How do I convert Array[Node] to NodeSeq? - scala

I'm trying to integrate a Lift application into some existing Java code. In one of my snippets, I have an Array of Java objects that I need to map that into a NodeSeq. I can get an Array of Node's, but not a NodeSeq. (At least, not in very functional-looking way).
import scala.xml.NodeSeq
// pretend this is code I can't do anything about
val data = Array("one", "two", "three")
// this is the function I need to write
def foo: NodeSeq = data.map { s => <x>{s}</x> }
// ^
// error: type mismatch;
// found : Array[scala.xml.Elem]
// required: scala.xml.NodeSeq
What's the cleanest way to do this?

scala> import collection.breakOut
import collection.breakOut
scala> def foo: NodeSeq = data.map { s => <x>{s}</x> }(breakOut)
foo: scala.xml.NodeSeq
The method map actually has two argument lists. The first accepts a function, which you passed. The second accepts a CanBuildFrom object which is used to create a builder that then builds the returning sequence. This argument is implicit, so usually the compiler fills it for you. It accepts 3 type parameters: From, T, To. There are several predef implicits (including in object NodeSeq), but none of them matches From=Array, T=Node, To=NodeSeq.
breakOut solves this: it is a generic method that returns a CanBuildFrom instance by searching for an implicit CanBuildFrom[Nothing, T, To]. According to the implicit search rules, any CanBuildFrom that matches T, To and has From > Nothing is acceptable. In this case: canBuildFrom in object Array

I would simply convert map output to sequence (given that Seq[Node] is a super-class of NodeSeq)
scala> def foo: NodeSeq = data.map { s => <x>{s}</x> } toSeq
foo: scala.xml.NodeSeq
or use foldLeft instead of map
scala> def foo: NodeSeq = (Seq[Node]() /: data) {(seq, node)=> seq ++ <x>{node}</x>}
foo: scala.xml.NodeSeq

You are looking for this method on the NodeSeq companion object.
NodeSeq.fromSeq(s: Seq[Node])

Related

Scala reflection: get all constructor arguments of a specific type

I want to create a general purpose method def getOptionalArgs[T](): List[String] such that when passed a type, it returns the list of all arguments to that type that are an Option[_]
E.g. I have a case class Foo(bar: String, baz: Option[String]). In this case, getOptionalArgs[Foo]() would return List("baz").
I've been messing around with the reflections library, and I think I'm close via:
import scala.reflect.runtime.{universe, universe => ru}
def getOptionalArgs[T]() = {
val constructor = ru.typeOf[T].decl(ru.termNames.CONSTRUCTOR).asMethod
...
}
But I cant figure out how map/filter the reflected constructors parameters. What is missing here?
Update
constructor.paramLists.head.map(t => (t.name.toString, t.info)) will return List[(String, reflect.runtime.universe.Type)] = List((bar,Int), (baz,Option[Int])). So Its very close. Now I have to be able to figure out how to test equality between Type, and no, equals doesn't seem to work.
The solution is:
val constructor = ru.typeOf[I].decl(ru.termNames.CONSTRUCTOR).asMethod
val notOptionalColNames = constructor.paramLists.head
.map(t => (t.name.toString, t.info))
.filter(t => !(t._2 <:< typeTag[Option[_]].tpe)).map(_._1)

