Scala parameterized methods and arithmetic operations - scala

I am trying to get a simple piece of functionality to work where I have a List of Lists and I want to do some mathematical operations on the data (-, + , *, /). I want the method to take any of the following types (Int, Float, Double).
here is what I have tried:
def doSomething[T](data: List[T]){
data reduceLeft(_ / _)
}
the following is displayed: value / is not a member of type parameter T.
How do I get this to work for the AnyVal types (Double, Int, Float)?
Update I tried implementing the suggestion in the following code:
def dot[T](l: List[List[T]])(implicit num: Numeric[T]) =
{
for (row <- data)
yield for(col <- l)
yield row zip col map {a => num.times(a._1 , a._2)} reduceLeft (_+_)
and get the error: type mismatch; found : a._1.type (with underlying type T) required: T
Is there any way to get around that?

For division:
def foo[T](l: List[T])(implicit num: Numeric[T]) = num match{
case i: Integral[_] => l reduceLeft (i.quot(_, _))
case fr: Fractional[_] => l reduceLeft (fr.div(_, _))}
For +, - and * it's easier (plus, minus, times respectively):
def foo[T](l: List[T])(implicit num: Numeric[T]) = l reduceLeft (num.plus(_, _))

Related

Reduce with andThen across functions of different types

I want to programmatically compose several functions. If these functions are all of the same type, I can do the following:
def a(x: Int): Int = x+1
def b(y: Int): Int = y/2
def c(z: Int): Int = z*4
val f1 = (a _) andThen (b _) andThen (c _)
val f2 = List((a _), (b _), (c _)).reduce(_ andThen _)
At which point f1 and f2 are the same thing, and this compiles because the List that defines f2 is a List[Function1[Int,Int]]
However, if I want to chain together multiple compatible functions with different types using the same basic reduce technique, I get an error.
def d(x: Double): Int = x.toInt
def e(y: Int): String = y.toString
def f(z: String): Double = z.toDouble*4
//Works fine
val f3 = (d _) andThen (e _) andThen (f _)
//Doesn't compile
val f4 = List((d _), (e _), (f _)).reduce(_ andThen _)
The second option doesn't compile because the list that defines f4 is inferred as a List[Function1[Any,Any]], but I can't figure out if theres a clean type-safe way to take an ordered collection of functions of the form Function1[A,B],Function1[B,C],Function1[C,D],...,Function1[X,Y] and glue them together as a Function1[A,Y] like this.
Any ideas?
There are two problems here. The first (as you've noted) is that the list has a single element type, which will be inferred to be the least upper bound of the types of the elements it contains, which in this case is the extremely boring and useless String with Int with Double => Any. Heterogeneous lists provide one way of addressing this part of the problem, as I'll show in a second.
The second problem is that the _ andThen _ is insufficiently polymorphic (as Bob Dalgleish points out in a comment above). The argument to reduce will be a function with a concrete input type and a concrete output type, so even if we had a heterogeneous list, there's no way we could reduce it with a Function from the Scala standard library—we'd need a polymorphic function value instead.
Fortunately (if you really want to do this kind of thing in Scala), there's a great library called Shapeless that provides nice implementations of both heterogeneous lists and polymorphic functions. For example, you could write the following:
def d(x: Double): Int = x.toInt
def e(y: Int): String = y.toString
def f(z: String): Double = z.toDouble * 4
import shapeless._
object andThen extends Poly2 {
implicit def functions[A, B, C] = at[A => B, B => C](_ andThen _)
}
And then:
scala> val andThenned = HList((d _), (e _), (f _)).reduceLeft(andThen)
andThenned: Double => Double = <function1>
scala> andThenned(13.0)
res0: Double = 52.0
I think this is pretty neat.

