Clojure Atom Doesn't Update When Wrapped in Defined Function - clojure

Not sure what is going on here, but I have this code, where the map function successfully executes in my repl without being wrapped in a defined function:
(def dogs '({:name "scout" :age 5} {:name "rux" :age 3} {:name "fenley" :age 2}))
(def ages (atom {:above-four '() :below-four '()}))
(map
#(if (> (get-in % [:age]) 4)
(swap! ages update-in [:above-four] merge %)
(swap! ages update-in [:below-four] merge %)) dogs)
#ages
=> {:above-four ({:name "scout", :age 5}), :below-four ({:name "fenley", :age 2} {:name "rux", :age 3})}
Yet, when I define the map function as such:
(def ages (atom {:above-four '() :below-four '()}))
(def dogs '({:name "scout" :age 5} {:name "rux" :age 3} {:name "fenley" :age 2}))
(defn test-dogs []
(map
#(if (> (get-in % [:age]) 4)
(swap! ages update-in [:above-four] merge %)
(swap! ages update-in [:below-four] merge %)) dogs)
#ages)
I get the following result:
=> {:above-four (), :below-four ()}
I'm very confused, because this function taken straight from the Clojure docs works just fine:
(def m1 (atom {:a "A" :b "B"}))
(defn update-m1 []
(swap! m1 assoc :a "Aaay")
#m1)
=> {:a "Aaay", :b "B"}

Because test-dogs uses map, it returns a lazy sequence. The elements of lazy sequences aren't realized until they're needed.
The problem with your set up is you're trying to use map to run a side effect (the call to swap!; an impure action), and never actually use the result of map. Because you never request results from map, the mapping function containing swap! never runs.
By using mapv (which returns a non-lazy vector), or doseq (which is meant to carry out side effects):
(doseq [dog dogs]
(let [k (if (> (:age dog) 4)
:above-four
:below-four)]
(swap! ages update k merge dog)))
You can force the side effects to run.
I cleaned up the code a bit. The -in versions you were using were unnecessary; as was the the call to get-in. I also got rid of the redundant calls to swap!.
Note though that at least in your example, use of atoms is entirely unnecessary. Even if you have a more complicated use case, make sure their use is justified. Mutable variables just aren't as common in languages like Clojure.

Related

Idiomatic way to wrap object into collection (if it's not a collection already) in Clojure?

I have (for instance) a mix of data structures such as {:name "Peter" :children "Mark"} and {:name "Mark" :children ["Julia" "John"] i.e. :children value is either a single string or a collection of strings. Other functions in my code expect that the value of :children is always a collection of strings, so I need to adapt the data for them.
Of course I can use something like:
(defn data-adapter [m]
(let [children (:children m)]
(assoc m :children
(if (coll? children)
children
[children]))))
But is there a more idiomatic/laconic way?
I think you will have to take no for an answer.
(if (coll? x) x [x]) is about as terse and expressive as it gets. It’s what people usually use for this problem (sometimes with sequential? instead of coll?).
cond-> enthusiasts like me sometimes try to use it in place of a simple conditional, but here it is no improvement:
(cond-> x (not (coll? x)) vector)
In the context of your code, however, you can do a little better. A lookup and association is best expressed with update:
(defn data-adapter [m]
(update m :children #(if (coll? %) % [%])))
the only advice would be to abstract that logic to some function, to keep your actual business logic clean.
(defn data-adapter [m]
(let [children (:children m)]
(assoc m :children (ensure-coll children))))
or, more concise, with update:
(defn data-adapter [m]
(update m :children ensure-coll))
where ensure-coll could be something like this:
(defn iffun [check & {:keys [t f] :or {t identity f identity}}]
#((if (check %) t f) %))
(def ensure-coll (iffun coll? :f list))
(or whatever another implementation you like)
user> (data-adapter {:children 1})
;;=> {:children (1)}
user> (data-adapter {:children [1]})
;;=> {:children [1]}
Perhaps not idiomatic, but laconic:
(flatten [x])
https://clojuredocs.org/clojure.core/flatten

