How to create an Array from Iterable in Scala 2.7.7? - scala

I'm using Scala 2.7.7
I'm experiencing difficulties with access to the documentation, so code snippets would be greate.
Context
I parse an IP address of 4 or 16 bytes in length. I need an array of bytes, to pass into java.net.InetAddress. The result of String.split(separator).map(_.toByte) returns me an instance of Iterable.
I see two ways to solve the problem
use an array of 16 bytes length, fil it from Iterable and return just a part of it, if not all fields are used (Is there a function to fill an array in 2.7.7? How to get the part?).
use a dynamic length container and form an array form it (Which container is suitable?).
Current implementation is published in my other question about memory leaks.

In Scala 2.7, Iterable has a method called copyToArray.

I'd strongly advise you not to use an Array here, unless you have to use a particular library/framework then requires an array.
Normally, you'd be better off with a native Scala type:
String.split(separator).map(_.toByte).toList
//or
String.split(separator).map(_.toByte).toSeq
Update
Assuming that your original string is a delimited list of hostnames, why not just:
val namesStr = "www.sun.com;www.stackoverflow.com;www.scala-tools.com"
val separator = ";"
val addresses = namesStr.split(separator).map(InetAddress.getByName)
That'll give you an iterable of InetAddress instances.

Related

Is it Scala style to use a for loop in Scala/Spark?

I have heard that it is a good practice in Scala to eliminate for loops and do things "the Scala way". I even found a Scala style checker at http://www.scalastyle.org. Are for loops a no-no in Scala? In a course at https://www.udemy.com/course/apache-spark-with-scala-hands-on-with-big-data/learn/lecture/5363798#overview I found this example, which makes me thing that for looks are okay to use, but using the Scala format and syntax of course, in a single line and not like the traditional Java for looks in multiple lines of code. See this example I found from that Udemy course:
val shipList = List("Enterprise", "Defiant", "Voyager", "Deep Space Nine")
for (ship <- shipList) {println(ship)}
That for loop prints this result, as expected:
Enterprise Defiant Voyager Deep Space Nine
I was wondering if using for as in the example above is acceptable Scala style code, or it if is a no-no and why. Thank you!
There is no problem in this for loop, but you can use functions form List object for your work in more functional way.
e.g. instead of using
val shipList = List("Enterprise", "Defiant", "Voyager", "Deep Space Nine")
for (ship <- shipList) {println(ship)}
You can use
val shipList = List("Enterprise", "Defiant", "Voyager", "Deep Space Nine")
shipList.foreach(element => println(element) )
or
shipList.foreach(println)
You can use for loops in Scala, there is no problem with that. But the difference is that this for-loop is not an expression and does not return a value, so you need to use a variable in order to return any value. Scala gives preference to work with immutable types.
In your example you print messages in the console, you need to perform a "side effect" to extract the value breaking the referencial transparency, I mean, you depend on the IO operation to extract a value, or you have mutate a variable which is in the scope which maybe is being accessed by another thread or another concurrent task thereby there is no guarantee that the value that you collect wont be what you are expecting. Obviously, all these hypothesis are related to concurrent/parallel programming and there is where Scala and the immutable style help.
To show the elements of a collection you can use a for loop, but if you want to count the total number of chars in Scala you do that using a expression like:
val chars = shipList.foldLeft(0)((a, b) => a + b.length)
To sum up, most of the times the Scala code that you will read uses immutable style of programming although not always because Scala supports the other way of coding too, but it is weird to find something using a classic Java OOP style, mutating object instances and using getters and setters.

Immutable DataStructures In Scala

We know that Scala supports immutable data structures..i.e each time u update the list it will create a new object and reference in the heap.
Example
val xs:List[Int] = List.apply(22)
val newList = xs ++ (33)
So when i append the second element to a list it will create a new list which will contain both 22 and 33.This exactly works like how immutable String works in Java.
So the question is each time I append a element in the list a new object will be created each time..This ldoes not look efficient to me.
is there some special data structures like persistent data structures are used when dealing with this..Does anyone know about this?
Appending to a list has O(n) complexity and is inefficient. A general approach is to prepend to a list while building it, and finally reverse it.
Now, your question on creating new object still applies to the prepend. Note that since xs is immutable, newList just points to xs for the rest of the data after the prepend.
While #manojlds is correct in his analysis, the original post asked about the efficiency of duplicating list nodes whenever you do an operation.
As #manojlds said, constructing lists often require thinking backwards, i.e., building a list and then reversing it. There are a number of other situations where list building requires "needless" copying.
To that end, there is a mutable data structure available in Scala called ListBuffer which you can use to build up your list and then extract the result as an immutable list:
val xsa = ListBuffer[Int](22)
xsa += 33
val newList = xsa.toList
However, the fact that the list data structure is, in general, immutable means that you have some very useful tools to analyze, de-compose and re-compose the list. Many builtin operations take advantage of the immutability. By extension, your own programs can also take advantage of this immutability.

In Scala, is it possible to simultaneously extend a library and have a default conversion?

