Removing nested values with Specter in Clojure - clojure

Question

Suppose that I have a Clojure map like this:
(def mymap {:a [1 2 3] :b {:c [] :d [1 2 3]}})
I would like a function remove-empties that produces a new map in which entries from (:b mymap) that have an empty sequence as a value are removed. So (remove-empties mymap) would give the value:
{:a [1 2 3] :b {:d [1 2 3]}}
Is there a way to write a function to do this using Specter?

Answer 1

Here's how to do it with Specter:
(use 'com.rpl.specter)
(setval [:b MAP-VALS empty?] NONE my-map)
=> {:a [1 2 3], :b {:d [1 2 3]}}
In English, this says "Under :b, find all the map values that are empty?. Set them to NONE, i.e. remove them."

Answer 2

(update my-map :b (fn [b]
(apply dissoc b
(map key (filter (comp empty? val) b)))))

Answer 3

This is the specter solution:
(ns myns.core
(:require
[com.rpl.specter :as spc]))
(def my-map
{:a [1 2 3]
:b {:c []
:d [1 2 3]}})
(defn my-function
[path data]
(let [pred #(and (vector? %) (empty? %))]
(spc/setval [path spc/MAP-VALS pred] spc/NONE data)))
;; (my-function [:b] my-map) => {:a [1 2 3]
;; :b {:d [1 2 3]}}

Answer 4

I don't know specter either, but this is pretty simple to do in plain clojure.
(defn remove-empties [m]
(reduce-kv (fn [acc k v]
(cond (map? v) (let [new-v (remove-empties v)]
(if (seq new-v)
(assoc acc k new-v)
acc))
(empty? v) acc
:else (assoc acc k v)))
(empty m), m))
Caveat: For extremely nested data structures it might stack overflow.

Answer 5

So far I haven't found an approach with specter's filterer, because when I test filterers they seem to receive each map entry twice (once as a map entry and once as a 2-length vector) and giving different results between those seems to cause issues. However, we shouldn't be removing empty sequences anywhere they might appear, just map entries where they're the value.
I did seem to get a clojure.walk approach working that might still interest you, though.
(ns nested-remove
(:require [com.rpl.specter :as s]
[clojure.walk :refer [postwalk]]))
(defn empty-seq-entry? [entry]
(and (map-entry? entry) (sequential? (val entry)) (empty? (val entry))))
(defn remove-empties [root]
(postwalk #(if (map? %) (into (empty %) (remove empty-seq-entry? %)) %) root))
(remove-empties mymap) ;;=> {:a [1 2 3], :b {:d [1 2 3]}}

Answer 6

Assuming we only need to go one level deep and not search recursively like the accepted answer:
(setval [:b MAP-VALS empty?] NONE mymap)
A fully recursive solution that removes empty values in a map at any level
(def my-complex-map {:a [1] :b {:c [] :d [1 2 3] :e {:f "foo" :g []}}})
; declare recursive path that traverses map values
(declarepath DEEP-MAP-VALS)
(providepath DEEP-MAP-VALS (if-path map? [MAP-VALS DEEP-MAP-VALS] STAY))
(setval [DEEP-MAP-VALS empty?] NONE my-complex-map)
; => {:a [1], :b {:d [1 2 3, :e {:f "foo"}}}}
Reference the wiki on using specter recursively.

Answer 7

While I am not very familiar with Specter, in addition to the postwalk solution, you can solve this using tupelo.forest from the Tupelo library. You do need to rearrange the data a bit into Hiccup or Enlive format, then it's easy to identify any nodes with no child nodes:
(ns tst.clj.core
(:use clj.core tupelo.test)
(:require
[tupelo.core :as t]
[tupelo.forest :as tf] ))
(t/refer-tupelo)
(defn hid->enlive [hid]
(tf/hiccup->enlive (tf/hid->hiccup hid)))
(defn empty-kids?
[path]
(let [hid (last path)
result (and (tf/node-hid? hid)
(empty? (grab :kids (tf/hid->tree hid))))]
result))
; delete any nodes without children
(dotest
(tf/with-forest (tf/new-forest)
(let [e0 {:tag :root
:attrs {}
:content [{:tag :a
:attrs {}
:content [1 2 3]}
{:tag :b
:attrs {}
:content [{:tag :c
:attrs {}
:content []}
{:tag :d
:attrs {}
:content [1 2 3]}
]}]}
root-hid (tf/add-tree-enlive e0)
empty-paths (tf/find-paths-with root-hid [:** :*] empty-kids?)
empty-hids (mapv last empty-paths)]
(is= (hid->enlive root-hid) ; This is the original tree structure (Enlive format)
{:tag :root,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :a,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [1]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [2]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [3]}]}
{:tag :b,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :c, :attrs {}, :content []}
{:tag :d,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [1]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [2]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [3]}]}]}]})
(apply tf/remove-hid empty-hids) ; remove the nodes with no child nodes
(is= (hid->enlive root-hid) ; this is the result (Enlive format)
{:tag :root,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :a,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [1]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [2]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [3]}]}
{:tag :b,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :d,
:attrs {},
:content
[{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [1]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [2]}
{:tag :tupelo.forest/raw, :attrs {}, :content [3]}]}]}]})
(is= (tf/hid->hiccup root-hid) ; same result in Hiccup format
[:root
[:a
[:tupelo.forest/raw 1]
[:tupelo.forest/raw 2]
[:tupelo.forest/raw 3]]
[:b
[:d
[:tupelo.forest/raw 1]
[:tupelo.forest/raw 2]
[:tupelo.forest/raw 3]]]])
)))