Accumulate values to a list - clojure

Question

I'd like to create a list depending on the results of some functions. In Java (my background), I'd do something like:
List<String> messages = ...
if(condition 1)
messages.add(message 1);
if(condition 2)
messages.add(message 2);
...
if(condition N)
messages.add(message N);
In clojure, I think I'll need to create a list using let like the following (just dummy example):
(let [result
(vec
(if (= 1 1) "message1" "message2")
(if (= 1 0) "message3" "message4"))]
result)
I've also checked cond but I need to be appending the elements to the list considering all the validations (and cond breaks after one condition is satisfied).
Which way should I follow to achieve this?

Answer 1

If you want them to be conditionally added like in the Java example, you could use cond->, which does not short circuit:
(let [messages []]
(cond-> messages ; Conditionally thread through conj
(= 1 1) (conj "Message1")
(= 0 1) (conj "Message2")
(= 0 0) (conj "Message3")))
=> ["Message1" "Message3"]
If you want to conditionally add one or the other like your second example suggests however, you could just use plain conj with some if expressions:
(let [messages []]
(conj messages
(if (= 1 1) "Message1" "Message2")
(if (= 0 1) "Message3" "Message4")))
=> ["Message1" "Message4"]
And I'll note that your original attempt almost worked. Instead of vec, you could have used vector, or just a vector literal:
(let [messages [(if (= 1 1) "Message1" "Message2")
(if (= 1 0) "Message3" "Message4")]]
messages)
=> ["Message1" "Message4"]
Although, this is would only be beneficial if you didn't already have a messages populated that you wanted to add to. If that was the case, you'd have to use concat or into:
(let [old-messages ["old stuff"]
messages [(if (= 1 1) "Message1" "Message2")
(if (= 1 0) "Message3" "Message4")]]
(into old-messages messages))
=> ["old stuff" "Message1" "Message4"]

Answer 2

Take a look at cond->.
For example, your Java example could be written like:
(cond-> (some-fn-returning-messages)
(= 1 1) (conj "message1")
(= 1 2) (conj "message2")
...
(= 1 n) (conj "messagen"))

Answer 3

I see several answers pointing to the cond-> macro which appears to match your request most closely in that it is nearest to the style outlined in your question.
Depending on the number of conditions you have, your question seems like a good candiate for simply using filter.
(def nums (range 10))
(filter #(or (even? %) (= 7 %)) nums)
If you have a bunch of conditions (functions), and "or-ing" them together would be unwieldy, you can use some-fn.
Numbers from 0-19 that are either even, divisible by 7, greater than 17, or exactly equal to 1. Stupid example I know, just wanted to show a simple use-case.
(filter (some-fn
even?
#(zero? (mod % 7))
#(> % 17)
#(= 1 %))
(range 20))

Answer 4

Looks like everyone had the same idea! I did mine with keywords:
(ns tst.demo.core
(:use tupelo.core demo.core tupelo.test))
(defn accum
[conds]
(cond-> [] ; append to the vector in order 1,2,3
(contains? conds :cond-1) (conj :msg-1)
(contains? conds :cond-2) (conj :msg-2)
(contains? conds :cond-3) (conj :msg-3)))
(dotest
(is= [:msg-1] (accum #{:cond-1}))
(is= [:msg-1 :msg-3] (accum #{:cond-1 :cond-3}))
(is= [:msg-1 :msg-2] (accum #{:cond-2 :cond-1}))
(is= [:msg-2 :msg-3] (accum #{:cond-2 :cond-3}))
(is= [:msg-1 :msg-2 :msg-3] (accum #{:cond-3 :cond-2 :cond-1 })) ; note sets are unsorted
)
If you want more power, you can use cond-it-> from the Tupelo library. It threads the target value through both the condition and the action forms, and uses the special symbol it to show where the threaded value is to be placed. This modified example shows a 4th condition where, "msg-3 is jealous of msg-1" and always boots it out of the result:
(ns tst.demo.core
(:use tupelo.core demo.core tupelo.test))
(defn accum
[conds]
(cond-it-> #{} ; accumulate result in a set
(contains? conds :cond-1) (conj it :msg-1)
(contains? conds :cond-2) (conj it :msg-2)
(contains? conds :cond-3) (conj it :msg-3)
(contains? it :msg-3) (disj it :msg-1) ; :msg-3 doesn't like :msg-1
))
; remember that sets are unsorted
(dotest
(is= #{:msg-1} (accum #{:cond-1}))
(is= #{:msg-3} (accum #{:cond-1 :cond-3}))
(is= #{:msg-1 :msg-2} (accum #{:cond-2 :cond-1}))
(is= #{:msg-2 :msg-3} (accum #{:cond-2 :cond-3}))
(is= #{:msg-2 :msg-3} (accum #{:cond-3 :cond-2 :cond-1 }))
)

Answer 5

Not necessarily relevant to your use case, and certainly not a mainstream solution, but once in a while I like cl-format's conditional expressions:
(require '[clojure.pprint :refer [cl-format]])
(require '[clojure.data.generators :as g])
(cl-format nil
"~:[He~;She~] ~:[did~;did not~] ~:[thought about it~;care~]"
(g/boolean) (g/boolean) (g/boolean))

Answer 6

A typical case would be validating a piece of data to produce an error list.
I would construct a table that maps condition to message:
(def error->message-table
{condition1 message1
condition2 message2
...})
Note that the conditions are functions. Since we can never properly recognise functions by value, you could make this table a sequence of pairs.
However you implement the table, all we have to do is collect the messages for the predicates that apply:
(defn messages [stuff]
(->> error->message-table
(filter (fn [pair] ((first pair) stuff)))
(map second)))
Without a coherent example, it's difficult to be more explicit.
First-class functions and the packaged control structures within filter and map give us the means to express the algorithm briefly and clearly, isolating the content into a data structure.