generic functions that operates on collections in scala

This seems like a simple question that I was sure have been asked before, but couldn't find what I was looking for.
How can one write a function that takes a collection as an argument (or anything that can be treated as a collection), perform some operations on it, and return a collection of the same type?
e.g:
scala> def foo[Repr <% Traversable[String]](repr: Repr) = repr.map(_.size)
foo: [Repr](repr: Repr)(implicit evidence$1: Repr => Traversable[String])Traversable[Int]
this works ok on some collections:
scala> foo(Vector("Hello","World"))
res0: Traversable[Int] = Vector(5, 5)
but surprising when I tried on other collections (e.g. Option):
scala> foo(Some("HelloWorld"))
res1: Traversable[Int] = List(10)
a small problem is the return type Traversable, which ideally would be the type of whatever was given to the method. the bigger problem is the actual implementation type: an Option became a List.
it gets even worse, when tried on classes (that behaves like collections) but have no implicit in scope for them. e.g: Try:
scala> import scala.util._
import scala.util._
scala> foo(Success("HelloWorld"))
<console>:12: error: No implicit view available from scala.util.Success[String] => Traversable[String].
foo(Success("HelloWorld"))
^
So, is there a way, to write a generic function, that when given a "collection like" argument, can operate on it's elements and return the correct type?
ideally, I would like to use it on anything (even Future, and Try) , but for my specific usage, I can do with just real collections & Option.
EDIT:
to illustrate a possible solution, (which forces me to copy&paste code, and so, is not what i'm looking for) is to simply write both functions without view bounds:
scala> :paste
// Entering paste mode (ctrl-D to finish)
def foo[Repr <: Traversable[String]](repr: Repr) = repr.map(_.size)
def foo(repr: Option[String]) = repr.map(_.size)
// Exiting paste mode, now interpreting.
foo: [Repr <: Traversable[String]](repr: Repr)Traversable[Int] <and> (repr: Option[String])Option[Int]
foo: [Repr <: Traversable[String]](repr: Repr)Traversable[Int] <and> (repr: Option[String])Option[Int]
scala> foo(Vector("bar"))
res2: Traversable[Int] = Vector(3)
scala> foo(Some("bar"))
res3: Option[Int] = Some(3)
The concept of mapping is represented by functors. One way to easily provide functor implementations for common classes is to use the scalaz library:
import scala.language.higherKinds
import scalaz.Functor
import scalaz.Scalaz._
def foo[El <: String, Coll[_]](repr: Coll[El])(implicit ev: Functor[Coll]) =
repr.map(_.size)
Now, this just works for List, Vector and Future:
scala> foo(Vector("Hello","World"))
res1: scala.collection.immutable.Vector[Int] = Vector(5, 5)
scala> foo(List("Hello","World"))
res2: List[Int] = List(5, 5)
scala> import scala.concurrent.Future
scala> import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits.global
scala> foo(Future("HelloWorld")) andThen PartialFunction(println(_))
Success(10)
Using it with Some is a bit of a problem, because only Option has a Functor implementation, not Some:
scala> foo(Some("HelloWorld"))
<console>:12: error: could not find implicit value for parameter ev: scalaz.Functor[Some]
foo(Some("HelloWorld"))
^
So you have to provide Option instead of Some to foo:
scala> foo(Some("HelloWorld"): Option[String])
res3: Option[Int] = Some(10)
scala> foo(Option("HelloWorld"))
res4: Option[Int] = Some(10)
scala> foo("HelloWorld".some) // This is from scalaz
res5: Option[Int] = Some(10)
And scalaz doesn't have any typeclass implementations for Try, so if you want to use Functor with Try, you'll have to provide the implementation yourself:
import scala.util.Try
import scalaz.Functor
implicit object TryIsFunctor extends Functor[Try] {
def map[A, B](fa: Try[A])(f: A => B): Try[B] = fa map f
}
Then foo will work with Try, but similar to Option, the argument should have the type Try, instead of Success or Failure:
scala> foo(Try("HelloWorld"))
res9: scala.util.Try[Int] = Success(10)
Also, I believe, there are no Functor implementations in scalaz for more general collection types, like Iterable or Seq.
Out of the common higher-order functions Functor only supports map. So to use flatMap and filter you have to provide different typeclasses instead of Functor. For example, scalaz.Monad supports map and flatMap, and scalaz.MonadPlus supports map, flatMap and filter.
And if you don't want to use scalaz, you'd probably have to make something very similar yourself with typeclasses, to get a good result type instead of Traversable. For example, using CanBuildFrom from the standard library.
I do think Kolmar is right about the general problem, but Scala does support duck-typing, so you can do this:
def foo[T[V]](duck: {def map[U](value: String=>U): T[_]}) ={
duck.map(_.size)
}
foo(Vector("bar")).toVector //> res0: Vector[_$2] = List(3)
foo(Some("bar")) //> res1: Option[_$2] = Some(3)
(toVector just to force the eval of the iterator that otherwise results)

Why can't I flatMap a Try?

