Confused about format function in elisp - emacs

I want to get output like 0 1, but the code below just print nil. I use type-of to test the (first hex), it is integer. %d should work, right? If I use message, it works in Emacs.
(defun draw-board (board)
(loop for x below 2
for hex = (aref board x)
do (format "%d " (first hex))))
(draw-board [(0 2) (1 2) (0 3) (0 2)])

1- emacs lisp format is not Common Lisp format. Notice the missing
argument!
(format "%d" 42) == (cl:format NIL "~D" 42)
2- therefore the only things your loop does are:
- to check that board is a vector with at least two slots. (aref
signals an error if the index is out of bound).
- to check that each of those two slots are lists (first signals an
error when passed a non list).
- to check that the first element of each each of those two slots
are numbers. (format signals an error when you pass a non number
for %d).
That's all.
You never said you wanted to print anything.
To print something, you must put it in a buffer, and use
ps-print-buffer:
(defun draw-board (board)
(with-temp-buffer
(loop for x below 2
for hex = (aref board x)
do (insert (format "%d " (first hex))))
(ps-print-buffer)))

Related

Average of entered numbers

In this program I want to get the average of the entered numbers not only the sum but I can't get the average and the "Enter a number: " keeps repeating.
here's my code
(princ"Enter how many numbers to read: ")
(defparameter a(read))
(defun num ()
(loop repeat a
sum (progn
(format *query-io* "Enter a number: ")
(finish-output)
(parse-integer (read-line *query-io* )))))
(format t "Sum: ~d ~%" (num))
(format t "Average: ~d ~%" (/ (num) a)) ;; I can't get the output for the average and the "Enter a number: " keeps repeating.
Enter how many numbers to read: 5
Enter a number: 4
Enter a number: 3
Enter a number: 2
Enter a number: 1
Enter a number: 3
Sum: 13
Enter a number: <-------
The reason that your prompt is repeating is because your code is calling NUM twice. Each time NUM is called, it asks for more input. A basic fix is to wrap the part of your program that shows the results in a function, just calling NUM once and binding the results to a variable:
(princ "Enter how many numbers to read: ")
(defparameter a (read))
(defun num ()
(loop repeat a
sum (progn
(format *query-io* "Enter a number: ")
(finish-output)
(parse-integer (read-line *query-io*)))))
(defun stats ()
(let ((sum (num)))
(format t "Sum: ~d ~%" sum)
(format t "Average: ~d ~%" (/ sum a))))
This "works", but when the code is loaded the user is prompted for input to set the A parameter; then the user needs to call STATS to enter data and see the results. This is awkward to say the least. But there are lots of little problems with the program. Here are some suggestions:
Avoid using a global parameter at all
Call READ-LINE instead of READ to get the count of input elements
Use *QUERY-IO* consistently
Call FINISH-OUTPUT consistently
Use better variable names (A and NUM are not very descriptive here)
Use ~A instead of ~D
The average may not be an integer; it could be a fraction. When its argument is not an integer, FORMAT uses ~A in place of ~D anyway, but it is probably better to be explicit about this. I would just use ~A in both lines of output.
You can write one function to incorporate all of the above suggestions:
(defun stats ()
(format *query-io* "Enter how many numbers to read: ")
(finish-output *query-io*)
(let* ((count (parse-integer (read-line *query-io*)))
(sum
(loop repeat count
do (format *query-io* "Enter a number: ")
(finish-output *query-io*)
summing (parse-integer (read-line *query-io*)))))
(format *query-io* "Sum: ~A~%Average: ~A~%" sum (/ sum count))
(finish-output *query-io*)))
Here COUNT replaces the earlier A, and it is a local variable within the STATS function. LET* is used instead of LET so that SUM can make use of COUNT, but nested LET expressions could be used instead. Note that SUM is bound to the result of the loop, which is the result from the SUMMING keyword. *QUERY-IO* is used consistently throughout, and printed output is always followed by FINISH-OUTPUT when its sequencing is important.
There is a lot that could be done to further improve this code. There is no input validation in this code; that should be added. It might be good to break STATS into smaller functions that separate input, calculation, and output operations. It might be nice to be able to handle floats in input and output.
Sample interaction:
CL-USER> (stats)
Enter how many numbers to read: 3
Enter a number: 1
Enter a number: 2
Enter a number: 2
Sum: 5
Average: 5/3
OP has asked in a comment:
I tried to add (min count) (max count)) in your given code to get the
minimum and maximum value but the output is the sum. How can I get
minimum and maximum number?
This is really a new question, but it points to shortcomings in the design of the above function that were hinted at with "It might be good to break STATS into smaller functions...."
