ClassCastExpection occuring in Clojure - clojure

To preface this, I'm very new to Clojure. I was wondering why I'm getting a ClassCastExpection on this piece of code. I've looked at it and syntactically and logically it looks correct?
Clojure Code:
; (load-file "cje842asg1.clj")
(def lstnum '(76 85 71))
; 2a
(defn sum [list] (
(if (empty? list)
0
(+ (first list (sum (rest list))))
)
)
)
; if empty return zero, else add the first num in list and pass in the
; rest.
(sum lstnum)
Any help is appreciated.

The code has 2 separate errors.
The first is calling (first list (sum (rest list))) which is calling first with 2 arguments when you meant to make the second part the second argument to +.
The other one leading to the actual exception is the extra () around the function body. Note the ((if ...)) which means you are trying to call whatever the if returns as a function. In this case it is returning a number, leading to the class java.lang.Long cannot be cast to class clojure.lang.IFn error.
The corrected version would be
(defn sum [list]
(if (empty? list)
0
(+ (first list)
(sum (rest list)))))
Moving the arguments to + into separate lines makes it easier to read in this case (IMHO).

Related

creating a finite lazy sequence

I'm using the function iterate to create a lazy sequence. The sequence keeps producing new values on each item. At one point however the produced values "doesn't make sense" anymore, so they are useless. This should be the end of the lazy sequence. This is the intended behavior in a abstract form.
My approach was to let the sequence produce the values. And once detected that they are not useful anymore, the sequence would only emit nil values. Then, the sequence would be wrapped with a take-while, to make it finite.
simplified:
(take-while (comp not nil?)
(iterate #(let [v (myfunction1 %)]
(if (mypred? (myfunction2 v)) v nil)) start-value))
This works, but two questions arise here:
Is it generally a good idea to model a finite lazy sequence with a nil as a "stopper", or are there better ways?
The second question would be related to the way I implemented the mechanism above, especially inside the iterate.
The problem is: I need one function to get a value, then a predicate to test if it's valid, if yes: in needs to pass a second function, otherwise: return nil.
I'm looking for a less imperative way tho achieve this, more concretely omitting the let statement. Rather something like this:
(defn pass-if-true [pred v f]
(when (pred? v) (f v)))
#(pass-if-true mypred? (myfunction1 %) myfunction2)
For now, I'll go with this:
(comp #(when (mypred? %) (myfunction2 %)) myfunction1)
Is it generally a good idea to model a finite lazy sequence with a nil as a "stopper", or are there better ways?
nil is the idiomatic way to end a finite lazy sequence.
Regarding the second question, try writing it this way:
(def predicate (partial > 10))
(take-while predicate (iterate inc 0))
;; => (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
Here inc takes the previous value and produces a next value, predicate tests whether or not a value is good. The first time predicate returns false, sequence is terminated.
Using a return value of nil can make a lazy sequence terminate.
For example, this code calculates the greatest common divisor of two integers:
(defn remainder-sequence [n d]
(let [[q r] ((juxt quot rem) n d)]
(if (= r 0) nil
(lazy-seq (cons r (remainder-sequence d r))))))
(defn gcd [n d]
(cond (< (Math/abs n) (Math/abs d)) (gcd d n)
(= 0 (rem n d)) d
:default (last (remainder-sequence n d))))
(gcd 100 32) ; returns 4

