Lazy self-recursive data structures in Clojure - clojure

Is there a way to describe arbitrary lazy self-recursive data structures in Clojure?
Let's say for example I wanted to do something like this:
(def inf-seq (fn rec [] (lazy-seq (cons 42 (rec)))))
(take 3 (inf-seq))
but with a map:
(def inf-map (fn rec [] (??? {:a (rec) :b 42})))
(get-in (inf-map) [:a :a :a :b])

Sequence laziness does not apply to deferred function evaluation in Clojure, which you would obviously need for constructing infinitely nested maps.
Try using Delays:
user=> (def inf-map (fn rec [] {:a (delay (rec)) :b 42}))
#'user/inf-map
user=> (inf-map)
{:a #<Delay#4e9f9a19: :pending>, :b 42}
user=> #(:a (inf-map))
{:a #<Delay#5afd479c: :pending>, :b 42}

Related

accessing Clojure's thread-first macro arguments

I was wondering if there was a way to access the arguments value of a thread-first macro in Clojure while it is being executed on.
for example:
(def x {:a 1 :b 2})
(-> x
(assoc :a 20) ;; I want the value of x after this step
(assoc :b (:a x))) ;; {:a 20, :b 1}
It has come to my attention that this works:
(-> x
(assoc :a 20)
((fn [x] (assoc x :b (:a x))))) ;; {:a 20, :b 20}
But are there any other ways to do that?
You can use as->:
(let [x {:a 1 :b 2}]
(as-> x it
(assoc it :a 20)
(assoc it :b (:a it))))
In addition to akond's comment, note that using as-> can get quite confusing quickly. I recommend either extracting a top level function for these cases, or trying to use as-> in -> only:
(-> something
(process-something)
(as-> $ (do-something $ (very-complicated $)))
(finish-processing))

dissoc in clojure can't get to work

I have this function:
(defn dissoc-all [m kv]
(let [[k & ks] kv]
(dissoc m k ks)))
Where m is the map and kv is the vector of keys. I use it like this:
(dissoc-all {:a 1 :b 2} [:a :b])
=>{:b 2}
This is not what I've expected. ks has :b but I don't know why it is not being use by dissoc. Anyone can help me with this?
Edit: Added question is that why is this not triggering the 3rd overload of dissoc, which is dissoc [map key & ks]?
Changed name from dissoc-in to dissoc-all as noisesmith have said, -in is not a proper name for this and I agree.
This won't work because ks is a collection of all the elements in kv after the first. So instead of :b it is [:b].
Instead, you can just use apply:
(defn dissoc-in [m vs]
(apply dissoc m vs))
Also, dissoc-in is an odd name for this function, because the standard functions with -in in the name all do nested access, and this does not use the keys to do any nested access of the map.
Why not something like this?
(defn dissoc-all [m ks]
(apply dissoc m ks))
(dissoc-all {:a 1 :b 2} [:a :b])
=> {}
The reason the third overlod of dissoc is not getting called is because it does not expect a collection of keys like [:a :b] - it expects just the keys.
For example:
(dissoc {:a "a" :b "b" :c "c" :d "d"} :a :b :c)
=> {:d "d"}
Further to noisesmith's answer:
You're being confused by the overloads/arities of dissoc, which have this simple effect:
[m & ks]
"Returns a new map of the same (hashed/sorted) type,
that does not contain a mapping for any of ks. "
The explicit arities for no keys and one key are for performance. Many clojure functions are so organised, and the documentation follows the organisation, not the underlying idea.
Now, the action of
(dissoc-all {:a 1 :b 2} [:a :b])
;{:b 2}
is to bind
k to :a
ks to [:b]
Note the latter. The example removes the :a but fails to remove the [:b], which isn't there.
You can use apply to crack open ks:
(defn dissoc-all [m kk]
(let [[k & ks] kk]
(apply dissoc m k ks)))
(dissoc-all {:a 1 :b 2} [:a :b])
;{}
... or, better, do as #noisesmith does and short-circuit the destructuring, using apply at once.

