Clojure: "thread-first" macro -> and "thread-last" macro ->> - clojure

I'm working on problem #74 at 4clojure.com, the solution of mine is as following:
(defn FPS [s]
(->>
(map read-string (re-seq #"[0-9]+" s))
(filter #(= (Math/sqrt %) (Math/floor (Math/sqrt %))))
(interpose ",")
(apply str)))
It works pretty well. But if I use the "thread-first" macro ->
(defn FPS [s]
(->
(map read-string (re-seq #"[0-9]+" s))
(filter #(= (Math/sqrt %) (Math/floor (Math/sqrt %))))
(interpose ",")
(apply str)))
It returns: ClassCastException clojure.lang.LazySeq cannot be cast to clojure.lang.IFn clojure.core/apply (core.clj:617)
Why can "->>" not be replaced by "->" in this problem?

Thread-last macro (->>) inserts each for as the last element of the next form. Thread-first macro (->) inserts it as the second element.
So, this:
(->> a
(b 1)
(c 2))
translates to: (c 2 (b 1 a)), while
(-> a
(b 1)
(c 2))
translates to: (c (b a 1) 2).

In Clojure REPL:
user=> (doc ->)
-------------------------
clojure.core/->
([x & forms])
Macro
Threads the expr through the forms. Inserts x as the
second item in the first form, making a list of it if it is not a
list already. If there are more forms, inserts the first form as the
user=> (doc ->>)
-------------------------
clojure.core/->>
([x & forms])
Macro
Threads the expr through the forms. Inserts x as the
last item in the first form, making a list of it if it is not a
list already. If there are more forms, inserts the first form as the
last item in second form, etc.
filter function expects the first argument to be a function, not a sequence and by using S-> , you are not satisfying its requirement.
That is why you are getting clojure.lang.LazySeq cannot be cast to clojure.lang.IFn exception in your code.

Related

clojure.lang.LazySeq cannot be cast to java.lang.CharSequence

I am writing a function that, for any given string, replaces any digits within that String with the same number of '.' characters.
Examples:
AT2X -> AT..X
QW3G45 -> QW...G.........
T3Z1 -> T...Z.
I've written the following Clojure function but I am getting an error I don't quite understand:
java.lang.ClassCastException: clojure.lang.LazySeq (in module: Unnamed Module) cannot be case to java.lang.Charsequence
I'm interpreting from the error that I need to force an evaluation of a lazy sequence back into a String (or CharSequence) but I can't figure out where to do so or if this is correct.
(defn dotify
;;Replaces digits with the same number of '.'s for use in traditional board formats
[FEN]
(let [values (doall (filter isDigit (seq FEN)))]
(fn [values]
(let [value (first values)]
(str/replace FEN value (fn dots [number]
(fn [s times]
(if (> times 0)
(recur (str s ".") (dec times)))) "" (Character/digit number 10)) value))
(recur (rest values))) values))
There is a standard clojure.string/replace function that may handle that case. Its last argument might be not just a string or a pattern but also a function that turns a found fragment into what you want.
Let's prepare such a function first:
(defn replacer [sum-str]
(let [num (read-string num-str)]
(apply str (repeat num \.))))
You may try it in this way:
user> (replacer "2")
..
user> (replacer "9")
.........
user> (replacer "22")
......................
user>
Now pass it into replace as follows:
user> (clojure.string/replace "a2b3c11" #"\d+" replacer)
a..b...c...........
Here's a way to do this using reduce:
(defn dotify [s]
(->> s
(reduce (fn [acc elem]
(if (Character/isDigit elem)
(let [dots (Integer/parseInt (str elem))]
(apply conj acc (repeat dots \.)))
(conj acc elem)))
[])
(apply str)))
(dotify "zx4g1z2h")
=> "zx....g.z..h"
And another version using mapcat:
(defn dotify-mapcat [s]
(apply str
(mapcat (fn [c]
(if (Character/isDigit c)
(repeat (Integer/parseInt (str c)) \.)
[c]))
s)))
There are some issues in your example:
Many of the internal forms are themselves functions, but it looks like you just want their bodies or implementations instead of wrapping them in functions.
It's hard to tell by the indentation/whitespace, but the entire function is just recur-ing, the fn above it is not being used or returned.
One of the arguments to str/replace is a function that returns a function.
It helps to break the problem down into smaller pieces. For one, you know you'll need to examine each character in a string and decide whether to just return it or expand it into a sequence of dots. So you can start with a function:
(defn expand-char [^Character c]
(if (Character/isDigit c)
(repeat (Integer/parseInt (str c)) \.)
[c]))
Then use that function that operates on one character at a time in a higher-order function that operates on the entire string:
(apply str (mapcat expand-char s))
=> "zx....g.z..h"
Note this is also ~5x faster than the examples above because of the ^Character type-hint in expand-char function.
You can do this with str/replace too:
(defn expand-char [s]
(if (Character/isDigit ^Character (first s))
(apply str (repeat (Integer/parseInt s) \.))
s))
(str/replace "zx4g1z2h" #"." expand-char)
=> "zx....g.z..h"

