Most concise way to combine sequence elements - scala

Say we have two sequences and we and we want to combine them using some method
val a = Vector(1,2,3)
val b = Vector(4,5,6)
for example addition could be
val c = a zip b map { i => i._1 + i._2 }
or
val c = a zip b map { case (i, j) => i + j }
The repetition in the second part makes me think this should be possible in a single operation. I can't see any built-in method for this. I suppose what I really want is a zip method that skips the creation and extraction of tuples.
Is there a prettier / more concise way in plain Scala, or maybe with Scalaz? If not, how would you write such a method and pimp it onto sequences so I could write something like
val c = a zipmap b (_+_)

There is
(a,b).zipped.map(_ + _)
which is probably close enough to what you want to not bother with an extension. (You can't use it point-free, unfortunately, since the implicits on zipped don't like that.)

Rex's answer is certainly the easier way out for most cases. However, zipped is more limited than zip, so you might stumble upon cases where it won't work.
For those cases, you might try this:
val c = a zip b map (Function tupled (_+_))
Or, alternatively, if you do have a function or method that does what you want, you have this option as well:
def sumFunction = (a: Int, b: Int) => a + b
def sumMethod(a: Int, b: Int) = a + b
val c1 = a zip b map sumFunction.tupled
val c2 = a zip b map (sumMethod _).tupled
Using .tupled won't work in the first case because Scala won't be able to infer the type of the function.

Related

How to get a Long typed production of a Seq[Int] in Scala?

Suppose val s = Seq[Int] and I would like to get the production of all its elements. The value is guaranteed to be greater than Int.MaxValue but less than Long.MaxValue so I hope the value to be a Long type.
It seems I cannot use product/foldLeft/reduceLeft due to the fact Long and Int are different types without any relations; therefore I need to write a for-loop myself. Is there any decent way to achieve this goal?
Note: I'm just asking the possibility to use builtin libraries but still fine with "ugly" code below.
def product(a: Seq[Int]): Long = {
var p = 1L
for (e <- a) p = p * e
p
}
There's no need to mess about with asInstanceOf or your own loop. foldLeft works just fine
val xs = Seq(1,1000000000,1000000)
xs.foldLeft(1L)((a,e) => a*e)
//> res0: Long = 1000000000000000
How about
def product(s: Seq[Int]) = s.map(_.asInstanceOf[Long]).fold(1L)( _ * _ )
In fact, having re-read your question and learnt about the existence of product itself, you could just do:
def product(s: Seq[Int]) = s.map(_.asInstanceOf[Long]).product

Cross product of two Strings

I am just starting out in Scala and for my first project, I am writing a Sudoku solver. I came across a great site explaining Sudoku and how to go about writing a solver: http://norvig.com/sudoku.html and from this site I am trying to create the corresponding Scala code.
The squares of a Sudoku grid are basically the cross product of the row name and the column name, this can be generated really easily in Python using a list comprehension:
# cross("AB", "12") = ["A1", "A2", "B1", "B2"]
def cross(A, B):
"Cross product of elements in A and elements in B."
return [a+b for a in A for b in B]
It took me awhile to think about how to do this elegantly in Scala, and this is what I came up with:
// cross("AB", "12") => List[String]("A1", "A2", "B1", "B2")
def cross(r: String, c: String) = {
for(i <- r; j <- c) yield i + "" + j
}.toList
I was just curious if there is a better way to doing this in Scala? It would seem much cleaner if I could do yield i + j but that results in an Int for some reason. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
Yes, addition for Char is defined by adding their integer equivalents. I think your code is fine. You could also use string interpolation, and spare the toList (you will get an immutable indexed sequence instead which is just fine):
def cross(r: String, c: String) = for(i <- r; j <- c) yield s"$i$j"
EDIT
An IndexedSeq is at least as powerful as List. Just check your successive usage of the result. Does it require a List? E.g. do you want to use head and tail and pattern match with ::. If not, there is no reason why you should need to enforce List. If you use map and flatMap on the input arguments instead of the syntactic sugar with for, you can use the collection.breakOut argument to directly map to a List:
def cross(r: String, c: String): List[String] =
r.flatMap(i => c.map(j => s"$i$j"))(collection.breakOut)
Not as pretty, but faster than an extra toList.

foldLeft early termination in a Stream[Boolean]?

