"apply map vector" idiom - How happens to be 2 functions? - clojure

Here is a sample from my mini code where I copied from clojure docs site.
(apply map vector (vec jpgList))
I guess map and vector are both functions, but apply takes only one function. How come in here apply takes two functions?

Read the documentation of apply:
user=> (doc apply)
-------------------------
clojure.core/apply
([f args] [f x args] [f x y args] [f x y z args] [f a b c d & args])
Applies fn f to the argument list formed by prepending intervening arguments to args.
nil
So, (apply map vector (vec jpgList)) corresponds to f x args, so map will be applied to the the function vector, followed by the elements of (vec jpgList). Unlike Haskell, Clojure's map supports multiple collections to operate on. (vec jpgList) presumably is a nested vector, or list, like in the following example:
user=> (apply map vector [[1 2 3] [4 5 6]])
([1 4] [2 5] [3 6])
What happened is, every element produced by map is the vector of each nth element of the elements of the nested vector. This function is also known as transpose in matrix operations.

apply accepts a function and its arguments. If called with more than two arguments, the middle arguments will be added as scalar arguments (like using partial). See the documentation for apply
In other words, all four of these are the same:
(apply (partial map vector) [[1 2 3 4] "abcd"])
(apply map [vector [1 2 3 4] "abcd"])
(apply map vector [[1 2 3 4] "abcd"])
(map vector [1 2 3 4] "a b c d")
All will return ([1 \a] [2 \b] [3 \c] [4 \d]).

Only map is being 'applied'. However the first argument to map is always itself a function. In this case vector is being prepended to the the sequence of arguments produced by (vec jpgList). vector here is not a second function being applied, it is the first argument in the sequence to which map is applied together with the rest.
You will see this idiom often when applying any higher order function that itself takes a function as an argument.

Consider this:
user=> (let [n1 1
#_=> n2 2
#_=> n-coll [n1 n2]]
#_=> (=
#_=> (apply + 999 n-coll)
#_=> (+ 999 n1 n2)))
true
'apply' applies + to the argument list formed by prepending 999 to n-coll. If you substitute map for + and vector for 999 when the collection in question is made of vectors:
user=> (let [r1 [1 2 3]
#_=> r2 [4 5 6]
#_=> r-coll [r1 r2]]
#_=> (=
#_=> (apply map vector r-coll)
#_=> (map vector r1 r2)))
true

Related

Using a mult-argument Predicate with Filter in Clojure

Is it possible to use filter with a predicate with multiple arguments? If so, how would I do it under the context of this code:
;predicate
(defn classInstructor [instructor class]
(str/includes? class instructor))
(defn instructorClasses [instructor classList]
(filter classInstructor classList))
The map function can take a function that applies to several arguments. For example,
=> (map + [1 2 3] [4 5 6])
(5 7 9)
The + gets two arguments, one from each sequence. There is no corresponding version of filter. You could extend the standard filter as follows:
(defn filter
([f coll]
(clojure.core/filter f coll))
([f coll & colls]
(filter #(apply f %) (apply map vector (cons coll colls)))))
For example,
=> (filter (comp odd? +) [1 2 3] [4 6 8])
([1 4] [3 8])
As you can see, we have to present the surviving sequences somehow. I don't find it persuasive or natural to do so. Not worth doing, I think.
I would do it like so, using an anonymous function:
(defn classInstructor [instructor class]
(str/includes? class instructor))
(defn instructorClasses [instructor classList]
(filter #(classInstructor instructor %) classList))
This way, when one calls instructorClasses, the value of instructor is passed through to classInstructor.

Return a sequence with the elements not in common to two original sequences by using clojure