Clojure threading macro

I'm not sure this is the best place to post, but why doesn't 2) work? Doesn't the threading macro pass the result of seq into (map str)?
;; 1
(map str (seq (str (* 8 8)))) -> ("6" "4")
;; 2
(defn a [x y]
(-> (* x y)
str
seq
(map str)))
(a 8 8) -> Don't know how to create ISeq from: clojure.core$str
You're using the thread-first macro, which inserts each form as the second item of the next, like this:
(-> (* x y) str seq (map str))
(-> (str (* x y)) seq (map str))
(-> (seq (str (* x y))) (map str))
(map (seq (str (* x y))) str)
What you want is the thread-last macro:
(defn a [x y]
(->> (* x y) str seq (map str)))
(a 8 8) ;=> ("6" "4")
as Elogent points out the macro is putting the arguments in the wrong place. In general when working with macros (and especially writing them) it helps to know about macroexpand-1 and combine it with clojure.pprint/pprint to get a clear view of what is actually running:
user> (clojure.pprint/pprint
(macroexpand-1
'(-> (* x y)
str
seq
(map str))))
(map (seq (str (* x y))) str)
nil
Which we can see doesn't quite look right. So next we fiddle with it until it expands to what we expect:
user> (clojure.pprint/pprint
(macroexpand-1
'(->> (* x y)
str
seq
(map str))))
(map str (seq (str (* x y))))
nil
There are a variety of threading macros to help with situations like this, especially as-> which lets you give an explicit name to the threaded value when you need to thread functions that alternate using the first and last argument for the important input:
user> (as-> (* 7 42) x
(str x)
(seq x)
(map str x))
("2" "9" "4")
Here is an alternative that is good to know (it's read from right to left):
(defn a [x y]
((comp (partial map str) seq str *)
x y))
This might be useful in contexts where you want to separate the transformations to apply, from the data they're applied to (I would welcome criticism on the subject 😃).
You might also consider using the it-> threading form from the Tupelo library, which is designed to avoid thread-first vs thread-last worries. Consider this code:
(ns clj.core
(:use tupelo.core))
(defn a [x y]
(it-> (* x y)
(str it)
(seq it)
(map str it)))
(spyx (a 8 8))
(defn -main [] )
Which produces:
(a 8 8) => ("6" "4")
The it-> macro uses the placeholder it to explicitly choose where to place the result of each successive form. This is an easy way to simplify code and avoid this type of error.