Clojure: Why is flatten "the wrong thing to use"

I've read this kind of thing a couple of times since I've started Clojure.
For instance, here: How to convert map to a sequence?
And in some tweet I don't remember exactly that was more or less saying "if you're using flatten you're probably doing it wrong".
I would like to know, what is wrong with flatten?
I think this is what they were talking about in the answer you linked:
so> ((comp flatten seq) {:a [1 2] :b [3 4]})
(:b 3 4 :a 1 2)
so> (apply concat {:a [1 2] :b [3 4]})
(:b [3 4] :a [1 2])
Flatten will remove the structure from the keys and values, which is probably not what you want. There are use cases where you do want to remove the structure of nested sequences, and flatten was written for such cases. But for destructuring a map, you usually do want to keep the internal sequences as is.
Anything flatten can't flatten, it ought to return intact. At the top level, it doesn't.
(flatten 8)
()
(flatten {1 2, 3 4})
()
If you think you've supplied a sequence, but you haven't, you'll get the effect of supplying an empty sequence. This is the sort of leg-breaker that most core functions take care to preclude. For example, (str nil) => "".
flatten ought to work like this:
(defn flatten [x]
(if (sequential? x)
((fn flat [y] (if (sequential? y) (mapcat flat y) [y])) x)
x))
(flatten 8)
;8
(flatten [{1 2, 3 4}])
;({1 2, 3 4})
(flatten [1 [2 [[3]] 4]])
;(1 2 3 4)
You can find Steve Miner's faster lazy version of this here.
Probability of "probably"
Listen to people who say "you're probably doing it wrong", but also do not forget they say "probably", because it all depends on the problem.
For example if your task is to flatten the map where you could care less what was the key what was the value, you just need an unstructured sequence of all, then by all means, use flatten (or apply concat).
The reason it causes a "suspicion" is the fact that you had / were given a map to begin with, hence whoever gave it to you meant a "key value" paired structure, and if you flatten it, you lose that intention, as well as flexibility and clarity.
Keep in mind
In case you are still not sure what to do with a map for you particular problem, have a for comprehension in mind, since you would have a full control on what to do with the map as you iterate of it:
create a vector?
;; can also be (apply vector {:a 34 :b 42}), but just to use "for" for all consistently
user=> (into [] (for [[k v] {:a 34 :b 42}] [k v]))
[[:a 34] [:b 42]]
create another map?
user=> (into {} (for [[k v] {:a 34 :b 42}] [k (inc v)]))
{:a 35, :b 43}
create a set?
user=> (into #{} (for [[k v] {:a 34 :b 42}] [k v]))
#{[:a 34] [:b 42]}
reverse keys and values?
user=> (into {} (for [[k v] {:a 34 :b 42}] [v k]))
{34 :a, 42 :b}

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: create a lazy-seq containing another lazy-seq

I would like to create a lazy-seq containing another lazy-seq using clojure.
The data structure that I aready have is a lazy-seq of map and it looks like this:
({:a 1 :b 1})
Now I would like to put that lazy-seq into another one so that the result would be a lazy-seq of a lazy-seq of map:
(({:a 1 :b 1}))
Does anyone know how to do this? Any help would be appreciated
Regards,
Here is an example of creating a list containing a list of maps:
=> (list (list {:a 1 :b 1}))
(({:a 1, :b 1}))
It's not lazy, but you can make both lists lazy with lazy-seq macro:
=> (lazy-seq (list (lazy-seq (list {:a 1 :b 1}))))
or the same code with -> macro:
=> (-> {:a 1 :b 1} list lazy-seq list lazy-seq)
Actually, if you'll replace lists here with vectors you'll get the same result:
=> (lazy-seq [(lazy-seq [{:a 1 :b 1}])])
(({:a 1, :b 1}))
I'm not sure what you're trying to do and why do you want both lists to be lazy. So, provide better explanation if you want further help.
generally, there's nothing special about having a lazy-seq containing many lazy-seq's, so i dont understand exactly what it is you are really after.
you could always do
(map list '({:a 1 :b 1})) ;; gives (({:a 1, :b 1}))
we can even verify that it maintains laziness:
(def a
(concat
(take 5 (repeat {:a 1 :b 2}))
(lazy-seq
(throw (Exception. "too eager")))))
(println (take 5 (map list a))) ;; works fine
(println (take 6 (map list a))) ;; throws an exception