Generic scala function whose input is a function of variable arity

I want to define a function f that takes another function g. We require g to take take n Doubles (for some fixed n) and return a Double. The function call f(g) should return the specific value of n.
For example, f(Math.max) = 2 since Math.sin has type (Double, Double) => Double, and f(Math.sin) = 1 since Math.sin has type Double => Double.
How can I define f using Scala generics?
I've tried several forms without success. For example:
def f[A <: Product](g: Product => Double) = {...}
This doesn't work since we cannot extract the value of n at compile time, and cannot constrain the A to contain only Double values.
There is a pattern called Magnet Pattern, created by the Spray team. It does exectly what you want
This was a good excuse for me to look into Shapeless, something I always wanted to do at some point :)
$ git clone git#github.com:milessabin/shapeless.git
...
$ cd shapeless
(1)
Shapeless provides some abstractions over arity, and especially the representation as heterogeneous list (HList). A function of arbitrary arity can be seen as FnHList (a function that takes an HList as argument).
$ sbt shapeless-core/console
scala> import shapeless._
import shapeless._
scala> def isFunction[A](fun: A)(implicit fnh: FnHLister[A]) {}
isFunction: [A](fun: A)(implicit fnh: shapeless.FnHLister[A])Unit
scala> isFunction(math.sqrt _)
scala> isFunction(math.random _)
(2)
Now let's require that the function returns a Double:
scala> def isFunReturningDouble[A](fun: A)(implicit fnh: FnHLister[A] { type Result = Double }) {}
isFunReturningDouble: [A](fun: A)(implicit fnh: shapeless.FnHLister[A]{type Result = Double})Unit
scala> isFunReturningDouble(math.sqrt _)
scala> isFunReturningDouble(math.signum _)
<console>:12: error: could not find implicit value for parameter fnh: shapeless.FnHLister[Int => Int]{type Result = Double}
isFunReturningDouble(math.signum _)
^
(3)
The LUBConstraint type class can witness the upper bound of the argument list:
scala> def isValidFun[A, B <: HList](fun: A)(implicit fnh: FnHLister[A] { type Result = Double; type Args = B }, lub: LUBConstraint[B, Double]) {}
isValidFun: [A, B <: shapeless.HList](fun: A)(implicit fnh: shapeless.FnHLister[A]{type Result = Double; type Args = B}, implicit lub: shapeless.LUBConstraint[B,Double])Unit
scala> isValidFun(math.random _)
scala> isValidFun((i: Int) => i.toDouble)
<console>:12: error: could not find implicit value for parameter lub: shapeless.LUBConstraint[B,Double]
isValidFun((i: Int) => i.toDouble)
^
(4)
Now we still need to extract the arity somehow. On the type level this would be Length which is provided for HList. To get a runtime value, another type class ToInt is needed.
Here is the final function:
import shapeless._
def doubleFunArity[A, B <: HList, C <: Nat](fun: A)(implicit
fnh: FnHLister[A] { type Result = Double; type Args = B },
lub: LUBConstraint[B, Double],
len: Length[B] { type Out = C },
res: ToInt[C]
): Int = res()
Test:
scala> doubleFunArity(math.sqrt _)
res15: Int = 1
scala> doubleFunArity(math.random _)
res16: Int = 0
scala> val g: (Double, Double) => Double = math.max _
g: (Double, Double) => Double = <function2>
scala> doubleFunArity(g)
res17: Int = 2
Note that unfortunately many math operations are overloaded, and without strong type constraint, Scala will not give you the Double version automatically, but will use the Int version for some reason:
scala> math.max _
res18: (Int, Int) => Int = <function2>
So I need the indirection math.max _: ((Double, Double) => Double) to make this work.
Not saying that this is the best way to do it in your concrete case, but I think it was a fun exploration.
Probably the easiest solution is to use overloading as
def f(g: () => Double) = 0;
def f(g: (Double) => Double) = 1;
def f(g: (Double, Double) => Double) = 2;
def f(g: (Double, Double, Double) => Double) = 2;
// ...
println(f(Math.pow _));
println(f(Math.sin _));
(You can't check function argument/return types at run time due to type erasure, so I believe you can't create a fully generic function that would satisfy your requirements.)

How does the type inferencer work on reduceLeft?