Tracking down a StackOverflow in a Clojure program, contains SSCCE

I am having a hard time tracking down a stackoverflow error produced by my clojure implementation of the Bron-Kerbosch algorithm.
Below is my implementation of the algorithm itself, and here is a link to a SSCCE outlining the issue http://pastebin.com/gtpTT4B4.
(defn Bron-Kerbosch [r p x graph cliques]
;(println (str "R:" r " P:" p " X:" x " Clq:" cliques))
(cond (and (empty? p) (empty? x)) (concat cliques r)
:else
(let [neigh (neighV graph (dec (count p)))]
(loop [loop-clq '(cliques)
loop-cnt (dec (count p))
loop-p '(p)
loop-x '(x)]
(cond (= -1 loop-cnt) loop-clq
:else
(recur (concat loop-clq
(Bron-Kerbosch (concat r loop-cnt)
(concat p neigh)
(filter (set x) neigh)
graph cliques))
(dec loop-cnt)
(filter (set p) loop-cnt)
(concat x loop-cnt)))))))
I would have to assume that the issue obviously lies within one of my two bootstrap conditions (cond (and (empty? p) (empty? x)) and (cond (= -1 loop-cnt) because the function algorithm is recursive.
Though this assumes that I am building the lists x r p correctly. Judging by the output of the commented out print statement (cliques is always printed as an EmptyList) I assume that my list comprehension might also be the issue.
Along the same lines, the other issue I can somewhat see is that I am not actually calling the algorithm properly in the BK-Call function (in the SSCCEE).
My overall question is what is causing this? Though this is somewhat too open, another question that might lead me to my answer is how I might go about using the print statement on the first line.
When the print statement is uncommented it produces the output
R:clojure.lang.LazySeq#2044e0b9 P:clojure.lang.LazySeq#7f9700a5 X:clojure.lang.LazySeq#1 Clq:clojure.lang.PersistentList$EmptyList#1
I assume that if I could see that x r p are at each call I might be able to see where the algorithm is going wrong.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
EDIT: The neighV function from the SSCCE
(defn neighV [graph nodenum]
(let [ret-list (for [i (range (count graph)) :when (contains? (graph i) nodenum)] i)]
ret-list))
EDIT2: Noisesmith's answers had gotten me closer to the solution and made sense to me. I wrapped all of my concat in doall. After trying to call the function again I was getting "Cannot cast Long to Seq" errors, I figured that these stemmed from trying to concat loop-cnt onto lists in the function
fptests.core> (BK-Call (sanity1))
IllegalArgumentException Don't know how to create ISeq from: java.lang.Long clojure.lang.RT.seqFrom (RT.java:505)
fptests.core> (concat 1 '(2 3))
IllegalArgumentException Don't know how to create ISeq from: java.lang.Long clojure.lang.RT.seqFrom (RT.java:505)
So I then wrapped each loop-cnt in a '() to turn it into a list before it is concat
fptests.core> (concat '(1) '(2 3))
(1 2 3)
Which, after I made all of these changes, I ended back at my stack overflow.. Here is the new Bron-Kerbosch function with all of the edits. I guess I now have the same questions as I did before..
Though the new ones are, did I implement that changes that I should have correctly, does the usage of '() make sense to fix the issue that came up after implementing noisesmith's changes?
(defn Bron-Kerbosch1 [r p x graph cliques]
(cond (and (empty? p) (empty? x)) (doall (concat cliques r))
:else
(let [neigh (neighV graph (dec (count p)))]
(loop [loop-clq '(cliques)
loop-cnt (dec (count p))
loop-p '(p)
loop-x '(x)]
(cond (= -1 loop-cnt) loop-clq
:else
(recur (doall (concat loop-clq
(Bron-Kerbosch1 (doall (concat r '(loop-cnt)))
(doall (concat p neigh))
(filter (set x) neigh)
graph cliques)))
(dec loop-cnt)
(filter (set p) '(loop-cnt))
(doall (concat x '(loop-cnt)))))))))
EDIT3: After patiently waiting for my prn statements to stop (not sure why I put them in when I knew it was in a SO) I found that most if not all statements printed were along the lines of
"R:" (loop-cnt loop-cnt loop-cnt loop-cnt loop-cnt loop-cnt loop-cnt ...)
"P:" (range (count graph) 0 2 3) " X:" () " Clq:" ()
After inspecting this some I realized that I have not been recursively calling the function properly. I have been union'ing items to P instead of removing them. This causes P to continuously grow. This is most likely the cause of my stack overflow. Though there are still some issues. I still am creating a stackoverflow, yet again.
Once I fixed my issue of continuing to union to P my issue is that when I concat loop-cnt it is not, I guess to say, evaluated to a value but it stays as a variable name loop-cnt. I suspect that my stack overflow now lies with my bootstrap condition not being met because it cannot be met if loop-cnt is not evaluated to a number.
So I think my issue now lies with concat loop-cnt to a list as a number and not a variable.
concat is lazy. Recursive calls that build concat on top of concat, without realizing any of the prior layers of laziness, each add to the size of the stack of calls that will be needed to realize the lazy-seq.
Does this concatenation need to be lazy at all? If not, wrap the calls to concat in calls to doall. This will make the concatenation eager, which reduces the size of the call stack needed to realize the final result, and thus eliminating the StackOverflowError.
Also, the correct way to print a lazy-seq and see the contents is prn, you can use pr-str to get the form of the value that pr or prn would use as a string, if needed.
You are misusing quoted lists, I think.
For example, in (defn Bron-Kerbosch1 [ ... ] ... ), '(cliques) evaluates to a list containing the symbol cliques, not to a list containing the argument cliques as its one element. You want (list cliques) for that.
Similar cases abound.

