Generator in Haskell list comprehension not working - haskell

I am trying to generate a list which will contain a list of solutions for the problem I am trying to solve. I am doing this using list comprehension, generating all possible combinations and then using a predicate to filter so that only solutions are included. Here is my code.
solveRow :: Row -> [Row]
solveRow (Row target rowCells) =
[(cellsToRow target cls) | (cls <- (cellPermutations rowCells)), (result cls)==target]
cellPermutations returns [[Cell]] and therefore cls should be of type [Cell]. When I try to compile I get an error.
I thought <- passed each element of right hand side (in this case [Cell]) to the left hand side variable. Why am I getting a parse error for <-?

Don’t put brackets around cls <- (cellPermutations rowCells) — that’s a syntax error. You don’t need brackets around cellsToRow target cls either, although doing so isn’t an error. (And strictly speaking, you don’t need brackets around result cls either, but I personally think that those brackets make it more readable.) So your example should be:
solveRow :: Row -> [Row]
solveRow (Row target rowCells) =
[cellsToRow target cls | cls <- (cellPermutations rowCells), (result cls)==target]

Related

Need help storing the previous element of a list (Haskell)

I'm currently working on an assignment. I have a function called gamaTipo that converts the values of a tuple into a data type previously defined by my professor.
The problem is: in order for gamaTipo to work, it needs to receive some preceding element. gamaTipo is defined like this: gamaTipo :: Peca -> (Int,Int) -> Peca where Peca is the data type defined by my professor.
What I need to do is to create a funcion that takes a list of tuples and converts it into Peca data type. The part that im strugling with is taking the preceding element of the list. i.e : let's say we have a list [(1,2),(3,4)] where the first element of the list (1,2) always corresponds to Dirt Ramp (data type defined by professor). I have to create a function convert :: [(Int,Int)] -> [Peca] where in order to calculate the element (3,4) i need to first translate (1,2) into Peca, and use it as the previous element to translate (3,4)
Here's what I've tried so far:
updateTuple :: [(Int,Int)] -> [Peca]
updateTuple [] = []
updateTuple ((x,y):xs) = let previous = Dirt Ramp
in (gamaTipo previous (x,y)): updateTuple xs
Although I get no error messages with this code, the expected output isn't correct. I'm also sorry if it's not easy to understand what I'm asking, English isn't my native tongue and it's hard to express my self. Thank you in advance! :)
If I understand correctly, your program needs to have a basic structure something like this:
updateTuple :: [(Int, Int)] -> [Peca]
updateTuple = go initialValue
where
go prev (xy:xys) =
let next = getNextValue prev xy
in prev : (go next xys)
go prev [] = prev
Basically, what’s happening here is:
updateTuple is defined in terms of a helper function go. (Note that ‘helper function’ isn’t standard terminology, it’s just what I’ve decided to call it).
go has an extra argument, which is used to store the previous value.
The implementation of go can then make use of the previous value.
When go recurses, the recursive call can then pass the newly-calculated value as the new ‘previous value’.
This is a reasonably common pattern in Haskell: if a recursive function requires an extra argument, then a new function (often named go) can be defined which has that extra argument. Then the original function can be defined in terms of go.

Passing Variables in Function and compare each?

I'm trying to practice Haskell returns and datatypes. I'm trying to pass the following information into the program:
worm = 1:2:3:worm
eel = [1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3]
snake = 3:2:1:snake
whale = [1..100]
And i want to create a function that has a switch function to get the data and match it to its definition. For example, in Python:
def compare(str): #for one case and using string to clarify
if str == "1:2:3:worm":
return "worm"
I know the datatypes are lists but causes a lot of confusion. My code is giving me an error of Could not deduce (Num Char) Arising from use of worm
My code:
which :: [a] -> String
which x | x == [1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3] = "worm" | x == 3:2:1:snake = "snake" | otherwise = "F"
Is there another approach i'm missing? and why is my function giving me that error?
Two problems:
You can't have a function that returns a list of numbers sometimes and a string other times. That's literally the entire point of a strongly typed language. If you want something like that, you need to use a sum type.
You can't compare infinite lists. You can try, but your program will never finish.

