Simple Clojure example - getting an infinite loop - clojure

I am trying to some code that simple prints out everything in a list.
I define numberList
I create a loop - If the list is empty, print out a message and exit out. Otherwise, get the first item in the list, print it out, and recur on the list with everything but the first element.
(def numberList [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
(loop [nums numberList]
(when (empty? nums)
(println "All done!"))
(def first_item (first nums))
(println first_item)
(recur (rest nums))
)
This code results in an infinite loop that prints "All done!" and null back to back.

The problem is the loop goes through all the forms you have supplied, and because the when offers you no else-form as your ending conditional-point, your loop recurs for ever, printing nil for your (first nums) (since it got empty) and "All done!".
You should use if instead of when, which gives you this form:
(if test then-form else-form)
if evaluates the test, if it returns logical true evaluates the then-form, otherwise jumps to the else-form.
Also do not use def in places other than the top level, so preferably before of your loop piece and not inside of it, because it gets defined every time your loop does a loop, which is unnecessary (it also just doesn't look so nice!)
So your loop could look like this:
(def number-list [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
(loop [nums number-list]
(if (empty? nums)
(println "All done!")
(do (println (first nums)) (recur (rest nums)))))
or:
(loop [nums number-list]
(if (seq nums)
(do (println (first nums)) (recur (rest nums)))
(println "All done!")))
Also if you don't have any problem with other possibilities for looping over sequences, you could for instance also use doseq or for which does a list comprehension:
(doseq [nums number-list] (println nums))
(for [nums number-list] (println nums))

Related

How to really shuffle sequence in Clojure?

(defn shuffle-letters
[word]
(let [letters (clojure.string/split word #"")
shuffled-letters (shuffle letters)]
(clojure.string/join "" shuffled-letters)))
But if you put in "test" you can get "test" back sometimes.
How to modify the code to be sure that output will never be equal to input.
I feel embarrassing, I can solve it easily in Python, but Clojure is so different to me...
Thank you.
P.S. I thing we can close the topic now... The loop is in fact all I needed...
You can use loop. When the shuffled letters are the same as the original, recur back up to the start of the loop:
(defn shuffle-letters [word]
(let [letters (clojure.string/split word #"")]
(loop [] ; Start a loop
(let [shuffled-letters (shuffle letters)]
(if (= shuffled-letters letters) ; Check if they're equal
(recur) ; If they're equal, loop and try again
(clojure.string/join "" shuffled-letters)))))) ; Else, return the joined letters
There's many ways this could be written, but this is I think as plain as it gets. You could also get rid of the loop and make shuffle-letters itself recursive. This would lead to unnecessary work though. You could also use let-fn to create a local recursive function, but at that point, loop would likely be cleaner.
Things to note though:
Obviously, if you try to shuffle something like "H" or "HH", it will get stuck and loop forever since no amount of shuffling will cause them to differ. You could do a check ahead of time, or add a parameter to loop that limits how many times it tries.
This will actually make your shuffle less random. If you disallow it from returning the original string, you're reducing the amount of possible outputs.
The call to split is unnecessary. You can just call vec on the string:
(defn shuffle-letters [word]
(let [letters (vec word)]
(loop []
(let [shuffled-letters (shuffle letters)]
(if (= shuffled-letters letters)
(recur)
(clojure.string/join "" shuffled-letters))))))
Here's another solution (using transducers):
(defn shuffle-strict [s]
(let [letters (seq s)
xform (comp (map clojure.string/join)
(filter (fn[v] (not= v s))))]
(when (> (count (into #{} letters)) 1)
(first (eduction xform (iterate shuffle letters))))))
(for [_ (range 20)]
(shuffle-strict "test"))
;; => ("etts" "etts" "stte" "etts" "sett" "tste" "tste" "sett" "ttse" "sett" "ttse" "tset" "stte" "ttes" "ttes" "stte" "stte" "etts" "estt" "stet")
(shuffle-strict "t")
;; => nil
(shuffle-strict "ttttt")
;; => nil
We basically create a lazy list of possible shuffles, and then we take the first of them to be different from the input. We also make sure that there are at least 2 different characters in the input, so as not to hang (we return nil here since you don't want to have the input string as a possible result).
If you want your function to return a sequence:
(defn my-shuffle [input]
(when (-> input set count (> 1))
(->> input
(iterate #(apply str (shuffle (seq %))))
(remove #(= input %)))))
(->> "abc" my-shuffle (take 5))
;; => ("acb" "cba" "bca" "acb" "cab")
(->> "bbb" my-shuffle (take 5))
;; => ()