Clojure/FP: apply functions to each argument to an operator

Let's say I have several vectors
(def coll-a [{:name "foo"} ...])
(def coll-b [{:name "foo"} ...])
(def coll-c [{:name "foo"} ...])
and that I would like to see if the names of the first elements are equal.
I could
(= (:name (first coll-a)) (:name (first coll-b)) (:name (first coll-c)))
but this quickly gets tiring and overly verbose as more functions are composed. (Maybe I want to compare the last letter of the first element's name?)
To directly express the essence of the computation it seems intuitive to
(apply = (map (comp :name first) [coll-a coll-b coll-c]))
but it leaves me wondering if there's a higher level abstraction for this sort of thing.
I often find myself comparing / otherwise operating on things which are to be computed via a single composition applied to multiple elements, but the map syntax looks a little off to me.
If I were to home brew some sort of operator, I would want syntax like
(-op- (= :name first) coll-a coll-b coll-c)
because the majority of the computation is expressed in (= :name first).
I'd like an abstraction to apply to both the operator & the functions applied to each argument. That is, it should be just as easy to sum as compare.
(def coll-a [{:name "foo" :age 43}])
(def coll-b [{:name "foo" :age 35}])
(def coll-c [{:name "foo" :age 28}])
(-op- (+ :age first) coll-a coll-b coll-c)
; => 106
(-op- (= :name first) coll-a coll-b coll-c)
; => true
Something like
(defmacro -op-
[[op & to-comp] & args]
(let [args' (map (fn [a] `((comp ~#to-comp) ~a)) args)]
`(~op ~#args')))
Is there an idiomatic way to do this in clojure, some standard library function I could be using?
Is there a name for this type of expression?
For your addition example, I often use transduce:
(transduce
(map (comp :age first))
+
[coll-a coll-b coll-c])
Your equality use case is trickier, but you could create a custom reducing function to maintain a similar pattern. Here's one such function:
(defn all? [f]
(let [prev (volatile! ::no-value)]
(fn
([] true)
([result] result)
([result item]
(if (or (= ::no-value #prev)
(f #prev item))
(do
(vreset! prev item)
true)
(reduced false))))))
Then use it as
(transduce
(map (comp :name first))
(all? =)
[coll-a coll-b coll-c])
The semantics are fairly similar to your -op- macro, while being both more idiomatic Clojure and more extensible. Other Clojure developers will immediately understand your usage of transduce. They may have to investigate the custom reducing function, but such functions are common enough in Clojure that readers can see how it fits an existing pattern. Also, it should be fairly transparent how to create new reducing functions for use cases where a simple map-and-apply wouldn't work. The transducing function can also be composed with other transformations such as filter and mapcat, for cases when you have a more complex initial data structure.
You may be looking for the every? function, but I would enhance clarity by breaking it down and naming the sub-elements:
(let [colls [coll-a coll-b coll-c]
first-name (fn [coll] (:name (first coll)))
names (map first-name colls)
tgt-name (first-name coll-a)
all-names-equal (every? #(= tgt-name %) names)]
all-names-equal => true
I would avoid the DSL, as there is no need and it makes it much harder for others to read (since they don't know the DSL). Keep it simple:
(let [colls [coll-a coll-b coll-c]
vals (map #(:age (first %)) colls)
result (apply + vals)]
result => 106
I don't think you need a macro, you just need to parameterize your op function and compare functions. To me, you are pretty close with your (apply = (map (comp :name first) [coll-a coll-b coll-c])) version.
Here is one way you could make it more generic:
(defn compare-in [op to-compare & args]
(apply op (map #(get-in % to-compare) args)))
(compare-in + [0 :age] coll-a coll-b coll-c)
(compare-in = [0 :name] coll-a coll-b coll-c)
;; compares last element of "foo"
(compare-in = [0 :name 2] coll-a coll-b coll-c)
I actually did not know you can use get on strings, but in the third case you can see we compare the last element of each foo.
This approach doesn't allow the to-compare arguments to be arbitrary functions, but it seems like your use case mainly deals with digging out what elements you want to compare, and then applying an arbitrary function to those values.
I'm not sure this approach is better than the transducer version supplied above (certainly not as efficient), but I think it provides a simpler alternative when that efficiency is not needed.
I would split this process into three stages:
transform items in collections into the data in collections you want to operate
on - (map :name coll);
Operate on transformed items in collections, returning collection of results - (map = transf-coll-a transf-coll-b transf-coll-c)
Finally, selecting which result in resulting collection to return - (first calculated-coll)
When playing with collections, I try to put more than one item into collection:
(def coll-a [{:name "foo" :age 43} {:name "bar" :age 45}])
(def coll-b [{:name "foo" :age 35} {:name "bar" :age 37}])
(def coll-c [{:name "foo" :age 28} {:name "bra" :age 30}])
For example, matching items by second char in :name and returning result for items in second place:
(let
[colls [coll-a coll-b coll-c]
transf-fn (comp #(nth % 1) :name)
op =
fetch second]
(fetch (apply map op (map #(map transf-fn %) colls))))
;; => false
In transducers world you can use sequence function which also works on multiple collections:
(let
[colls [coll-a coll-b coll-c]
transf-fn (comp (map :name) (map #(nth % 1)))
op =
fetch second]
(fetch (apply sequence (map op) (map #(sequence transf-fn %) colls))))
Calculate sum of ages (for all items at the same level):
(let
[colls [coll-a coll-b coll-c]
transf-fn (comp (map :age))
op +
fetch identity]
(fetch (apply sequence (map op) (map #(sequence transf-fn %) colls))))
;; => (106 112)