Firstly, note that (MIN COUNT) or (MAX COUNT) will not be helpful, since we want the minimum or maximum of the data entered; COUNT is just the number of values that the user wants to enter. The original code directly summed the values as they were input; a more flexible approach would be to collect the input in a list, and then to operate on that list to get the desired results. The MIN and MAX functions operate on a number of values, not on a list, so we will need to use APPLY to apply them to a list of results. We can also apply + to the list of input values to get the sum of the elements in the list:
(defun stats ()
(format *query-io* "Enter how many numbers to read: ")
(finish-output *query-io*)
(let* ((count (parse-integer (read-line *query-io*)))
(data
(loop repeat count
do (format *query-io* "Enter a number: ")
(finish-output *query-io*)
collecting (parse-integer (read-line *query-io*))))
(min (apply #'min data))
(max (apply #'max data))
(sum (apply #'+ data))
(avg (float (/ sum count))))
(format *query-io* "Minimum: ~A~%" min)
(format *query-io* "Maximum: ~A~%" max)
(format *query-io* "Sum: ~A~%" sum)
(format *query-io* "Average: ~A~%" avg)
(finish-output *query-io*)))
Here the loop collects input in a list by using the COLLECTING keyword, and the result is bound to DATA. The desired calculations are made, and the results are printed.
This works, but it is really begging for a better design; there are too many different things happening in one function. You could move the display code into another function, returning MIN, MAX, etc. in a list or as multiple values. But then it would be even more flexible if the calculations were made independent of the code that gathers input by allowing STATS to return a list of input. The calculation of AVG requires COUNT; the new code could return COUNT too, but it is not needed anyway, since we can call LENGTH on the input list to get a count. One wonders why we need the user to enter a number of elements at all. What if we took numbers from the user until a non-numeric value is entered?
This answer has already gotten quite long, but below is some code that breaks the STATS function into smaller parts, refining it in the process. By using smaller function definitions that are more focused on their tasks, the functions can be reused or combined with other functions to accomplish other goals more easily, and it will be easier to modify the definitions when changes are required. The final function, PROMPT-FOR-STATS-REPORT does essentially what the earlier STATS function did. It is now much easier to add new functionality by modifying PROMPT-FOR-STATS. New accessor functions can be added as needed when PROMPT-FOR-STATS is augmented, and PROMPT-FOR-STATS-REPORT can be modified to display results differently, or to access and display newly added functionality.
This is by no means the optimal solution to OP's problem, if there is an "optimal" solution. I encourage OP to try to find ways to improve upon the design of this code. There are some comments scattered throughout:
;;; Here is a function to prompt for an integer. Since we want to receive
;;; non-numeric input `:JUNK-ALLOWED` is set to `T`. When input that can not be
;;; parsed into an integer is provided, `PARSE-INTEGER` will now return `NIL`
;;; instead of signalling an error condition.
(defun prompt-for-int (msg)
(format *query-io* "~A" msg)
(finish-output *query-io*)
(parse-integer (read-line *query-io*) :junk-allowed t))
;;; Here is a function to prompt for input until some non-numeric value
;;; is given. The results are collected in a list and returned.
(defun prompt-for-ints (msg)
(format *query-io* "~A~%" msg)
(finish-output *query-io*)
(let (input-num)
(loop
do (setf input-num (prompt-for-int "Enter a number ENTER to quit: "))
while input-num
collecting input-num)))
;;; Some functions to calculate statistics:
(defun count-of-nums (xs)
(length xs))
(defun min-of-nums (xs)
(apply #'min xs))
(defun max-of-nums (xs)
(apply #'max xs))
(defun sum-of-nums (xs)
(apply #'+ xs))
(defun avg-of-nums (xs)
(float (/ (sum-of-nums xs)
(count-of-nums xs))))
;;; A function to prompt the user for input which returns a list of statistics.
(defun prompt-for-stats (msg)
(let ((data (prompt-for-ints msg)))
(list (count-of-nums data)
(min-of-nums data)
(max-of-nums data)
(sum-of-nums data)
(avg-of-nums data))))
;;; Accessor functions for a list of statistics:
(defun get-stats-count (stats)
(first stats))
(defun get-stats-min (stats)
(second stats))
(defun get-stats-max (stats)
(third stats))
(defun get-stats-sum (stats)
(fourth stats))
(defun get-stats-avg (stats)
(fifth stats))
;;; A function that prompts for input and displays results.
(defun prompt-for-stats-report ()
(let ((results (prompt-for-stats "Enter some integers to view statistics")))
(format *query-io* "Count: ~A~%" (get-stats-count results))
(format *query-io* "Minimum: ~A~%" (get-stats-min results))
(format *query-io* "Maximum: ~A~%" (get-stats-max results))
(format *query-io* "Sum: ~A~%" (get-stats-sum results))
(format *query-io* "Average: ~A~%" (get-stats-avg results))
(finish-output *query-io*)))
Sample interaction:
CL-USER> (prompt-for-stats-report)
Enter some integers to view statistics
Enter a number ENTER to quit: 1
Enter a number ENTER to quit: 2
Enter a number ENTER to quit: 1
Enter a number ENTER to quit:
Count: 3
Minimum: 1
Maximum: 2
Sum: 4
Average: 1.3333334

