Is [{:keys [:a]}] or [{:keys [a]}] more idiomatic destructuring? - clojure

What are the differences between the two following forms?
(defn abc [{:keys [:a]}] a)
(defn abc [{:keys [a]}] a)
Is there one that is more idiomatic?

Map destructuring with :keys us usually done with symbols, like in your second example.
I'm not entirely sure of this claim, but I think support for keywords in :keys was added specifically to support the case of destructuring namespaced keywords with namespace aliases, that is:
(ns (require [com.company.foo :as foo]
... ))
(defn abc [{:keys [::foo/a]}] a)

Related

Clojure code to analyze clojure code

I'd like to analyze a file of foreign clojure code. I'm currently using clojure.tools.reader to read all the forms:
(require '[clojure.tools.reader :as reader])
(defn read-all-forms [f]
(let [rdr (indexing-push-back-reader (slurp f))
EOF (Object.)
opts {:eof EOF}]
(loop [ret []]
(let [form (reader/read opts rdr)]
(if (= EOF form)
ret
(recur (conj ret form)))))))
This generally works, except when it encounters a double-colon keyword that refers to an aliased ns. Example:
(ns foo
(:require [foo.bar :as bar]))
::bar/baz
Fails with:
ExceptionInfo Invalid token: ::bar/baz
Is there a way to use clojure.tools.reader to read the file and resolve keywords like this? Am I supposed to somehow keep track of the *alias-map* myself?
tools.reader uses clojure.tools.reader/*alias-map* if it's bound, otherwise it uses (ns-aliases *ns*) to resolve aliases. So if you have auto-resolved keywords in your file, you will need to use one of those approaches to allow auto-resolved aliases to be resolved.

clojure - conj doesn't seem to add value to vector

I have written a function which takes a directory as input and returns a list of files.
(ns musicdb.filesystem)
(import '(java.io.File) '(java.net.url) '(java.io))
(use 'clojure.java.browse)
(require '[clojure.string :as str])
(defn getFiles
"get a list of all files"
[searchPath]
(def directory (clojure.java.io/file searchPath))
(def files (file-seq directory))
(def fonly (filter (fn [x]
(. x isFile)) files))
(def names [])
(doseq [x fonly]
(conj names (. x toString)) ;doesn't seem to work
(println (. x toString))) ;but this DOES print the file path
names)
The only thing that doesn't work here, is the conj call.
Here is my test
(ns musicdb.core-test
(:require [clojure.test :refer :all]
[musicdb.core :refer :all]
[musicdb.filesystem :refer :all]))
(deftest test_0
(testing "getFiles returns valid result"
(is (> (count (getFiles "/home/ls/books/books")) 1))
(doseq [i (take 5 (getFiles "/home/ls/books/books"))] (searchBook i))))
This test fails and shows that the return value of getFiles is empty.
names is an immutable vector. (conj names (. x toString)) creates a new vector but doesn't do anything with it. There are other problems with your code:
you don't want to use doseq. It's for side effects, such as printing things out. If you're creating a collection you usually don't need to iterate in clojure, or if you do you can use an immutable accumulator, loop and recur.
You don't want to use nested defs. You're defining globals, and what you want are function locals. Use let instead.
The clojure naming style is to use dashes instead of camel case (minor, just a convention).
You don't seem to be using your java.io importa in this code.
use in general is not a good idea, unless you restrict it to a few explicitly named functions with :only. This is to avoid confusion when looking at an unqualified name in your code, because you wouldn't know where it came from.
You want something like this:
(defn get-files [search-path]
(let [directory (clojure.java.io/file search-path)
files (file-seq directory)
fonly (filter #(.isFile %) files)]
(map #(.toString %) fonly)))

Why in this example calling (f arg) and calling the body of f explicitly yields different results?