Efficient side-effect-only analogue of Clojure's map function

What if map and doseq had a baby? I'm trying to write a function or macro like Common Lisp's mapc, but in Clojure. This does essentially what map does, but only for side-effects, so it doesn't need to generate a sequence of results, and wouldn't be lazy. I know that one can iterate over a single sequence using doseq, but map can iterate over multiple sequences, applying a function to each element in turn of all of the sequences. I also know that one can wrap map in dorun. (Note: This question has been extensively edited after many comments and a very thorough answer. The original question focused on macros, but those macro issues turned out to be peripheral.)
This is fast (according to criterium):
(defn domap2
[f coll]
(dotimes [i (count coll)]
(f (nth coll i))))
but it only accepts one collection. This accepts arbitrary collections:
(defn domap3
[f & colls]
(dotimes [i (apply min (map count colls))]
(apply f (map #(nth % i) colls))))
but it's very slow by comparison. I could also write a version like the first, but with different parameter cases [f c1 c2], [f c1 c2 c3], etc., but in the end, I'll need a case that handles arbitrary numbers of collections, like the last example, which is simpler anyway. I've tried many other solutions as well.
Since the second example is very much like the first except for the use of apply and the map inside the loop, I suspect that getting rid of them would speed things up a lot. I have tried to do this by writing domap2 as a macro, but the way that the catch-all variable after & is handled keeps tripping me up, as illustrated above.
Other examples (out of 15 or 20 different versions), benchmark code, and times on a Macbook Pro that's a few years old (full source here):
(defn domap1
[f coll]
(doseq [e coll]
(f e)))
(defn domap7
[f coll]
(dorun (map f coll)))
(defn domap18
[f & colls]
(dorun (apply map f colls)))
(defn domap15
[f coll]
(when (seq coll)
(f (first coll))
(recur f (rest coll))))
(defn domap17
[f & colls]
(let [argvecs (apply (partial map vector) colls)] ; seq of ntuples of interleaved vals
(doseq [args argvecs]
(apply f args))))
I'm working on an application that uses core.matrix matrices and vectors, but feel free to substitute your own side-effecting functions below.
(ns tst
(:use criterium.core
[clojure.core.matrix :as mx]))
(def howmany 1000)
(def a-coll (vec (range howmany)))
(def maskvec (zero-vector :vectorz howmany))
(defn unmaskit!
[idx]
(mx/mset! maskvec idx 1.0)) ; sets element idx of maskvec to 1.0
(defn runbench
[domapfn label]
(print (str "\n" label ":\n"))
(bench (def _ (domapfn unmaskit! a-coll))))
Mean execution times according to Criterium, in microseconds:
domap1: 12.317551 [doseq]
domap2: 19.065317 [dotimes]
domap3: 265.983779 [dotimes with apply, map]
domap7: 53.263230 [map with dorun]
domap18: 54.456801 [map with dorun, multiple collections]
domap15: 32.034993 [recur]
domap17: 95.259984 [doseq, multiple collections interleaved using map]
EDIT: It may be that dorun+map is the best way to implement domap for multiple large lazy sequence arguments, but doseq is still king when it comes to single lazy sequences. Performing the same operation as unmask! above, but running the index through (mod idx 1000), and iterating over (range 100000000), doseq is about twice as fast as dorun+map in my tests (i.e. (def domap25 (comp dorun map))).
You don't need a macro, and I don't see why a macro would be helpful here.
user> (defn do-map [f & lists] (apply mapv f lists) nil)
#'user/do-map
user> (do-map (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40))
32
35
38
nil
note do-map here is eager (thanks to mapv) and only executes for side effects
Macros can use varargs lists, as the (useless!) macro version of do-map demonstrates:
user> (defmacro do-map-macro [f & lists] `(do (mapv ~f ~#lists) nil))
#'user/do-map-macro
user> (do-map-macro (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40))
32
35
38
nil
user> (macroexpand-1 '(do-map-macro (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40)))
(do (clojure.core/mapv (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40)) nil)
Addendum:
addressing the efficiency / garbage-creation concerns:
note that below I truncate the output of the criterium bench function, for conciseness reasons:
(defn do-map-loop
[f & lists]
(loop [heads lists]
(when (every? seq heads)
(apply f (map first heads))
(recur (map rest heads)))))
user> (crit/bench (with-out-str (do-map-loop (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40))))
...
Execution time mean : 11.367804 µs
...
This looks promising because it doesn't create a data structure that we aren't using anyway (unlike mapv above). But it turns out it is slower than the previous (maybe because of the two map calls?).
user> (crit/bench (with-out-str (do-map-macro (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40))))
...
Execution time mean : 7.427182 µs
...
user> (crit/bench (with-out-str (do-map (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40))))
...
Execution time mean : 8.355587 µs
...
Since the loop still wasn't faster, let's try a version which specializes on arity, so that we don't need to call map twice on every iteration:
(defn do-map-loop-3
[f a b c]
(loop [[a & as] a
[b & bs] b
[c & cs] c]
(when (and a b c)
(f a b c)
(recur as bs cs))))
Remarkably, though this is faster, it is still slower than the version that just used mapv:
user> (crit/bench (with-out-str (do-map-loop-3 (comp println +) (range 2 6) (range 8 11) (range 22 40))))
...
Execution time mean : 9.450108 µs
...
Next I wondered if the size of the input was a factor. With larger inputs...
user> (def test-input (repeatedly 3 #(range (rand-int 100) (rand-int 1000))))
#'user/test-input
user> (map count test-input)
(475 531 511)
user> (crit/bench (with-out-str (apply do-map-loop-3 (comp println +) test-input)))
...
Execution time mean : 1.005073 ms
...
user> (crit/bench (with-out-str (apply do-map (comp println +) test-input)))
...
Execution time mean : 756.955238 µs
...
Finally, for completeness, the timing of do-map-loop (which as expected is slightly slower than do-map-loop-3)
user> (crit/bench (with-out-str (apply do-map-loop (comp println +) test-input)))
...
Execution time mean : 1.553932 ms
As we see, even with larger input sizes, mapv is faster.
(I should note for completeness here that map is slightly faster than mapv, but not by a large degree).

