10 (1- n)) to (1- (expt 10 n))
for num = (* i j)
when (palindrome? num)
collect num)))
But LOOP has a feature you can use: MAXIMIZE. So instead of collecting all the palindroms in a list with COLLECT, you can:
(defun largest-palindrome (n)
(loop with start = (expt 10 (1- n))
and end = (1- (expt 10 n))
for i from start to end
do (loop for j from start to end
for num = (* i j)
when (palindrome? num)
maximize num)))
Here's another optimization:
(defun largest-palindrome (n)
(loop with start = (expt 10 (1- n))
and end = (1- (expt 10 n))
for i from start to end
do (loop for j from i to end
for num = (* i j)
when (palindrome? num)
maximize num)))
Making the inner loop start from i instead of start avoids the redundancy of checking both M*N and N*M.

Answer 3

The example below is a bit contrived, but it finds the palindrome in a lot less iterations than your original approach:
(defun number-to-list (n)
(loop with i = n
with result = nil
while (> i 0) do
(multiple-value-bind (a b)
(floor i 10)
(setf i a result (cons b result)))
finally (return result)))
(defun palindrome-p (n)
(loop with source = (coerce n 'vector)
for i from 0 below (floor (length source) 2) do
(when (/= (aref source i) (aref source (- (length source) i 1)))
(return))
finally (return t)))
(defun suficiently-large-palindrome-of-3 ()
;; This is a fast way to find some sufficiently large palindrome
;; that fits our requirement, but may not be the largest
(loop with left = 999
with right = 999
for maybe-palindrome = (number-to-list (* left right)) do
(cond
((palindrome-p maybe-palindrome)
(return (values left right)))
((> left 99)
(decf left))
((> right 99)
(setf left 999 right (1- right)))
(t ; unrealistic situation
; we didn't find any palindromes
; which are multiples of two 3-digit
; numbers
(return)))))
(defun largest-palindrome-of-3 ()
(multiple-value-bind (left right)
(suficiently-large-palindrome-of-3)
(loop with largest = (* left right)
for i from right downto left do
(loop for j from 100 to 999
for maybe-larger = (* i j) do
(when (and (> maybe-larger largest)
(palindrome-p (number-to-list maybe-larger)))
(setf largest maybe-larger)))
finally (return largest)))) ; 906609
It also tries to optimize a bit the way you check that number is a palindrome, for an additional memory cost though. It also splits the number into a list using somewhat longer code, but making less divisions (which are somewhat computationally expensive).
The whole idea is based on the concept that the largest palindrome will be somewhere more towards the... largest multipliers, so, by starting off with 99 * 99 you will have a lot of bad matches. Instead, it tries to go from 999 * 999 and first find some palindrome, which looks good, doing so in a "sloppy" way. And then it tries hard to improve upon the initial find.