clojure - using loop and recur with a lazy sequence

If I am returning a lazy-seq from a function like this:
(letfn [(permutations [s]
(lazy-seq
(if (seq (rest s))
(apply concat (for [x s]
(map #(cons x %) (permutations (remove #{x} s)))))
[s])))])
If I use loop recur like below, will the list be eagerly evaluated?
(loop [perms (permutations chain)]
(if (empty? perms)
(prn "finised")
(recur (rest perms))))
If it is eagerly evaluated, can I use loop..recur to lazily loop over what is returned from the permutations function?
The list is lazily evaluated by your loop-recur code.
You can try it out yourself. Let's make permutations print something every time it returns a value by adding a println call.
(defn permutations [s]
(lazy-seq
(if (seq (rest s))
(apply concat (for [x s]
(map #(cons x %) (permutations (remove #{x} s)))))
(do
(println "returning a value")
[s]))))
When using loop, let's also print the values with we're looping over with (prn (first perms).
(loop [perms (permutations [1 2 3])]
(if (empty? perms)
(prn "finised")
(do
(prn (first perms))
(recur (rest perms)))))
Here's what it prints:
returning a value
(1 2 3)
returning a value
(1 3 2)
returning a value
(2 1 3)
returning a value
(2 3 1)
returning a value
(3 1 2)
returning a value
(3 2 1)
"finished"
As you can see, "returning a value" and the value lines are interlaced. The evaluation of the lazy seq can be forced with doall. If you loop over (doall (permutations [1 2 3])), first it prints all the "returning a value" lines and only then the values.

clojure.algo.monad strange m-plus behaviour with parser-m - why is second m-plus evaluated?

I'm getting unexpected behaviour in some monads I'm writing.
I've created a parser-m monad with
(def parser-m (state-t maybe-m))
which is pretty much the example given everywhere (here, here and here)
I'm using m-plus to act as a kind of fall-through query mechanism, in my case, it first reads values from a cache (database), if that returns nil, the next method is to read from "live" (a REST call).
However, the second value in the m-plus list is always called, even though its value is disgarded (if the cache hit was good) and the final return is that of the first monadic function.
Here's a cutdown version of the issue i'm seeing, and some solutions I found, but I don't know why.
My questions are:
Is this expected behaviour or a bug in m-plus? i.e. will the 2nd method in a m-plus list always be evaluated even if the first item returns a value?
Minor in comparison to the above, but if i remove the call
_ (fetch-state) from checker, when i evaluate that method, it
prints out the messages for the functions the m-plus is calling
(when i don't think it should). Is this also a bug?
Here's a cut-down version of the code in question highlighting the problem. It simply checks key/value pairs passed in are same as the initial state values, and updates the state to mark what it actually ran.
(ns monads.monad-test
(:require [clojure.algo.monads :refer :all]))
(def parser-m (state-t maybe-m))
(defn check-k-v [k v]
(println "calling with k,v:" k v)
(domonad parser-m
[kv (fetch-val k)
_ (do (println "k v kv (= kv v)" k v kv (= kv v)) (m-result 0))
:when (= kv v)
_ (do (println "passed") (m-result 0))
_ (update-val :ran #(conj % (str "[" k " = " v "]")))
]
[k v]))
(defn filler []
(println "filler called")
(domonad parser-m
[_ (fetch-state)
_ (do (println "filling") (m-result 0))
:when nil]
nil))
(def checker
(domonad parser-m
[_ (fetch-state)
result (m-plus
;; (filler) ;; intitially commented out deliberately
(check-k-v :a 1)
(check-k-v :b 2)
(check-k-v :c 3))]
result))
(checker {:a 1 :b 2 :c 3 :ran []})
When I run this as is, the output is:
> (checker {:a 1 :b 2 :c 3 :ran []})
calling with k,v: :a 1
calling with k,v: :b 2
calling with k,v: :c 3
k v kv (= kv v) :a 1 1 true
passed
k v kv (= kv v) :b 2 2 true
passed
[[:a 1] {:a 1, :b 2, :c 3, :ran ["[:a = 1]"]}]
I don't expect the line k v kv (= kv v) :b 2 2 true to show at all. The final result is the value returned from the first function to m-plus, as I expect, but I don't expect the second function to even be called.
Now, I've found if I pass a filler into m-plus that does nothing (i.e. uncomment the (filler) line) then the output is correct, the :b value isn't evaluated.
If I don't have the filler method, and make the first method test fail (i.e. change it to (check-k-v :a 2) then again everything is good, I don't get a call to check :c, only a and b are tested.
From my understanding of what the state-t maybe-m transformation is giving me, then the m-plus function should look like:
(defn m-plus
[left right]
(fn [state]
(if-let [result (left state)]
result
(right state))))
which would mean that right isn't called unless left returns nil/false.
Edit:
After looking at state-t and maybe-m source, the m-plus looks more like:
(fn [& statements]
(fn [state]
(apply (fn [& xs]
(first (drop-while nil? xs)))
(map #(% state) statements))))
But the principle is the same, (first (drop-while nil? ...) should only execute over the items that return a valid value.
I'd be interested to know if my understanding is correct or not, and why I have to put the filler method in to stop the extra evaluation (whose effects I don't want to happen).
Edit:
If I switch over to using Jim Duey's hand written implementation of parser-m (from his excellent blogs), there is no evaluation of the second function in m-plus, which seems to imply the transformation monad is breaking m-plus. However, even in this implementation, if I remove the initial (fetch-state) call in the checker function, the domonad definition causes the output of the creation of the m-plus functions, suggesting something going on in domonad's implementation I'm not expecting.
Apologies for the long winded post!