I have a:
val a : Stream[Boolean] = ...
When I foldLeft it as follows
val b = a.foldLeft(false)(_||_)
Will it terminate when it finds the first true value in the stream? If not, how do I make it to?
It would not terminate on the first true. You can use exists instead:
val b = a.exists(identity)
No it won't terminate early. This is easy to illustrate:
val a : Stream[Boolean] = Stream.continually(true)
// won't terminate because the strea
val b = a.foldLeft(false)(_||_)
stew showed that a simple solution to terminate early, in your specific case, is
val b = a.exists(identity).
Even simpler, this is equivalent to:
val b = a.contains(true)
A more general solution which unlike the above is also applicable if you actually need a fold, is to use recursion (note that here I am assuming the stream is non-empty, for simplicity):
def myReduce( s: Stream[Boolean] ): Boolean = s.head || myReduce( s.tail )
val b = myReduce(a)
Now the interesting thing of the recursive solution is how it can be used in a more general use case where you actually need to accumulate the values in some way (which is what fold is for) and still terminate early. Say that you want to add the values of a stream of ints using an add method that will "terminate" early in a way similar to || (in this case, it does not evaluate its right hand side if the left hand side is > 100):
def add(x: Int, y: => Int) = if ( x >= 100 ) x else x + y
val a : Stream[Int] = Stream.range(0, Int.MaxValue)
val b = a.foldLeft(0)(add(_, _))
The last line won't terminate, much like in your example. But you can fix it like this:
def myReduce( s: Stream[Int] ): Int = add( s.head, myReduce( s.tail ) )
val b = myReduce(a)
WARNING: there is a significant downside to this approach though: myReduce here is not tail recursive, meaning that it will blow your stack if iterating over too many elements of the stream.
Yet another solution, which does nto blow the stack, is this:
val b = a.takeWhile(_ <= 100).foldLeft(0)(_ + _)
But I fear I have gone really too far on the off topic side, so I'd better stop now.
You could use takeWhile to extract the prefix of the Stream on which you want to operate and then apply foldLeft to that.

Scalacheck: Generate list corresponding to list of generators

I want to generate a list of integers corresponding to a list of generators in ScalaCheck.
import org.scalacheck._
import Arbitrary.arbitrary
val smallInt = Gen.choose(0,10)
val bigInt = Gen.choose(1000, 1000000)
val zeroOrOneInt = Gen.choose(0, 1)
val smallEvenInt = smallInt suchThat (_ % 2 == 0)
val gens = List(smallInt, bigInt, zeroOrOneInt, smallEvenInt)
//val listGen: Gen[Int] = ??
//println(listGen.sample) //should print something like List(2, 2000, 0, 6)
For the given gens, I would like to create a generator listGen whose valid sample can be List(2, 2000, 0, 6).
Here is my first attempt using tuples.
val gensTuple = (smallInt, bigInt, zeroOrOneInt, smallEvenInt)
val tupleGen = for {
a <- gensTuple._1
b <- gensTuple._2
c <- gensTuple._3
d <- gensTuple._4
} yield (a, b, c, d)
println(tupleGen.sample) // prints Some((1,318091,0,6))
This works, but I don't want to use tuples since the list of generators(gens) is created dynamically
and the size of the list is not fixed. Is there a way to do it with Lists?
I want the use the generator of the list(listGen) in scalacheck forAll property checking.
This looks like a toy problem but this is
the best I could do to create a standalone snippet reproducing the actual issue I am
facing.
How about using the Gen.sequence method? It transforms an Iterable[Gen[T]] into a Gen[C[T]], where C can be List:
def sequence[C[_],T](gs: Iterable[Gen[T]])(implicit b: Buildable[T,C]): Gen[C[T]] =
...
Just use Gen.sequence, but be careful as it will try to return a java.util.ArrayList[T] if you don't fully parameterize it (bug).
Full working example:
def genIntList(): Gen[List[Int]] = {
val gens = List(Gen.chooseNum(1, 2), Gen.chooseNum(3, 4))
Gen.sequence[List[Int], Int](gens)
}
println(genIntList.sample.get) // prints: List(1,4)
EDIT: Please disregard, this doesn't answer the asker's question
I can't comment on posts yet, so I'll have to venture a guess here. I presume the function 'sample' applies to the generators
Any reason why you can't do:
gens map (t=>t.sample)
For a more theoretical answer: the method you want is traverse, which is equivalent to sequence compose map although it might be more efficient. It is of the general form:
def traverse[C[_]: Traverse, F[_]: Applicative, A, B](f: A => F[B], t: C[A]): F[C[B]]
It behaves like map but allows you to carry around some extra Applicative structure during the traversal, sequencing it along the way.