First, I have no experience with CS and Clojure is my first language, so pardon if the following problem has a solution, that is immediately apparent for a programmer.
The summary of the question is as follows: one needs to create atoms at will with unknown yet symbols at unknown times. My approach revolves around a) storing temporarily the names of the atoms as strings in an atom itself; b) changing those strings to symbols with a function; c) using a function to add and create new atoms. The problem pertains to step "c": calling the function does not create new atoms, but using its body does create them.
All steps taken in the REPL are below (comments follow code blocks):
user=> (def atom-pool
#_=> (atom ["a1" "a2"]))
#'user/atom-pool
'atom-pool is the atom that stores intermediate to-be atoms as strings.
user=> (defn atom-symbols []
#_=> (mapv symbol (deref atom-pool)))
#'user/atom-symbols
user=> (defmacro populate-atoms []
#_=> (let [qs (vec (remove #(resolve %) (atom-symbols)))]
#_=> `(do ~#(for [s qs]
#_=> `(def ~s (atom #{}))))))
#'user/populate-atoms
'populate-atoms is the macro, that defines those atoms. Note, the purpose of (remove #(resolve %) (atom-symbols)) is to create only yet non-existing atoms. 'atom-symbols reads 'atom-pool and turns its content to symbols.
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(nil nil nil)
Here it is confirmed that there are no 'a1', 'a2', 'a-new' atoms as of yet.
user=> (defn new-atom [a]
#_=> (do
#_=> (swap! atom-pool conj a)
#_=> (populate-atoms)))
#'user/new-atom
'new-atom is the function, that first adds new to-be atom as string to `atom-pool. Then 'populate-atoms creates all the atoms from 'atom-symbols function.
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(#'user/a1 #'user/a2 nil)
Here we see that 'a1 'a2 were created as clojure.lang.Var$Unbound just by defining a function, why?
user=> (new-atom "a-new")
#'user/a2
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(#'user/a1 #'user/a2 nil)
Calling (new-atom "a-new") did not create the 'a-new atom!
user=> (do
#_=> (swap! atom-pool conj "a-new")
#_=> (populate-atoms))
#'user/a-new
user=> (for [s ['a1 'a2 'a-new]]
#_=> (resolve s))
(#'user/a1 #'user/a2 #'user/a-new)
user=>
Here we see that resorting explicitly to 'new-atom's body did create the 'a-new atom. 'a-new is a type of clojure.lang.Atom, but 'a1 and 'a2 were skipped due to already being present in the namespace as clojure.lang.Var$Unbound.
Appreciate any help how to make it work!
EDIT: Note, this is an example. In my project the 'atom-pool is actually a collection of maps (atom with maps). Those maps have keys {:name val}. If a new map is added, then I create a corresponding atom for this map by parsing its :name key.
"The summary of the question is as follows: one needs to create atoms at will with unknown yet symbols at unknown times. "
This sounds like a solution looking for a problem. I would generally suggest you try another way of achieving whatever the actual functionality is without generating vars at runtime, but if you must, you should use intern and leave out the macro stuff.
You cannot solve this with macros since macros are expanded at compile time, meaning that in
(defn new-atom [a]
(do
(swap! atom-pool conj a)
(populate-atoms)))
populate-atoms is expanded only once; when the (defn new-atom ...) form is compiled, but you're attempting to change its expansion when new-atom is called (which necessarily happens later).
#JoostDiepenmaat is right about why populate-atoms is not behaving as expected. You simply cannot do this using macros, and it is generally best to avoid generating vars at runtime. A better solution would be to define your atom-pool as a map of keywords to atoms:
(def atom-pool
(atom {:a1 (atom #{}) :a2 (atom #{})}))
Then you don't need atom-symbols or populate-atoms because you're not dealing with vars at compile-time, but typical data structures at run-time. Your new-atom function could look like this:
(defn new-atom [kw]
(swap! atom-pool assoc kw (atom #{})))
EDIT: If you don't want your new-atom function to override existing atoms which might contain actual data instead of just #{}, you can check first to see if the atom exists in the atom-pool:
(defn new-atom [kw]
(when-not (kw #atom-pool)
(swap! atom-pool assoc kw (atom #{}))))
I've already submitted one answer to this question, and I think that that answer is better, but here is a radically different approach based on eval:
(def atom-pool (atom ["a1" "a2"]))
(defn new-atom! [name]
(load-string (format "(def %s (atom #{}))" name)))
(defn populate-atoms! []
(doseq [x atom-pool]
(new-atom x)))
format builds up a string where %s is substituted with the name you're passing in. load-string reads the resulting string (def "name" (atom #{})) in as a data structure and evals it (this is equivalent to (eval (read-string "(def ...)
Of course, then we're stuck with the problem of only defining atoms that don't already exist. We could change the our new-atom! function to make it so that we only create an atom if it doesn't already exist:
(defn new-atom! [name]
(when-not (resolve (symbol name))
(load-string (format "(def %s (atom #{}))" name name))))
The Clojure community seems to be against using eval in most cases, as it is usually not needed (macros or functions will do what you want in 99% of cases*), and eval can be potentially unsafe, especially if user input is involved -- see Brian Carper's answer to this question.
*After attempting to solve this particular problem using macros, I came to the conclusion that it either cannot be done without relying on eval, or my macro-writing skills just aren't good enough to get the job done with a macro!
At any rate, I still think my other answer is a better solution here -- generally when you're getting way down into the nuts & bolts of writing macros or using eval, there is probably a simpler approach that doesn't involve metaprogramming.