Further to my other question about reduceLeft, the signature of reduceLeft on Seq is
def reduceLeft [B >: A] (f: (B, A) ⇒ B): B
and we can call it with expressions such as
List(1,2,3,4) reduceLeft (_ + _)
In this example A is Int, so reduceLeft expects a Function2[B >: Int, Int, B]. Regardless of how reduceLeft works (which is irrelevant), how does the type inferencer know that B has a + method, when it could be of type Any?
I think the section 6.26.4 Local Type Inference of the spec sort of explains what's going on. The compiler will look for an optimal type. When the type parameter is contravariant the type chosen will be maximal (in this case Any) and otherwise (invariant or covariant) minimal (in this case Int).
There are a couple examples which I can't really relate to reduceLeft.
What I did notice is the inference seems to happen before looking at the anonymous function passed:
scala> List(1,2).reduceLeft[Any](_.toString + _)
res26: Any = 12
But If I don't help the type inferencer:
scala> List(1,2).reduceLeft(_.toString + _)
<console>:8: error: type mismatch;
found : java.lang.String
required: Int
List(1,2).reduceLeft(_.toString + _)
Edit, I'm wrong the anonymous function is taken into account, this works:
List(1,2).reduceLeft((_:Any).toString + (_:Any).toString)
There is a compiler -Ytyper-debug option that you can run on:
List(1,2).reduceLeft(_+_)
It will show you that somehow the compiler assumes the expected type of the anonymous function is (Int, Int) => Int, then it proceeds to check the _ + _ against it and succeeds and then infers B as Int. Snippet here:
typed immutable.this.List.apply[Int](1, 2).reduceLeft: [B >: Int](f: (B, Int) => B)B
adapted immutable.this.List.apply[Int](1, 2).reduceLeft: [B >: Int](f: (B, Int) => B)B to ?, undetparams=type B
typing ((x$1, x$2) => x$1.$plus(x$2)): pt = (Int, Int) => Int: undetparams=,
// some time later
typed ((x$1: Int, x$2: Int) => x$1.+(x$2)): (Int, Int) => Int
adapted ((x$1: Int, x$2: Int) => x$1.+(x$2)): (Int, Int) => Int to (Int, Int) => Int,
typed immutable.this.List.apply[Int](1, 2).reduceLeft[Int](((x$1: Int, x$2: Int) => x$1.+(x$2))): Int
I don't know why in absence of type ascription the anonymous function is assumed to be (Int, Int) => Int.
If B >: X and the compiler knows X but cannot resolve B it simply assumes B = X.
It is somewhat practical since it only has two options for B and only one is known. So absent knowing which super class it assumes that B is X. You can test the compilers decision making process with the following code.
class Y {
def bar(y:Y) = this
}
case class X( i: Int ) extends Y {
def foo(x:X)=X(i+x.i)
}
val t = new Y bar X(7)
val t2 = X(8) bar X(7)
val res = List(X(1),X(2),X(3)) reduceLeft { _ foo _ }
val res2 = List(X(1),X(2),X(3)) reduceLeft { _ bar _ } // will not compile

How to fold left a list of BigDecimal? ("overloaded method + cannot be applied")

I want to write a short functional sum-function for a List of BigDecimal and tried with:
def sum(xs: List[BigDecimal]): BigDecimal = (0 /: xs) (_ + _)
But I got this error message:
<console>:7: error: overloaded method value + with alternatives:
(x: Int)Int <and>
(x: Char)Int <and>
(x: Short)Int <and>
(x: Byte)Int
cannot be applied to (BigDecimal)
def sum(xs: List[BigDecimal]): BigDecimal = (0 /: xs) (_ + _)
^
If I use Int instead, that function works. I guess this is because BigDecimal's operator overloading of +. What is a good workaround for BigDecimal?
The problem is in inital value. The solution is here and is quite simple:
sum(xs: List[BigDecimal]): BigDecimal = (BigDecimal(0) /: xs) (_ + _)
foldLeft requires an initialization value.
def foldLeft[B](z: B)(f: (B, A) ⇒ B): B
This initialization value (named z) has to be of the same type as the type to fold over:
(BigDecimal(0) /: xs) { (sum: BigDecimal, x: BigDecimal) => sum+x }
// with syntax sugar
(BigDecimal(0) /: xs) { _+_ }
If you add an Int as initialization value the foldLeft will look like:
(0 /: xs) { (sum: Int, x: BigDecimal) => sum+x } // error: not possible to add a BigDecimal to Int
In a situation like this (where the accumulator has the same type as the items in the list) you can start the fold by adding the first and second items in the list—i.e., you don't necessarily need a starting value. Scala's reduce provides this kind of fold:
def sum(xs: List[BigDecimal]) = xs.reduce(_ + _)
There are also reduceLeft and reduceRight versions if your operation isn't associative.
As others have already said, you got an error because of initial value, so correct way is to wrap it in BigDecimal. In addition, if you have number of such functions and don't want to write BigDecimal(value) everywhere, you can create implicit convert function like this:
implicit def intToBigDecimal(value: Int) = BigDecimal(value)
and next time Scala will silently convert all your Ints (including constants) to BigDecimal. In fact, most programming languages use silent conversions from integers to decimal or even from decimals to fractions (e.g. Lisps), so it seems to be very logical move.