Clojure: Implementing the comp function

4Clojure Problem 58 is stated as:
Write a function which allows you to create function compositions. The parameter list should take a variable number of functions, and create a function applies them from right-to-left.
(= [3 2 1] ((__ rest reverse) [1 2 3 4]))
(= 5 ((__ (partial + 3) second) [1 2 3 4]))
(= true ((__ zero? #(mod % 8) +) 3 5 7 9))
(= "HELLO" ((__ #(.toUpperCase %) #(apply str %) take) 5 "hello world"))
Here __ should be replaced by the solution.
In this problem the function comp should not be employed.
A solution I found is:
(fn [& xs]
(fn [& ys]
(reduce #(%2 %1)
(apply (last xs) ys) (rest (reverse xs)))))
It works. But I don't really understand how the reduce works here. How does it represent (apply f_1 (apply f_2 ...(apply f_n-1 (apply f_n args))...)?
Let's try modifying that solution in 3 stages. Stay with each for a while and see if you get it. Stop if and when you do lest I confuse you more.
First, let's have more descriptive names
(defn my-comp [& fns]
(fn [& args]
(reduce (fn [result-so-far next-fn] (next-fn result-so-far))
(apply (last fns) args) (rest (reverse fns)))))
then factor up some
(defn my-comp [& fns]
(fn [& args]
(let [ordered-fns (reverse fns)
first-result (apply (first ordered-fns) args)
remaining-fns (rest ordered-fns)]
(reduce
(fn [result-so-far next-fn] (next-fn result-so-far))
first-result
remaining-fns))))
next replace reduce with a loop which does the same
(defn my-comp [& fns]
(fn [& args]
(let [ordered-fns (reverse fns)
first-result (apply (first ordered-fns) args)]
(loop [result-so-far first-result, remaining-fns (rest ordered-fns)]
(if (empty? remaining-fns)
result-so-far
(let [next-fn (first remaining-fns)]
(recur (next-fn result-so-far), (rest remaining-fns))))))))
My solution was:
(fn [& fs]
(reduce (fn [f g]
#(f (apply g %&))) fs))
Lets try that for:
((
(fn [& fs]
(reduce (fn [f g]
#(f (apply g %&))) fs))
#(.toUpperCase %)
#(apply str %)
take)
5 "hello world"))
fs is a list of the functions:
#(.toUpperCase %)
#(apply str %)
take
The first time through the reduce, we set
f <--- #(.toUpperCase %)
g <--- #(apply str %)
We create an anonymous function, and assign this to the reduce function's accumulator.
#(f (apply g %&)) <---- uppercase the result of apply str
Next time through the reduce, we set
f <--- uppercase the result of apply str
g <--- take
Again we create a new anonymous function, and assign this to the reduce function's accumulator.
#(f (apply g %&)) <---- uppercase composed with apply str composed with take
fs is now empty, so this anonymous function is returned from reduce.
This function is passed 5 and "hello world"
The anonymous function then:
Does take 5 "hello world" to become (\h \e \l \l \o)
Does apply str to become "hello"
Does toUppercase to become "HELLO"
Here's an elegent (in my opinion) definition of comp:
(defn comp [& fs]
(reduce (fn [result f]
(fn [& args]
(result (apply f args))))
identity
fs))
The nested anonymous functions might make it hard to read at first, so let's try to address that by pulling them out and giving them a name.
(defn chain [f g]
(fn [& args]
(f (apply g args))))
This function chain is just like comp except that it only accepts two arguments.
((chain inc inc) 1) ;=> 3
((chain rest reverse) [1 2 3 4]) ;=> (3 2 1)
((chain inc inc inc) 1) ;=> ArityException
The definition of comp atop chain is very simple and helps isolate what reduce is bringing to the show.
(defn comp [& fs]
(reduce chain identity fs))
It chains together the first two functions, the result of which is a function. It then chains that function with the next, and so on.
So using your last example:
((comp #(.toUpperCase %) #(apply str %) take) 5 "hello world") ;=> "HELLO"
The equivalent only using chain (no reduce) is:
((chain identity
(chain (chain #(.toUpperCase %)
#(apply str %))
take))
5 "hello world")
;=> "HELLO"
At a fundamental level, reduce is about iteration. Here's what an implementation in an imperative style might look like (ignoring the possibility of multiple arities, as Clojure's version supports):
def reduce(f, init, seq):
result = init
for item in seq:
result = f(result, item)
return result
It's just capturing the pattern of iterating over a sequence and accumulating a result. I think reduce has a sort of mystique around it which can actually make it much harder to understand than it needs to be, but if you just break it down you'll definitely get it (and probably be surprised how often you find it useful).
Here is my solution:
(defn my-comp
([] identity)
([f] f)
([f & r]
(fn [& args]
(f (apply (apply my-comp r) args)))))
I like A. Webb's solution better, though it does not behave exactly like comp because it does not return identity when called without any arguments. Simply adding a zero-arity body would fix that issue though.
Consider this example:
(def c (comp f1 ... fn-1 fn))
(c p1 p2 ... pm)
When c is called:
first comp's rightmost parameter fn is applied to the p* parameters ;
then fn-1 is applied to the result of the previous step ;
(...)
then f1 is applied to the result of the previous step, and its result is returned
Your sample solution does exactly the same.
first the rightmost parameter (last xs) is applied to the ys parameters:
(apply (last xs) ys)
the remaining parameters are reversed to be fed to reduce:
(rest (reverse xs))
reduce takes the provided initial result and list of functions and iteratively applies the functions to the result:
(reduce #(%2 %1) ..init.. ..functions..)