I have two sequences, which can be vector or list. Now I want to return a sequence whose elements are not in common to the two sequences.
Here is an example:
(removedupl [1 2 3 4] [2 4 5 6]) = [1 3 5 6]
(removeddpl [] [1 2 3 4]) = [1 2 3 4]
I am pretty puzzled now. This is my code:
(defn remove-dupl [seq1 seq2]
(loop [a seq1 b seq2]
(if (not= (first a) (first b))
(recur a (rest b)))))
But I don't know what to do next.
I encourage you to think about this problem in terms of set operations
(defn extrasection [& ss]
(clojure.set/difference
(apply clojure.set/union ss)
(apply clojure.set/intersection ss)))
Such a formulation assumes that the inputs are sets.
(extrasection #{1 2 3 4} #{2 4 5 6})
=> #{1 6 3 5}
Which is easily achieved by calling the (set ...) function on lists, sequences, or vectors.
Even if you prefer to stick with a sequence oriented solution, keep in mind that searching both sequences is an O(n*n) task if you scan both sequences [unless they are sorted]. Sets can be constructed in one pass, and lookup is very fast. Checking for duplicates is an O(nlogn) task using a set.
I'm still new to Clojure but I think the functional mindset is more into composing functions than actually doing it "by hand", so I propose the following solution:
(defn remove-dupl [seq1 seq2]
(concat
(remove #(some #{%} seq1) seq2)
(remove #(some #{%} seq2) seq1)))
EDIT: I think it is better if we define that remove part as a local function and reuse it:
(defn remove-dupl [seq1 seq2]
(let [removing (fn [x y] (remove #(some #{%} x) y))]
(concat (removing seq1 seq2) (removing seq2 seq1))))
EDIT2: As commented by TimothyPratley
(defn remove-dupl [seq1 seq2]
(let [removing (fn [x y] (remove (set x) y))]
(concat (removing seq1 seq2) (removing seq2 seq1))))
There are several problems with your code.
It doesn't test for the end of either sequence argument.
It steps through b but not a.
It implicitly returns nil when any two sequences have the same
first element.
You want to remove the common elements from the concatenated sequences. You have to work out the common elements first, otherwise you don't know what to remove. So ...
We use
clojure.set/intersection to find the common elements,
concat to stitch the collections together.
remove to remove (1) from (2).
vec to convert to a vector.
Thus
(defn removedupl [coll1 coll2]
(let [common (clojure.set/intersection (set coll1) (set coll2))]
(vec (remove common (concat coll1 coll2)))))
... which gives
(removedupl [1 2 3 4] [2 4 5 6]) ; [1 3 5 6]
(removedupl [] [1 2 3 4]) ; [1 2 3 4]
... as required.