Weird behaviour binding in loop recursion

I'm learning Clojure, and I'm trying to solve the Problem 31: Write a function which packs consecutive duplicates into sub-lists.
(= (__ [1 1 2 1 1 1 3 3]) '((1 1) (2) (1 1 1) (3 3)))
I know I can solve this using identity, and in a functional way, but I want to solve it using recursion, because I've not well established this idea in my brain.
My solution would be this:
(defn packing [lista]
(loop [[fst snd :as all] lista mem [] tmp '(fst)]
(print "all is " all "\n\n") ;; something is wrong; it always is an empty list
(if (seq? all)
(if (= fst snd)
(recur (rest all) mem (cons snd tmp))
(recur (rest all) (conj mem tmp) (list snd)))
(seq mem))))
My idea is a recursive loop always taking the first 2 items and comparing. If they are the same number, I include this inside a temporary list tmp; if they're different, I include my temporary list inside men. (This is my final list; a better name would be final_list.)
Because it compares the first 2 items, but at the same time it needs a recursive loop only bypassing the first item, I named the entire list all.
I don't know if the logic is good but inclusive if this was wrong I'm not sure why when I print.
(print "all is " all "\n\n") I receive an empty list
A few points:
'(fst) creates a list containing a symbol fst, not the value of fst, this is one of the reasons to prefer using vectors, e.g., [fst]
you should avoid assuming the input will not be empty
you can use conj for both lists and vectors
destructuring is nestable
(defn packing [coll]
(loop [[x & [y :as more] :as all] coll
result []
same '()]
(if all
(if (= x y)
(recur more result (conj same x))
(recur more (conj result (conj same x)) '()))
result)))
in your code all isn't empty..only happen than is an infinite loop and you always see a empty list...in the firsts lines you can see than it works like expected..
the mistake is in (seq? all) because a empty list is a seq too... try (seq? '()) and return true...then you do a empty loop
you need change this for (empty? all) your code would be
other mistake is '(fst) because it return the simbol fst and not the value...change it for (list fst)
(defn badpacking [lista]
(loop [[fst snd :as all] lista mem [] tmp (list fst)]
(if (empty? all)
(seq mem)
(if (= fst snd)
(recur (rest all) mem (cons snd tmp))
(recur (rest all) (conj mem tmp) (list snd))))))