Given
val strings = Set("Hi", "there", "friend")
def numberOfCharsDiv2(s: String) = scala.util.Try {
if (s.length % 2 == 0) s.length / 2 else throw new RuntimeException("grr")
}
Why can't I flatMap away the Try resulting from the method call? i.e.
strings.flatMap(numberOfCharsDiv2)
<console>:10: error: type mismatch;
found : scala.util.Try[Int]
required: scala.collection.GenTraversableOnce[?]
strings.flatMap(numberOfCharsDiv2)
or
for {
s <- strings
n <- numberOfCharsDiv2(s)
} yield n
<console>:12: error: type mismatch;
found : scala.util.Try[Int]
required: scala.collection.GenTraversableOnce[?]
n <- numberOfCharsDiv2(s)
However if I use Option instead of Try there's no problem.
def numberOfCharsDiv2(s: String) = if (s.length % 2 == 0)
Some(s.length / 2) else None
strings.flatMap(numberOfCharsDiv2) # => Set(1, 3)
What's the rationale behind not allowing flatMap on Try?
Let's look at the signature of flatMap.
def flatMap[B](f: (A) => GenTraversableOnce[B]): Set[B]
Your numberOfCharsDiv2 is seen as String => Try[Int]. Try is not a subclass of GenTraversableOnce and that is why you get the error. You don't strictly need a function that gives a Set only because you use flatMap on a Set. The function basically has to return any kind of collection.
So why does it work with Option? Option is also not a subclass of GenTraversableOnce, but there exists an implicit conversion inside the Option companion object, that transforms it into a List.
implicit def option2Iterable[A](xo: Option[A]): Iterable[A] = xo.toList
Then one question remains. Why not have an implicit conversion for Try as well? Because you will probably not get what you want.
flatMap can be seen as a map followed by a flatten.
Imagine you have a List[Option[Int]] like List(Some(1), None, Some(2)). Then flatten will give you List(1,2) of type List[Int].
Now look at an example with Try. List(Success(1), Failure(exception), Success(2)) of type List[Try[Int]].
How will flatten work with the failure now?
Should it disappear like None? Then why not work directly with Option?
Should it be included in the result? Then it would be List(1, exception, 2). The problem here is that the type is List[Any], because you have to find a common super class for Int and Throwable. You lose the type.
These should be reasons why there isn't an implicit conversion. Of course you are free to define one yourself, if you accept the above consequences.
The problem is that in your example, you're not flatmapping over Try. The flatmap you are doing is over Set.
Flatmap over Set takes a Set[A], and a function from A to Set[B]. As Kigyo points out in his comment below this isn't the actual type signature of flatmap on Set in Scala, but the general form of flat map is:
M[A] => (A => M[B]) => M[B]
That is, it takes some higher-kinded type, along with a function that operates on elements of the type in that higher-kinded type, and it gives you back the same higher-kinded type with the mapped elements.
In your case, this means that for each element of your Set, flatmap expects a call to a function that takes a String, and returns a Set of some type B which could be String (or could be anything else).
Your function
numberOfCharsDiv2(s: String)
correctly takes a String, but incorrectly returns a Try, rather then another Set as flatmap requires.
Your code would work if you used 'map', as that allows you to take some structure - in this case Set and run a function over each element transforming it from an A to a B without the function's return type conforming to the enclosing structure i.e. returning a Set
strings.map(numberOfCharsDiv2)
res2: scala.collection.immutable.Set[scala.util.Try[Int]] = Set(Success(1), Failure(java.lang.RuntimeException: grr), Success(3))
It is a Monad in Scala 2.11:
scala> import scala.util._
import scala.util._
scala> val x: Try[String] = Success[String]("abc")
x: scala.util.Try[String] = Success(abc)
scala> val y: Try[String] = Failure[String](new Exception("oops"))
y: scala.util.Try[String] = Failure(java.lang.Exception: oops)
scala> val z = Try(x)
z: scala.util.Try[scala.util.Try[String]] = Success(Success(abc))
scala> val t = Try(y)
t: scala.util.Try[scala.util.Try[String]] = Success(Failure(java.lang.Exception: oops))
scala> z.flatten
res2: scala.util.Try[String] = Success(abc)
scala> t.flatten
res3: scala.util.Try[String] =
Failure(java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: oops)
Kigyo explains well why Scala does not do this implicitly. To put it simply, Scala does not want to automatically throw away the exception that is preserved in a Try.
Scala does provide a simple way to explicitly translate a Try into an Option though. This is how you can use a Try in a flatmap:
strings.flatMap(numberOfCharsDiv2(_).toOption)