concatenating function that takes arbitrary inputs

I want to write a function that concatenates vectors or matrices, which can take arbitrary inputs. To combine two vectors I've written the follow code. It also also matrices to be combined such that columns are lengthened.
(defn concats
([x y] (vec (concat x y))))
Where I am stuck is extending the input to n vectors or matrices, and combining matrices to make longer rows.
Ex) (somefunction [[:a :b] [:c :d]] [[1 2] [3 4]] 2]
[[:a :b 1 2] [:c :d 3 4]]
The 2 in the input designates level to concatenate.
If you're not interested in "how it works", here's the solution right up front (note that level is zero-indexed, so what you've called the 1st level I'm calling the 0th level):
(defn into* [to & froms]
(reduce into to froms))
(defn deep-into*
[level & matrices]
(-> (partial partial mapv)
(iterate into*)
(nth level)
(apply matrices)))
The short answer for how it works is this: it iteratively builds up a function that will nest the call to into* at the correct level, and then applies it to the supplied matrices.
Regular old into, given a vector first argument, will concatenate the elements of the second argument onto the end of the vector. The into* function here is just the way I'm doing vector concatting on a variable number of vectors. It uses reduce to iteratively call into on some accumulated vector (which starts as to) and the successive vectors in the list froms. For example:
user> (into* [1 2] [3 4] [5 6])
> [1 2 3 4 5 6]
Now for deep-into*, I had to recognize a pattern. I started by hand-writing different expressions that would satisfy different "levels" of concatenation. For level 0, it's easy (I've extrapolated your example somewhat so that I can make it to level 2):
user> (into* [[[:a :b] [:c :d]]] [[[1 2] [3 4]]])
> [[[:a :b] [:c :d]] [[1 2] [3 4]]]
As for level 1, it's still pretty straightforward. I use mapv, which works just like map except that it returns a vector instead of a lazy sequence:
user> (mapv into* [[[:a :b] [:c :d]]] [[[1 2] [3 4]]])
> [[[:a :b] [:c :d] [1 2] [3 4]]]
Level 2 is a little more involved. This is where I start using partial. The partial function takes a function and a variable number of argument arguments (not a typo), and returns a new function that "assumes" the given arguments. If it helps, (partial f x) is the same as (fn [& args] (apply f x args)). It should be clearer from this example:
user> ((partial + 2) 5)
> 7
user> (map (partial + 2) [5 6 7]) ;why was six afraid of seven?
> (7 8 9)
So knowing that, and also knowing that I'll want to go one level deeper, it makes some sense that level 2 looks like this:
user> (mapv (partial mapv into*) [[[:a :b][:c :d]]] [[[1 2][3 4]]])
> [[[:a :b 1 2] [:c :d 3 4]]]
Here, it's mapping a function that's mapping into* down some collection. Which is kind of like saying: map the level 1 idea of (mapv into* ...) down the matrices. In order to generalize this to a function, you'd have to recognize the pattern here. I'm going to put them all next to each other:
(into* ...) ;level 0
(mapv into* ...) ;level 1
(mapv (partial mapv into*) ...) ;level 2
From here, I remembered that (partial f) is the same as f (think about it: you have a function and you're giving it no additional "assumed" arguments). And by extending that a little, (map f ...) is the same as ((partial map f) ...) So I'll re-write the above, slightly:
(into* ...) ;level 0
((partial mapv into*) ...) ;level 1
((partial mapv (partial mapv into*)) ...) ;level 2
Now an iterative pattern is becoming clearer. We're calling some function on ... (which is just our given matrices), and that function is an iterative build-up of calling (partial mapv ...) on into*, iterating for the number of levels. The (partial mapv ...) part can be functionalized as (partial partial mapv). This is a partial function that returns a partial function of mapving some supplied arguments. This outer partial isn't quite necessary because we know that the ... here will always be one thing. So we could just as easily write it as #(partial mapv %), but I so rarely get a chance to use (partial partial ...) and I think it looks pretty. As for the iteration, I use the pattern (nth (iterate f initial) n). Perhaps another example would make this pattern clear:
user> (nth (iterate inc 6) 5)
> 11
Without the (nth ...) part, it would loop forever, creating an infinite list of incrementing integers greater than or equal to 5. So now, the whole thing abstracted and calculated for level 2:
user> ((nth (iterate (partial partial mapv) into*) 2)
[[[:a :b][:c :d]]] [[[1 2][3 4]]])
> [[[:a :b 1 2] [:c :d 3 4]]]
Then, using the -> macro I can factor out some of these nested parantheses. This macro takes a list of expressions and recursively nests each into the second position of the successive one. It doesn't add any functionality, but can certainly make things more readable:
user> ((-> (partial partial mapv)
(iterate into*)
(nth 2))
[[[:a :b][:c :d]]] [[[1 2][3 4]]])
> [[[:a :b 1 2] [:c :d 3 4]]]
From here, generalizing to a function is pretty trivial--replace the 2 and the matrices with arguments. But because this takes a variable number of matrices, we will have to apply the iteratively-built function. The apply macro takes a function or macro, a variable number of arguments, and finally a collection. Essentially, it prepends the function or macro and the supplied arguments onto the final list, then evaluates the whole thing. For example:
user> (apply + [1 5 10]) ;same as (+ 1 5 10)
> 16
Happily, we can stick the needed apply at the end of the (-> ...). Here's my solution again, for the sake of symmetry:
(defn deep-into*
[level & matrices]
(-> (partial partial mapv)
(iterate into*)
(nth level)
(apply matrices)))
Using the concats function you listed in the question:
user=> (map concats [[:a :b] [:c :d]] [[1 2] [3 4]])
([:a :b 1 2] [:c :d 3 4])
this doesn't take into account the level as you listed, but it handles the input given
Taking arbitrary number of arguments needs a replacement concats function
(defn conc [a b & args]
(if (nil? (first args))
(concat a b)
(recur (concat a b) (first args) (rest args))))
Here are two examples
user=> (map conc [[:a :b] [:c :d]] [[1 2] [3 4]] [["w" "x"] ["y" "z"]])
((:a :b 1 2 "w" "x") (:c :d 3 4 "y" "z"))
user=> (map conc [[:a :b] [:c :d] [:e :f]] [[1 2] [3 4] [5 6]] [["u" "v"] ["w" "x"] ["y" "z"]])
((:a :b 1 2 "u" "v") (:c :d 3 4 "w" "x") (:e :f 5 6 "y" "z"))
Here are two different solutions for a function which will return a vector that's the concatenation of an arbitrary number of input collections:
(defn concats [& colls]
(reduce (fn [result coll]
(into result coll))
[]
colls))
(defn concats [& colls]
(vec (apply concat colls)))
The [& arg-name] notation in the argument lists is how you specify that the function is "variadic" - meaning it can accept a variable number of arguments. The result is that colls (or whatever name you pick) will be a sequence of all the arguments in excess of the positional arguments.
Functions can have multiple arities in Clojure, so you can also do things like this:
(defn concats
([x]
(vec x))
([x y]
(vec (concat x y)))
([x y & colls]
(vec (apply concat (list* x y colls)))))
However, only one of the overloads can be variadic, and its variadic part must come last (i.e. you can't do [& more n], only [n & more].
The Clojure.org page on special forms has more useful information on argument lists in Clojure (in the section on fn).
The function below correctly handles the example input/output you provided. Unfortunately I don't think I understand how you want the levels (and associated numeric input) to work well enough to generalize it as far as you're looking for.
(defn concats [x y]
;; only works with two inputs
(vec (map-indexed (fn [i v] (into v (nth y i)))
x)))
(concats [[:a :b] [:c :d]] [[1 2] [3 4]]) ;=> [[:a :b 1 2] [:c :d 3 4]]
But maybe it will give you some ideas anyway, or if you can add more information (especially examples of how different levels should work) I'll see if I can be more help.