How do you convert a expression into a predicate? (Clojure)

Given that I have a expression of the form
'(map? %)
How do I convert it into something like
'#(map? %)
So that I can ultimately expand it into something like
'(apply #(map? %) value)
I think I should use a macro in some way, but am not sure how.
The # invokes a reader macro and reader macros expansion happen before normal macros expansion happens. So to do what you have mentioned, you need to go through the reader in your macro using read-string as shown below.
(defmacro pred [p v]
(let [s# (str \# (last p))]
`(apply ~(read-string s#) ~v)))
user=> (pred '(map? %) [{}])
true
user=> (pred '(map? %) [[]])
false
In case the data i.e the predicate expression is available at runtime then you need to use a function (which is more flexible then macro).
(defn pred [p v]
(let [s (read-string (str \# p))]
(eval `(apply ~s ~v))))
user=> (map #(pred % [12]) ['(map? %)'(even? %)])
(false true)
#(...) is a reader macro. I don't think that you can generate expression with reader macro. For example '#(map? %) will automatically expand into (fn* [p1__352#] (map? p1__352#)) or something similar.
Here's a somewhat relevant discussion on other reader macro.
Would it be possible to change format of the predicate? If it looked something like:
'([arg1] (map? arg1))
Then it would be trivial to make a function form it:
(cons 'fn '([arg1] (map? arg1)))
(def pred (eval (cons 'fn '([p](map? p)))))
#'predicate.core/pred
(pred {})
true
(pred 10)
false
Now please don't hate me for what I'm going to post next. I wrote an overly simplified version of the function reader macro:
(defn get-args [p]
(filter #(.matches (str %) "%\\d*")
(flatten p)))
(defn gen-args [p]
(into []
(into (sorted-set)
(get-args p))))
(defmacro simulate-reader [p]
(let [arglist (gen-args p)
p (if (= (str (first p)) "quote")
(second p)
p)]
(list 'fn (gen-args p) p)))
Using it is very straight-forward:
((simulate-reader '(map? %)) {}) ; -> true
; or without quote
((simulate-reader (map? %)) {})
; This also works:
((simulate-reader '(+ %1 %2)) 10 5) ; -> 15
The difference with the other solution given by #Ankur is:
I like mine less. I just thought it was a fun thing to do.
Does not require conversion to string and then applying reader macro to it.