Clojure: index of a value in a list or other collection

How do I get the index of any of the elements on a list of strings as so:
(list "a" "b" "c")
For example, (function "a") would have to return 0, (function "b") 1, (function "c") 2 and so on.
and... will it be better to use any other type of collection if dealing with a very long list of data?
Christian Berg's answer is fine. Also it is possible to just fall back on Java's indexOf method of class String:
(.indexOf (appl­y str (list­ "a" "b" "c"))­ "c")
; => 2
Of course, this will only work with lists (or more general, seqs) of strings (of length 1) or characters.
A more general approach would be:
(defn index-of [e coll] (first (keep-indexed #(if (= e %2) %1) coll)))
More idiomatic would be to lazily return all indexes and only ask for the ones you need:
(defn indexes-of [e coll] (keep-indexed #(if (= e %2) %1) coll))
(first (indexes-of "a" (list "a" "a" "b"))) ;; => 0
I'm not sure I understand your question. Do you want the nth letter of each of the strings in a list? That could be accomplished like this:
(map #(nth % 1) (list "abc" "def" "ghi"))
The result is:
(\b \e \h)
Update
After reading your comment on my initial answer, I assume your question is "How do I find the index (position) of a search string in a list?"
One possibility is to search for the string from the beginning of the list and count all the entries you have to skip:
(defn index-of [item coll]
(count (take-while (partial not= item) coll)))
Example: (index-of "b" (list "a" "b" "c")) returns 1.
If you have to do a lot of look-ups, it might be more efficient to construct a hash-map of all strings and their indices:
(def my-list (list "a" "b" "c"))
(def index-map (zipmap my-list (range)))
(index-map "b") ;; returns 1
Note that with the above definitions, when there are duplicate entries in the list index-of will return the first index, while index-map will return the last.
You can use the Java .indexOf method reliably for strings and vectors, but not for lists. This solution should work for all collections, I think:
(defn index-of
"Clojure doesn't have an index-of function. The Java .indexOf method
works reliably for vectors and strings, but not for lists. This solution
works for all three."
[item coll]
(let [v (if
(or (vector? coll) (string? coll))
coll
(apply vector coll))]
(.indexOf coll item)))
Do you mean, how do you get the nth element of a list?
For example, if you want to get the 2nd element on the list (with zero-based index):
(nth (list "a" "b" "c") 2)
yields
"c"
Cat-skinning is fun. Here's a low-level approach.
(defn index-of
([item coll]
(index-of item coll 0))
([item coll from-idx]
(loop [idx from-idx coll (seq (drop from-idx coll))]
(if coll
(if (= item (first coll))
idx
(recur (inc idx) (next coll)))
-1))))
This is a Lispy answer, I suspect those expert in Clojure could do it better:
(defn position
"Returns the position of elt in this list, or nil if not present"
([list elt n]
(cond
(empty? list) nil
(= (first list) elt) n
true (position (rest list) elt (inc n))))
([list elt]
(position list elt 0)))
You seem to want to use the nth function.
From the docs for that function:
clojure.core/nth
([coll index] [coll index not-found])
Returns the value at the index. get returns nil if index out of
bounds, nth throws an exception unless not-found is supplied. nth
also works for strings, Java arrays, regex Matchers and Lists, and,
in O(n) time, for sequences.
That last clause means that in practice, nth is slower for elements "farther off" in sequences, with no guarantee to work quicker for collections that in principle support faster access (~ O(n)) to indexed elements. For (clojure) sequences, this makes sense; the clojure seq API is based on the linked-list API and in a linked list, you can only access the nth item by traversing every item before it. Keeping that restriction is what makes concrete list implementations interchangeable with lazy sequences.
Clojure collection access functions are generally designed this way; functions that do have significantly better access times on specific collections have separate names and cannot be used "by accident" on slower collections.
As an example of a collection type that supports fast "random" access to items, clojure vectors are callable; (vector-collection index-number) yields the item at index index-number - and note that clojure seqs are not callable.
I know this question has been answered a million time but here is a recursive solution that leverages deconstructing.
(defn index-of-coll
([coll elm]
(index-of-coll coll elm 0))
([[first & rest :as coll] elm idx]
(cond (empty? coll) -1
(= first elm) idx
:else (recur rest elm (inc idx)))))
(defn index-of [item items]
(or (last (first (filter (fn [x] (= (first x) item))
(map list items (range (count items))))))
-1))
seems to work - but I only have like three items in my list