What's expecting a function in this clojure code?

going through the exercises in the fp-oo book and i'm having trouble with an early exercise to add squares. Here's my code:
(defn square [n]
(* n n))
(defn add-squares [l]
(cond
(nil? l) 0
:else (+ (square (first (l))) (add-squares (rest (l))))))
This example:
(add-squares '(2 2 2 2))
should return
16
but fails with this exception:
ClassCastException clojure.lang.PersistentList cannot be cast to clojure.lang.IFn user/add-squares (NO_SOURCE_FILE:4)
which i guess means i'm trying to pass a function somewhere instead of a list which was expected. Can someone tell me which part of the code is the culprit?
Thanks,
James
This is wrong:
(first (l))
This means that you are calling l as a function.
You should use:
(first l)
And of course, the same thing for (rest (l))

Why does this overflow the stack instead of using tail recursion?

I've defined the following functions in Clojure.
; return the input unchanged
(defn same [x] x)
; Recursively call the function on the input N times
(defn recurse-n-times [input function n]
(if (= n 0)
input
(recurse-n-times (function input) function (- n 1))
)
)
Here are some outputs from my recursion function:
(recurse-n-times 0 inc 5) ; returns 5, as expected
(recurse-n-times 0 same 5) ; returns 0, as expected
(recurse-n-times 0 same 5000) ; StackOverflowError:
; clojure.lang.Numbers$LongOps.combine
; (Numbers.java:394)
I don't understand why I get a StackOverflowError. The last thing that recurse-n-times does is call itself, so I expect it to use tail recursion and not grow the stack at all.
I would expect this alternate definition to give a StackOverflowError:
(defn bad-recurse-n-times [input function n]
(if (= n 0)
input
(function (alt-recurse-n-times input function (- n 1)))
)
)
Why does recurse-n-times not use tail recursion?
This is a limitation of the JVM, not of Clojure. JVM doesn't support TCO.
Clojure offers a special form for this, recur
(defn recurse-n-times [input function n]
(if (= n 0)
input
(recur (function input) function (- n 1))))
(recurse-n-times 0 same 500000) ;; will work
recur form should appear at the tail position otherwise the Clojure compiler will complain about it.
Note that recur is the only non-stack-consuming looping construct in Clojure. There is no tail-call optimization and the use of self-calls for looping of unknown bounds is discouraged. recur is functional and its use in tail-position is verified by the compiler.
According to clojure.org
There is no tail-call optimization, use recur.
So you must use "recur" special form to do that.

Clojure : Return value being evaluated

*Simple question : Why does this function throw an exception when evaluated ? *
In the case where there is a duplicate in the string , there is a Class cast exception thrown upon finding the duplicate.
In the case where the string has no duplicates, a NullPointerException is thrown.
*The Code *
(defn first-duplicate-char [str-in]
(loop [list-Rem (seq str-in) set-Seen (set [])]
(print (type list-Rem) " " list-Rem (next list-Rem) "\n")
(if (= 0 (count str-in))
nil
(if (some #(= (first list-Rem) %) set-Seen)
(first list-Rem)
(recur
(seq (next list-Rem))
(conj set-Seen (first list-Rem)))))))
Your problem is that (= 0 (count str-in)) never changes, so you eventually try to call first on nil. [EDIT: I'm wrong, your code actually works as is -- that if statement is just a no-op. I hope you enjoy the rest of this answer anyway.]
Instead, you should be calling next (not rest) on list-Rem in the recur and using list-Rem directly in the if test, using the property of next that returns nil for an empty seq. Here's how I would rewrite your code:
(defn first-duplicate [in]
(loop [seen #{}
remain (seq in)]
(when-let [[head & tail] remain]
(if (contains? seen head)
head
(recur (conj seen head) tail)))))
Changes:
lowercasing names
no need to call seq on the output of next or rest
with sets, contains? (check for existence of key) is faster than some (run a predicate on elements until something yields a truthy value)
set literal
using when to return nil on test failure
using when-let to destructure and bind first char and rest
Stylistic changes:
names changed to be less specific (not restricted to strings, for instance)
change order of loop locals so that recur looks more like structural recursion
put loop locals on separate lines