Invalid specialized parameter in method lambda list

I am trying to write a simple coin flip program in Common Lisp. This is the code I have
(defun yn
(let ht (random 1)
(if (eq ht 1)
(princ heads)
(princ tails))
)
)
It seems simple enough, but I keep getting the error:
"Invalid specialized parameter in method lambda list (LET HT (RANDOM 1) (IF (EQ HT 1) (PRINC HEADS) (PRINC TAILS))): (IF (EQ HT 1) (PRINC HEADS) (PRINC TAILS))"
)
What could be wrong here?
For defun without parameters, there should be an empty parameter list, like the following:
(defun yn ()
(let ((ht (random 2)))
(if (eq ht 1)
(princ heads)
(princ tails))))
Your defun is malformed (lacking an empty parameter list).
Your let is malformed (the general structure is (let (<bind-spec>...) <body>), where the binding is either a symbol (initially bound to nil) or a (<symbol> <value>) list.
Both heads and tails seem to be unbound, it's not clear if you mean the literal symbols or are using dynamically-scoped variables.
Your call to random probably doesn't do what you want, the HyperSpec says "Returns a pseudo-random number that is a non-negative number less than limit and of the same type as limit. ", so (random 1) can only return 0.
Below is a cleaned-up version that addresses all of these points, assuming you're after having the literal symbols heads and tails printed.
(defun yn ()
(let ((ht (random 2)))
(if (eq ht 1)
(princ 'heads)
(princ 'tails)))

Define a syntax error in Lisp function

I am bad at Lisp. Help me please to find a syntax error. I need to write a function which swaps two elements in list. This function must consist loop-cycle. Here is what if have so far.
(defun swap-two-element(z x y)
(let ((newlist nil) (newlist2 nil) (copyz z) (copyz2 z) (newx nil))
(loop
(when (= (- (length z) (length copyz2)) y)
(return (set newx car z)))
(setq newlist2 (append newlist2(car copyz2))
copyz2 (cdr copyz2)))))
Call example: (swap-two-element '(a b c d) 2 3)
Replace the word set with the word values and you are good to go.
PS. You need to address the warnings though, and explain what the function is supposed to do so that we could help you with the algorithm.
You really need to tidy up your question. The title says nothing, the code is badly formatted and you really need to play around with loop to get started. I won't give you your solution since you need to learn this by trying. Here is an example you can make use of to do your assignment.
;; this orders a list by their odd index
;; NB: index starts at zero so first element is even
(defun order-odd-index (list)
(loop :for element :in list ; iterates your list
:for index :from 0 ; starts from 0 and goes on
:if (oddp index) ; if in a loop
:collect element :into odd-list ; variable is automatically created
:else ; else in a loop
:collect element :into even-list
:finally (return (append odd-list even-list)))) ; what to do in the end
(order-odd-index '(4 67 3 2 7 9)) ; ==> (67 2 9 4 3 7)
I use keywords (like :for instead of for) to indicate what symbols are loop keywords and what are not. It's optional but I think it looks a lot cleaner.
Now your problem can be solved with collecting element into 5 variables. Two of them is when index is equal to one of the places (given as arguments) to be switched the other 3 are before, in between and greater. In the finally you can just append those variables in the correct order and you're done.