walk/postwalk usage

I am going through this article on Tree Visitors in Clojure and came across the below example:
(def data [[1 :foo] [2 [3 [4 "abc"]] 5]])
(walk/postwalk #(do (println "visiting:" %) %) data)
What is the outer form of postwalk doing? I can't understand its utility. How and why is postwalk used? Any explanations will be appreciated.
I'm not sure if you're asking what #() means or what the purpose of do(form1 form2) means, so I'll answer both.
#() is a shorthand for declaring an anonymous function. Anonymous functions are useful when you're passing some function into another function.
To illustrate, look at this in the repl
; define an anonymous function
user=> #(+ %1 %2)
#<user$eval68$fn__69 user$eval68$fn__69#9fe84e>
; is equivalent to
user => (fn [a b] (+ a b))
#<user$eval1951$fn__1952 user$eval1951$fn__1952#118bd3c>
; furthermore, you could then assign your anonymous function to a var
(def f #(+ %1 %2))
; is equivalent to
(defn f [a b] (+ a b))
user=> (#(+ %1 %2) 1 2)
3
user=> (f 1 2)
3
The %n refers to the arguments to positional arguments to a function where n means nth argument, starting at 1 As a further shorthand you can use % to refer to the first argument which works well for single arg anonymous functions. This is what you have in your example.
So you example is equivalent to
(def data [[1 :foo] [2 [3 [4 "abc"]] 5]])
(defn f [x] (do (println "visiting:" x) x))
(walk/postwalk f data)
The do here is a special form, which, from the docs:
(do exprs*)
Evaluates the expressions in order and returns the value of the last. If no expressions are supplied, returns nil.
In fact defn already has an implicit do, so my example above doesn't actually need the do...
; your example is equivalent to:
(def data [[1 :foo] [2 [3 [4 "abc"]] 5]])
(defn f [x] (println "visiting:" x) x)
(walk/postwalk f data)
I had the same question today and find this necrotopik. Maybe later is better the newer. Find this on clojure api reference:
postwalk
function
Usage: (postwalk f form)
Performs a depth-first, post-order traversal of form. Calls f on
each sub-form, uses f's return value in place of the original.
Recognizes all Clojure data structures except sorted-map-by.
Consumes seqs as with doall.
Also this example from clojuredocs makes things clearer:
(use 'clojure.walk)
(let [counter (atom -1)]
(postwalk (fn [x]
[(swap! counter inc) x])
{:a 1 :b 2}))
=> [6 {2 [[0 :a] [1 1]], 5 [[3 :b] [4 2]]}]
So, postwalk replaces every subform with result of the function. It is used for updating nested structures with new values. That is why resulting function contains x or % at the end. Adding input to result leads to even more nested stucture.
In the example above it is seen as it walks through the depths of nested map stucture. It is going first on deepest elements of the map, then go up on higher level, then lurk down to the next form, then again goes up and finishes its last move on the whole form.

In clojure, how to create a list applying 2 different functions on a collection of 2-elements vectors?

In Clojure, I have a collection coll of 2-elements vectors. I would like to create the collection obtained by applying f and g on the first and second elements on every vector of the collection, respectively. I think this is related to the list comprehension construct.
(def coll [[1 1000] [2 2000] [3 3000]])
IS there an idiomatic way for creating the following result?
[[f(1) g(1000)] [f(2) g(2000)] [f(3) g(3000)]]
Again, list comprehension FTW:
(vec (for [[x y] [[1 1000] [2 2000] [3 3000]]] [(f x) (g y)]))
Yes,
(vec (map (fn [[p1 p2]] [(f p1) (g p2)])
[[1 1000] [2 2000] [3 3000]]))
To write this from scratch, I would do exactly what skuro did - it's simple, easy, and readable. But I also wrote a higher-order function to abstract this some time ago, named knit. So now I would write this as
(map (knit f g) [[1 1000] [2 2000] [3 3000]])