Clojure - Retrieving runtime values

I'm currently working on a pdf generating library built around pdfbox, a java library.
I don't have a problem per se, I'm just uncertain of what would be the clever way in clojure to do something.
I try to stick to a Hiccup style syntax for generating pdf.
With something like that (a very impractical example):
[:page {:title "hey"}
[:frame {:name "frame1" :top 130}]]
I would like to retrieve later in the document the values passed to page and frame (which are functions after parsing). For example, the next frame:
[:frame {:bottom (+ 10 (:top "frame1"))} (str "Titre:" (:title page))]
Every function passes its options map to the other so the first frame's options actually look like this:
{:title "hey", :name "frame1", :top 130}
But obviously the user can't access that map when the executing this kind of code.
For the page I think using a global Var that is updated with binding seems to be an okay solution (open to any suggestions). But as there might be any number of frames they can't be declared earlier. Therefore, my question is:
What kind of function, concept or way of doing things would be best to deal with that kind of problem? How could I give the user the ability to retrieve these data? (avoiding a global var for all options and a get-in if possible)
i've got an idea about that: why don't you use dynamically scoped value for context, that would contain all the data for your struct's call stack. And then you can analyze your struct, evaluating in this context.
I would go with something like this:
(def ^:dynamic *context* ())
(defn lookup-context [& kv-pairs]
(some #(when (every? (fn [[k v]] (= (k %) v)) kv-pairs) %)
*context*))
(defmacro with-context [data]
(let [items (tree-seq #(and (vector? %) (#{:frame :page} (first %)))
#(nthnext % 2)
data)
ctx-items (reverse (map second items))
let-bindings (zipmap ctx-items (repeatedly gensym))
data (clojure.walk/postwalk-replace let-bindings data)]
(reduce (fn [acc [itm sym]]
`(let [~sym ~itm]
(binding [*context* (cons ~sym *context*)] ~acc)))
data ;; here goes your data parsing
let-bindings)))
so this macro establishes cascading dynamic bindings, and all the calls to lookup-context inside it (even in the nested functions called from ";;here goes your data parsing" part)
for example with this structure:
(with-context [:page
{:name "page0" :val 1000}
[:frame
{:name "frame0" :val 10}
[:frame {:name "frame1" :val (+ (:val (lookup-context [:name "page0"]))
(:val (lookup-context [:name "frame0"])))}]]])
it is going to be expanded to this:
(let [G__8644 {:name "page0", :val 1000}]
(binding [*context* (cons G__8644 *context*)]
(let [G__8643 {:name "frame0", :val 10}]
(binding [*context* (cons G__8643 *context*)]
(let [G__8642 {:name "frame1",
:val
(+
(:val (lookup-context [:name "page0"]))
(:val (lookup-context [:name "frame0"])))}]
(binding [*context* (cons G__8642 *context*)]
[:page G__8644 [:frame G__8643 [:frame G__8642]]]))))))
giving you the result you need, i guess
UPDATE
as an answer to #amalloy's question about the reason for dynamically scoped var usage:
user> (defn item-factory []
[:frame {:name "frame2" :val (+ (:val (lookup-context [:name "frame1"]))
(:val (lookup-context [:name "page0"])))}])
#'user/item-factory
user>
(with-context [:page
{:name "page0" :val 1000}
[:frame
{:name "frame0" :val 10}
[:frame {:name "frame1" :val (+ (:val (lookup-context [:name "page0"]))
(:val (lookup-context [:name "frame0"])))}]
(item-factory)]])
;;=> [:page {:name "page0", :val 1000}
;; [:frame {:name "frame0", :val 10}
;; [:frame {:name "frame1", :val 1010}]
;; [:frame {:name "frame2", :val 2010}]]]
as you can see, the item-factory function, being called inside the data processing, is also context aware, meaning that the lib user can simply decompose the data generation, keeping the implicit dependency on the items defined upper on the definitions stack.