Is it possible to generate Apply from WeakTypeTag inside a scala macro?

I have a WeakTypeTag of some type in my macro, and I want to generate code as follows:
macroCreate[SomeObject] // => SomeObject(1)
The definition of a macro will be something like this:
def macroCreate[A] = macro _macroCreate[A]
def _macroCreate[A](c: Context)(implicit wtt: c.WeakTypeTag[A]) = {
c.Expr(Apply(Select(???, newTermName("apply")), List(c.literal(1).tree)))
}
The problem is, how do I get Select for the given type?
I can use a workaround of converting the type to string, splitting on "." and then creating a Select from list of strings, but that seems hacky.
Is it possible to create a Select directly from type tag?
You can get the symbol of the companion object and then use the universe's Ident(sym: Symbol): Ident factory method:
def macroCreate[A] = macro _macroCreate[A]
def _macroCreate[A](c: Context)(implicit wtt: c.WeakTypeTag[A]) = {
import c.universe._
c.Expr(
Apply(
Select(Ident(wtt.tpe.typeSymbol.companionSymbol), newTermName("apply")),
c.literal(1).tree :: Nil
)
)
}
And then:
scala> case class SomeObject(i: Int)
defined class SomeObject
scala> macroCreate[SomeObject]
res0: SomeObject = SomeObject(1)
scala> macroCreate[List[Int]]
res1: List[Int] = List(1)
If you really mean that SomeObject is the type of the object (i.e., not the type of its companion class), just remove the .companionSymbol above.

Class constructor declaration... Two ways of declaring the same thing?

I would like an explanation of difference for example between this declaration:
class Clazz(param1: String, param2: Integer)
and this one:
class Clazz(param1: String)(param2: Integer)
Does second declaration affect just the way of instantiating the objects or is there any deeper reason I don't know about.
One reason I thought about would be multiple variable length of parameters for example:
class Clazz(param1: String*)(param2: Integer*)
So are there any others?
#1 Type inference. It goes from left to right and is done per parameter list.
scala> class Foo[A](x: A, y: A => Unit)
defined class Foo
scala> new Foo(2, x => println(x))
<console>:24: error: missing parameter type
new Foo(2, x => println(x))
^
scala> class Foo[A](x: A)(y: A => Unit)
defined class Foo
scala> new Foo(2)(x => println(x))
res22: Foo[Int] = Foo#4dc1e4
#2 Implicit parameter list.
scala> class Foo[A](x: A)(implicit ord: scala.Ordering[A]) {
| def compare(y: A) = ord.compare(x, y)
| }
defined class Foo
scala> new Foo(3)
res23: Foo[Int] = Foo#965701
scala> res23 compare 7
res24: Int = -1
scala> new Foo(new {})
<console>:24: error: No implicit Ordering defined for java.lang.Object.
new Foo(new {})
^
In the second version you are declaring a curried primary constructor for Clazz. So the difference between the two versions is the same as difference between "normal" and curried functions in Scala, i.e.
def foo(param1: String, param2: Int)
def foo(param1: String)(param2: Int)
Most of the time both declarations can be used interchangeably but if you often need to curry function then it makes more sense to declare it in curried form. Note you can also convert a normal function or even constructor into a curried form, for e.g you could transform your normal Clazz constructor into curried form using this:
(new Clazz(_, _)).curried
You also need multiple parameter lists if you are passing an implicit value (as the keyword implicit applies to the complete parameter list)