General 'map' function for Scala tuples?

I would like to map the elements of a Scala tuple (or triple, ...) using a single function returning type R. The result should be a tuple (or triple, ...) with elements of type R.
OK, if the elements of the tuple are from the same type, the mapping is not a problem:
scala> implicit def t2mapper[A](t: (A,A)) = new { def map[R](f: A => R) = (f(t._1),f(t._2)) }
t2mapper: [A](t: (A, A))java.lang.Object{def map[R](f: (A) => R): (R, R)}
scala> (1,2) map (_ + 1)
res0: (Int, Int) = (2,3)
But is it also possible to make this solution generic, i.e. to map tuples that contain elements of different types in the same manner?
Example:
class Super(i: Int)
object Sub1 extends Super(1)
object Sub2 extends Super(2)
(Sub1, Sub2) map (_.i)
should return
(1,2): (Int, Int)
But I could not find a solution so that the mapping function determines the super type of Sub1 and Sub2. I tried to use type boundaries, but my idea failed:
scala> implicit def t2mapper[A,B](t: (A,B)) = new { def map[X >: A, X >: B, R](f: X => R) = (f(t._1),f(t._2)) }
<console>:8: error: X is already defined as type X
implicit def t2mapper[A,B](t: (A,B)) = new { def map[X >: A, X >: B, R](f: X => R) = (f(t._1),f(t._2)) }
^
<console>:8: error: type mismatch;
found : A
required: X
Note: implicit method t2mapper is not applicable here because it comes after the application point and it lacks an explicit result type
implicit def t2mapper[A,B](t: (A,B)) = new { def map[X >: A, X >: B, R](f: X => R) = (f(t._1),f(t._2)) }
Here X >: B seems to override X >: A. Does Scala not support type boundaries regarding multiple types? If yes, why not?
I think this is what you're looking for:
implicit def t2mapper[X, A <: X, B <: X](t: (A,B)) = new {
def map[R](f: X => R) = (f(t._1), f(t._2))
}
scala> (Sub1, Sub2) map (_.i)
res6: (Int, Int) = (1,2)
A more "functional" way to do this would be with 2 separate functions:
implicit def t2mapper[A, B](t: (A, B)) = new {
def map[R](f: A => R, g: B => R) = (f(t._1), g(t._2))
}
scala> (1, "hello") map (_ + 1, _.length)
res1: (Int, Int) = (2,5)
I’m not a scala type genius but maybe this works:
implicit def t2mapper[X, A<:X, B<:X](t: (A,B)) = new { def map[A, B, R](f: X => R) = (f(t._1),f(t._2)) }
This can easily be achieved using shapeless, although you'll have to define the mapping function first before doing the map:
object fun extends Poly1 {
implicit def value[S <: Super] = at[S](_.i)
}
(Sub1, Sub2) map fun // typed as (Int, Int), and indeed equal to (1, 2)
(I had to add a val in front of i in the definition of Super, this way: class Super(val i: Int), so that it can be accessed outside)
The deeper question here is "why are you using a Tuple for this?"
Tuples are hetrogenous by design, and can contain an assortment of very different types. If you want a collection of related things, then you should be using ...drum roll... a collection!
A Set or Sequence will have no impact on performance, and would be a much better fit for this kind of work. After all, that's what they're designed for.
For the case when the two functions to be applied are not the same
scala> Some((1, "hello")).map((((_: Int) + 1 -> (_: String).length)).tupled).get
res112: (Int, Int) = (2,5)
The main reason I have supplied this answer is it works for lists of tuples (just change Some to List and remove the get).