Update multiple elements of a Clojure atom within a single swap statement?

I have an atom that has two parts to it.
(def thing (atom {:queue '() :map {}}))
I want to update both :queue and :map in one atomic stroke, to prevent them from getting off-sync.
Queue individually:
(swap! thing update-in [:queue] (list 1))
(From this question: How to append to a nested list in a Clojure atom?)
Map individually:
(swap! thing assoc-in [:map 1] (:key :value))
(From this question: Using swap to MERGE (append to) a nested map in a Clojure atom?)
How can I do these both within a single swap statement? (assuming that would prevent them from getting off-sync?)
You have one change you want to make, right? And you could write that change as a pure function? All you need to do is write that function, and pass it as the argument to swap!.
(defn take-from-queue [{q :queue, m :map}]
{:queue (rest q), :map (assoc m :new-task (first q))})
(swap! thing take-from-queue)
Where of course I have no idea what you actually want the body of your function to do, so I've made up something that doesn't throw an exception.
Say you have a hash-map atom:
(def m1 (atom {:a "A" :b "B"}))
To change :a and :b at the same time, changing their values to values that are different, say the numbers 1 and 2, use this function:
(defn my-swap! [params]
(swap! m1 (fn [old new] new) params))
, like so:
(my-swap! {:a 1 :b 2}) ;=> {:a 1, :b 2}
And the same effect could be achieved with the following function and execution:
(defn my-multi-swap! [params1 params2]
(swap! m1 (fn [old new1 new2] new2) params1 params2))
(my-multi-swap! {} {:a 1 :b 2}) ;=> {:a 1, :b 2}
Normally reset! is used if you want to ignore the old value. Here we use it:
(defn my-merge-swap! [params]
(swap! m1 (fn [old new] (merge old new)) params))
(my-merge-swap! {:b 3}) ;=> {:a "A", :b 3}
The first parameter to the swap! function is the existing value of the atom, and you must pass in one or more extra parameters, which you can use to give the atom its new value.

clojure set of maps - basic filtering

Clojure beginner here..
If I have a set of maps, such as
(def kids #{{:name "Noah" :age 5}
{:name "George":age 3}
{:name "Reagan" :age 1.5}})
I know I can get names like this
(map :name kids)
1) How do I select a specific map? For example
I want to get back the map where name="Reagan".
{:name "Reagan" :age 1.5}
Can this be done using a filter?
2) How about returning the name where age = 3?
Yes, you can do it with filter:
(filter #(= (:name %) "Reagan") kids)
(filter #(= (:age %) 3) kids)
There's clojure.set/select:
(clojure.set/select set-of-maps #(-> % :age (= 3)))
And similarly with name and "Reagan". The return value in this case will be a set.
You could also use filter without any special preparations, since filter calls seq on its collection argument (edit: as already described by ffriend while I was typing this):
(filter #(-> % :age (= 3))) set-of-maps)
Here the return value will be a lazy seq.
If you know there will only be one item satisfying your predicate in the set, some will be more efficient (as it will not process any additional elements after finding the match):
(some #(if (-> % :age (= 3)) %) set-of-maps)
The return value here will be the matching element.