Convert char to number

I'm in the process of reading a flat file - to use the characters read I want to convert them into numbers. I wrote a little function that converts a string to a vector:
(defun string-to-vec (strng)
(setf strng (remove #\Space strng))
(let ((vec (make-array (length strng))))
(dotimes (i (length strng) vec)
(setf (svref vec i) (char strng i)))))
However this returns a vector with character entries. Short of using char-code to convert unit number chars to numbers in a function, is there a simple way to read numbers as numbers from a file?
In addition to Rainer's answer, let me mention read-from-string (note that Rainer's code is more efficient than repeated application of read-from-string because it only creates a stream once) and parse-integer (alas, there is no parse-float).
Note that if you are reading a CSV file, you should probably use an off-the-shelf library instead of writing your own.
Above is shorter:
? (map 'vector #'identity (remove #\Space "123"))
#(#\1 #\2 #\3)
You can convert a string:
(defun string-to-vector-of-numbers (string)
(coerce
(with-input-from-string (s string)
(loop with end = '#:end
for n = (read s nil end)
until (eql n end)
unless (numberp n) do (error "Input ~a is not a number." n)
collect n))
'vector))
But it would be easier to read the numbers directly form the file. Use READ, which can read numbers.
Note that read-like functions are affected by reader macros.
Pick an example:
* (defvar *foo* 'bar)
*FOO*
* (read-from-string "#.(setq *foo* 'baz)")
BAZ
19
* *foo*
BAZ
As you can see read-from-string can implicitly set a variable. You can disable the #. reader macro by setting *read-eval* to nil but anyway if you have only integers on the input then consider using parse-integer instead.

Common Lisp: "no non-white-space characters in string"