Clojure function to get docstrings from functions in a namespace

I want to write a function that returns the names and docstrings of the public functions in my namespace, like so:
(ns familiar.core
(:require [clojure.repl :refer [doc]]
...))
;; various functions with docstrings here
(defn help
"Halp!"
[]
(let [fns (keys (ns-publics 'familiar.core))]
(for [f fns]
[f (with-out-str (doc f))])))
When I call (help) in the REPL, the docstrings don't come with the functions:
familiar.core=> (help)
([save-experiment ""] [load-experiment ""] [add-data ""] [help ""] ... )
But calling (with-out-str (doc add-data)) in the REPL works as I'd expect:
familiar.core=> (with-out-str (doc add-data))
"-------------------------\nfamiliar.core/add-data\n([& coll])\n
Adds instances of variables with values at active date.\n Examp
le:\n (add-data \"mice\" 6 \"cats\" 2 \"dogs\" 0)\n"
What's going on here?
doc is a macro, so it cannot evaluate the local f in the calling context. Instead, you are simply calling (doc f) ovr and over.
The easiest approach to solve this is to go around the doc macro, and look directly at the data that it uses to produce documentation: metadata on vars.
(defn help
"Halp!"
[x]
(for [[name var] (ns-publics 'familiar.core)]
[name (:doc (meta var))]))

Run embedded code from a different namespace

I often want to run a small snippet of code in another namespace - perhaps a copy/pasted snippet of DSL code for example, and I'd like to avoid having to either:
Add a bunch of use clauses to my current namespace declaration. This makes the ns declaration messy, adds extra maintenance work and sometimes risks name clashes.
Add require clauses and be forced to add a namespace qualifier or alias to everything. Now my DSL code is much messier.
Ideally I'd prefer to be able to do something like:
(with-ns my.namespace
(foo bar baz))
Where foo, bar might be symbols within my.namespace, but baz is a symbol in the current (enclosing) namespace. So the code is running in something like a "local" namespace that "uses" my-namespace within its scope but otherwise doesn't affect the surrounding namespace.
Is there a standard/better way to do this? Or is this a crazy thing to want to do?
Try this one:
(defmacro with-ns [[namespace symbols] & body]
`(do (use '[~namespace :only ~symbols])
(let [result# (do ~#body)]
(doseq [sym# (map #(:name (meta (val %)))
(filter #(= (name '~namespace)
(str (:ns (meta (val %)))))
(ns-refers *ns*)))]
(ns-unmap *ns* sym#))
result#)))
(with-ns [clojure.string [split upper-case]]
(split (upper-case "it works!") #" "))
-> ["IT" "WORKS!"]
After work it removes used symbols from current ns.
This can be achieved using a macro as shown below.
NOTE: It may break in certain cases as I just tried it with a simple example
;Some other ns
(ns hello)
(def h1 10) ;in hello
(def h2 11) ;in hello
;main ns in which executing code
(ns user)
(defmacro with-ns [target-ns body]
(clojure.walk/postwalk
(fn [val]
(if (symbol? val)
(if (resolve (symbol (str target-ns "/" val)))
(symbol (str target-ns "/" val))
val) val)) body))
(def u1 100) ;in user
(with-ns hello (do (+ h1 u1))) ;110
I eventually found a macro in the old Clojure contrib that does part of this quite neatly:
(defmacro with-ns
"Evaluates body in another namespace. ns is either a namespace
object or a symbol. This makes it possible to define functions in
namespaces other than the current one."
[ns & body]
`(binding [*ns* (the-ns ~ns)]
~#(map (fn [form] `(eval '~form)) body)))