For example in the following article
http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=179766
Two separate examples are given:
Automatic string conversion
Addition of append method
Suppose I want to have automatic string conversion AND a new append method. Is this possible? I have been trying to do both at the same time but I get compile errors. Does that mean the two implicits are conflicting?
You can have any number of implicit conversions from a class provided that each one can be unambiguously determined depending on usage. So the array to string and array to rich-array-class-containing-append is fine since String doesn't have an append method. But you can't convert to StringBuffer which has append methods which would interfere with your rich array append.

Adding element at the middle of scala.collection.immutable.list in Java

I am using scala immutable list in Java. I want to add element at the middle of this list. Can someone help me on this please?
Thanks
Let sList be a Scala List, let List be the Scala List type and 42 the element to add:
final int half = sList.size /2;
final List<Int> first = sList.take(half);
final List<Int> second = sList.drop(half);
final List<Int> result = first.$colon$colon$colon( second.$colon$colon( 42 ) );
Vague answer to a vague question:
There are several ways to split an immutable list, e.g. using take and drop. From the parts (including your middle elements), you can assemble a new immutable List, e.g. using :::, which should be called $colon$colon$colon in Java, IIRC.
Please add some code if you need more details.
Hmmm… you are using an immutable list. The meaning of the word "immutable" is that it can not be changed - if there is a way to add an element to the middle of such a list, it would be a bug.
Edit: actually, there are probably ways to add elements in such a list - probably manipulating the corresponding data at the JVM level would do the trick - but that would still be bad, because every other program that uses an immutable list expects that list to always stay the same.

How to delete elements from a transformed collection using a predicate?

If I have an ArrayList<Double> dblList and a Predicate<Double> IS_EVEN I am able to remove all even elements from dblList using:
Collections2.filter(dblList, IS_EVEN).clear()
if dblList however is a result of a transformation like
dblList = Lists.transform(intList, TO_DOUBLE)
this does not work any more as the transformed list is immutable :-)
Any solution?
Lists.transform() accepts a List and helpfully returns a result that is RandomAccess list. Iterables.transform() only accepts an Iterable, and the result is not RandomAccess. Finally, Iterables.removeIf (and as far as I see, this is the only one in Iterables) has an optimization in case that the given argument is RandomAccess, the point of which is to make the algorithm linear instead of quadratic, e.g. think what would happen if you had a big ArrayList (and not an ArrayDeque - that should be more popular) and kept removing elements from its start till its empty.
But the optimization depends not on iterator remove(), but on List.set(), which is cannot be possibly supported in a transformed list. If this were to be fixed, we would need another marker interface, to denote that "the optional set() actually works".
So the options you have are:
Call Iterables.removeIf() version, and run a quadratic algorithm (it won't matter if your list is small or you remove few elements)
Copy the List into another List that supports all optional operations, then call Iterables.removeIf().
The following approach should work, though I haven't tried it yet.
Collection<Double> dblCollection =
Collections.checkedCollection(dblList, Double.class);
Collections2.filter(dblCollection, IS_EVEN).clear();
The checkCollection() method generates a view of the list that doesn't implement List. [It would be cleaner, but more verbose, to create a ForwardingCollection instead.] Then Collections2.filter() won't call the unsupported set() method.
The library code could be made more robust. Iterables.removeIf() could generate a composed Predicate, as Michael D suggested, when passed a transformed list. However, we previously decided not to complicate the code by adding special-case logic of that sort.
Maybe:
Collection<Double> odds = Collections2.filter(dblList, Predicates.not(IS_EVEN));
or
dblList = Lists.newArrayList(Lists.transform(intList, TO_DOUBLE));
Collections2.filter(dblList, IS_EVEN).clear();
As long as you have no need for the intermediate collection, then you can just use Predicates.compose() to create a predicate that first transforms the item, then evaluates a predicate on the transformed item.
For example, suppose I have a List<Double> from which I want to remove all items where the Integer part is even. I already have a Function<Double,Integer> that gives me the Integer part, and a Predicate<Integer> that tells me if it is even.
I can use these to get a new predicate, INTEGER_PART_IS_EVEN
Predicate<Double> INTEGER_PART_IS_EVEN = Predicates.compose(IS_EVEN, DOUBLE_TO_INTEGER);
Collections2.filter(dblList, INTEGER_PART_IS_EVEN).clear();
After some tries, I think I've found it :)
final ArrayList<Integer> ints = Lists.newArrayList(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
Iterables.removeIf(Iterables.transform(ints, intoDouble()), even());
System.out.println(ints);
[1,3,5]
I don't have a solution, instead I found some kind of a problem with Iterables.removeIf() in combination with Lists.TransformingRandomAccessList.
The transformed list implements RandomAccess, thus Iterables.removeIf() delegates to Iterables.removeIfFromRandomAccessList() which depends on an unsupported List.set() operation.
Calling Iterators.removeIf() however would be successful, as the remove() operation IS supported by Lists.TransformingRandomAccessList.
see: Iterables: 147
Conclusion: instanceof RandomAccess does not guarantee List.set().
Addition:
In special situations calling removeIfFromRandomAccessList() even works:
if and only if the elements to erase form a compact group at the tail of the List or all elements are covered by the Predicate.