For Project Euler Problem 8, I am told to parse through a 1000 digit number.
This is a brute-force Lisp solution, which basically goes through every 5 consecutive digits and multiplies them from start to finish, and returns the largest one at the end of the loop.
The code:
(defun pep8 ()
(labels ((product-of-5n (n)
(eval (append '(*)
(loop for x from n to (+ n 5)
collect (parse-integer
1000digits-str :start x :end (+ x 1)))))))
(let ((largestproduct 0))
(do ((currentdigit 0 (1+ currentdigit)))
((> currentdigit (- (length 1000digits-str) 6)) (return largestproduct))
(when (> (product-of-5n currentdigit) largestproduct)
(setf largestproduct (product-of-5n currentdigit)))))))
It compiles without any warnings, but upon running it I get:
no non-whitespace characters in string "73167176531330624919225119674426574742355349194934...".
[Condition of type SB-INT:SIMPLE-PARSE-ERROR]
I checked to see if the local function product-of-5n was working by writing it again as a global function:
(defun product-of-5n (n)
(eval (append '(*)
(loop for x from n to (+ n 5)
collect (parse-integer
1000digits-str :start x :end (+ x 1))))))
This compiled without warnings and upon running it, appears to operate perfectly. For example,
CL_USER> (product-of-5n 1) => 882
Which appears to be correct since the first five digits are 7, 3, 1, 6 and 7.
As for 1000digits-str, it was simply compiled with defvar, and with Emacs' longlines-show-hard-newlines, I don't think there are any white-space characters in the string, because that's what SBCL is complaining about, right?
I don't think there are any white-space characters in the string, because that's what SBCL is complaining about, right?
The error-message isn't complaining about the presence of white-space, but about the absence of non-white-space. But it's actually a bit misleading: what the message should say is that there's no non-white-space in the specific substring to be parsed. This is because you ran off the end of the string, so were parsing a zero-length substring.
Also, product-of-5n is not defined quite right. It's just happenstance that (product-of-5n 1) returns the product of the first five digits. Strings are indexed from 0, so (product-of-5n 1) starts with the second character; and the function iterates from n + 0 to n + 5, which is a total of six characters; so (product-of-5n 1) returns 3 × 1 × 6 × 7 × 1 × 7, which happens to be the same as 7 × 3 × 1 × 6 × 7 × 1.
EVAL is not a good idea.
Your loop upper bound is wrong.
Otherwise I tried it with the number string and it works.
It's also Euler 8, not 9.
This is my version:
(defun euler8 (string)
(loop for (a b c d e) on (map 'list #'digit-char-p string)
while e maximize (* a b c d e)))
since I don't know common lisp, I slightly modified your code to fit with elisp. As far as finding bugs go and besides what have been said ((product-of-5n 1) should return 126), the only comment I have is that in (pep8), do length-4 instead of -6 (otherwise you loose last 2 characters). Sorry that I don't know how to fix your parse-error (I used string-to-number instead), but here is the code in case you find it useful:
(defun product-of-5n (n) ;take 5 characters from a string "1000digits-str" starting with nth one and output their product
(let (ox) ;define ox as a local variable
(eval ;evaluate
(append '(*) ;concatenate the multiplication sign to the list of 5 numbers (that are added next)
(dotimes (x 5 ox) ;x goes from 0 to 4 (n is added later to make it go n to n+4), the output is stored in ox
(setq ox (cons ;create a list of 5 numbers and store it in ox
(string-to-number
(substring 1000digits-str (+ x n) (+ (+ x n) 1) ) ;get the (n+x)th character
) ;end convert char to number
ox ) ;end cons
) ;end setq
) ;end dotimes, returns ox outside of do, ox has the list of 5 numbers in it
) ;end append
) ;end eval
) ;end let
)
(defun pep8 () ;print the highest
(let ((currentdigit 0) (largestproduct 0)) ;initialize local variables
(while (< currentdigit (- (length 1000digits-str) 4) ) ;while currentdigit (cd from now on) is less than l(str)-4
;(print (cons "current digit" currentdigit)) ;uncomment to print cd
(when (> (product-of-5n currentdigit) largestproduct) ;when current product is greater than previous largestproduct (lp)
(setq largestproduct (product-of-5n currentdigit)) ;save lp
(print (cons "next good cd" currentdigit)) ;print cd
(print (cons "with corresponding lp" largestproduct)) ;print lp
) ;end when
(setq currentdigit (1+ currentdigit)) ;increment cd
) ;end while
(print (cons "best ever lp" largestproduct) ) ;print best ever lp
) ;end let
)
(setq 1000digits-str "73167176531330624919")
(product-of-5n 1)
(pep9)
which returns (when ran on the first 20 characters)
"73167176531330624919"
126
("next good cd" . 0)
("with corresponding lp" . 882)
("next good cd" . 3)
("with corresponding lp" . 1764)
("best ever lp" . 1764)
I've done this problem some time ago, and there's one thing you are missing in the description of the problem. You need to read consequent as starting at any offset into a sting, not only the offsets divisible by 5. Therefore the solution to the problem will be more like the following:
(defun pe-8 ()
(do ((input (remove #\Newline
"73167176531330624919225119674426574742355349194934
96983520312774506326239578318016984801869478851843
85861560789112949495459501737958331952853208805511
12540698747158523863050715693290963295227443043557
66896648950445244523161731856403098711121722383113
62229893423380308135336276614282806444486645238749
30358907296290491560440772390713810515859307960866
70172427121883998797908792274921901699720888093776
65727333001053367881220235421809751254540594752243
52584907711670556013604839586446706324415722155397
53697817977846174064955149290862569321978468622482
83972241375657056057490261407972968652414535100474
82166370484403199890008895243450658541227588666881
16427171479924442928230863465674813919123162824586
17866458359124566529476545682848912883142607690042
24219022671055626321111109370544217506941658960408
07198403850962455444362981230987879927244284909188
84580156166097919133875499200524063689912560717606
05886116467109405077541002256983155200055935729725
71636269561882670428252483600823257530420752963450"))
(tries 0 (1+ tries))
(result 0))
((= tries 5) result)
(setq result
(max result
(do ((max 0)
(i 0 (+ 5 i)))
((= i (length input)) max)
(setq max
(do ((j i (1+ j))
(current 1)
int-char)
((= j (+ 5 i)) (max current max))
(setq int-char (- (char-code (aref input j)) 48))
(case int-char
(0 (return max))
(1)
(t (setq current (* current int-char))))))))
input (concatenate 'string (subseq input 1) (subseq input 0 1)))))
It's a tad ugly, but it illustrates the idea.
EDIT sorry, I've confused two of your functions. So that like was incorrect.