scala currying by nested functions or by multiple parameter lists

In Scala, I can define a function with two parameter lists.
def myAdd(x :Int)(y :Int) = x + y
This makes it easy to define a partially applied function.
val plusFive = myAdd(5) _
But, I can accomplish something similar by defining and returning a nested function.
def myOtherAdd(x :Int) = {
def f(y :Int) = x + y
f _
}
Cosmetically, I've moved the underscore, but this still feels like currying.
val otherPlusFive = myOtherAdd(5)
What criteria should I use to prefer one approach over the other?
There are at least four ways to accomplish the same thing:
def myAddA(x: Int, y: Int) = x + y
val plusFiveA: Int => Int = myAddA(5,_)
def myAddB(x: Int)(y : Int) = x + y
val plusFiveB = myAddB(5) _
def myAddC(x: Int) = (y: Int) => x + y
val plusFiveC = myAddC(5)
def myAddD(x: Int) = {
def innerD(y: Int) = x + y
innerD _
}
val plusFiveD = myAddD(5)
You might want to know which is most efficient or which is the best style (for some non-performance based measure of best).
As far as efficiency goes, it turns out that all four are essentially equivalent. The first two cases actually emit exactly the same bytecode; the JVM doesn't know anything about multiple parameter lists, so once the compiler figures it out (you need to help it with a type annotation on the case A), it's all the same under the hood. The third case is also extremely close, but since it promises up front to return a function and specifies it on the spot, it can avoid one internal field. The fourth case is pretty much the same as the first two in terms of work done; it just does the conversion to Function1 inside the method instead of outside.
In terms of style, I suggest that B and C are the best ways to go, depending on what you're doing. If your primary use case is to create a function, not to call in-place with both parameter lists, then use C, because it tells you what it's going to do. (This version is also particularly familiar to people coming from Haskell, for instance.) On the other hand, if you are mostly going to call it in place but will only occasionally curry it, then use B. Again, it says more clearly what it's expected to do.
You could also do this:
def yetAnotherAdd(x: Int) = x + (_: Int)
You should choose the API based on intention. The main reason in Scala to have multiple parameter lists is to help type inference. For instance:
def f[A](x: A)(f: A => A) = ...
f(5)(_ + 5)
One can also use it to have multiple varargs, but I have never seen code like that. And, of course, there's the need for the implicit parameter list, but that's pretty much another matter.
Now, there are many ways you can have functions returning functions, which is pretty much what currying does. You should use them if the API should be thought of as a function which returns a function.
I think it is difficult to get any more precise than this.
Another benefit of having a method return a function directly (instead of using partial application) is that it leads to much cleaner code when using infix notation, allowing you to avoid a bucketload of parentheses and underscores in more complex expressions.
Consider:
val list = List(1,2,3,4)
def add1(a: Int)(b: Int) = a + b
list map { add1(5) _ }
//versus
def add2(a: Int) = a + (_: Int)
list map add2(5)