Test for positions- function

positions :: Eq a => a -> [a] -> [Int]
positions x xs = [i | (x',i) <- zip xs [0..], x == x']
i need to create a Test function for the positions function, which passes the quickcheck.
Does someone has an idea?
A possible test could perform the following operations:
randomly generate xs, ys :: [Int] and y :: Int
define list = xs ++ y : ys
test length xs `elem` positions y list
You might also want to write tests for missing elements.
That being said, it's weird to craft tests from the code. One should design test using the specification used to write the code instead. Otherwise, if the code has some quirks, they end up in tests as well: instead of checking for what the code should do, we check for what the code does, which can be pointless.
Good question! I had a bit of trouble with this too when I started using QuickCheck, but as I used it more I started to get a feel for what sort of properties you should test. Often, a good place to start is to think about what sort of relationships should hold between the input(s) and output. Your function finds the indices of an element in a list; now what properties should hold in this case? Here's two which I can think of:
The list of indices should have the same number of elements as there are occurrences of the value in the list.
Each index should correspond to the correct value.
And here's an outline of how these properties could be tested:
Generate a random list, apply positions to it, then count the number of indices returned and check that it matches with the number of occurrences of the searched value.
Generate a random list, then apply positions to it and check that the element at each of the returned indices is the value which was searched for.
I also think that #chi's answer makes a good point in saying that you should design tests from the specification rather than the code; this ties in with what I was saying above, in that a specification can help you find relationships between input(s) and output which may not be immediately apparent from the code.

Error message generating for every input for an empty list case

I'm doing my second assignment in my first semester of learning coding using haskell, so I'm quite new to coding. My problem is that every input I test, empty or not, generates my error message for the empty case, why would this be?
Type classes added for clarity. This is also part of an assignment so please only guide me for this one error :')
type Histogram a = Map a Int
inc :: Ord a => Histogram a -> a -> Histogram a
create
:: Ord a
=> Histogram a -> [a] -> Histogram a
create h (head:restOfString) = create (inc h head) restOfString
create h [head] = inc h head
create h [] = error "No elements in string"
This is wrong:
create h (head:restOfString) = ...
create h [head] = ...
when passing a list containing only one element, the first branch matches, with restOfString being empty. Hence, the second branch will never be taken.
Put the second line first.
If you turn on warnings with -Wall, GHC warns about many potential problems, including this one. I recommend it.
Your first two patterns overlap, so the first one always takes precedence over the second one. Swap them.
This triggers a warning by default in GHC, remember to read the compiler's output. For a better coding experience, it is also advisable to enable -Wall.

How do you call functions dynamically with Haskell

I'm looking to call functions dynamically based on the contents found in an association list.
Here is an example in semi-pseudo-code. listOfFunctions would be passed to callFunctions.
listOfFunctions = [('function one', 'value one')
, ('function two', 'value two')
, ('function three', 'value three')]
callFunctions x = loop through functions
if entry found
then call function with value
else do nothing
The crux of the question is not looping through the list, rather, it's how to call a function once I have it's name?
Consider this use case for further clarification. You open the command prompt and are presented with the following menu.
1: Write new vHost file
2: Exit
You write the new vHost file and are not presented with a new menu
1: Enter new directive
2: Write file
3: Exit
You enter some new directives for the vHost and are now ready to write the file.
The program isn't going to blindly write each and every directive it can, rather, it will only write the ones that you supplied. This is where the association list comes in. Writing a giant if/then/else or case statement is madness. It would be much more elegant to loop through the list, look for which directives were added and call the functions to write them accordingly.
Hence, loop, find a function name, call said function with supplied value.
Thanks to anyone who can help out with this.
Edit:
Here is the solution that I've come up with (constructive critiques are always welcome).
I exported the functions which write the directives in an association list as every answer provided said that just including the function is the way to go.
funcMap = [("writeServerName", writeServerName)
,("writeServeralias", writeServerAlias)
,("writeDocRoot", writeDocRoot)
,("writeLogLevel", writeErrorLog)
,("writeErrorPipe", writeErrorPipe)
,("writeVhostOpen", writeVhostOpen)]
In the file which actually writes the hosts, that file is imported.
I have an association list called hostInfo to simulate some dummy value that would be gathered from an end-user and a function called runFunction which uses the technique supplied by edalorzo to filter through both the lists. By matching on the keys of both lists I ensure that the right function is called with the right value.
import Vhost.Directive
hostInfo = [("writeVhostOpen", "localhost:80")
,("writeServerName", "norics.com")]
runFunctions = [f val | (mapKey, f) <- funcMap, (key, val) <- hostInfo, mapKey == key]
You can simply include the function in the list directly; functions are values, so you can reference them by name in a list. Once you've got them out of the list, applying them is just as simple as func value. There's no need to involve their names at all.
Since I am farily new to Haskell I will risk that you consider my suggestion very naive, but anyways here it goes:
let funcs = [("sum", (+3),1),("product", (*3),2),("square", (^2),4)]
[f x | (name, f, x) <- funcs, name == "sum"]
I think it satisfies the requirements of the question, but perhaps what you intend is more sofisticated than what I can see with my yet limitted knowledge of Haskell.
It might be a bit of an overkill (I agree with ehird's reasoning) but you can evaluate a string with Haskell code by using the eval function in System.Eval.Haskell.
EDIT
As pointed out in the comments, hint is a better option for evaluating strings with Haskell expressions. Quoting the page:
This library defines an Interpreter monad. It allows to load Haskell modules, browse them, type-check and evaluate strings with Haskell expressions and even coerce them into values. The library is thread-safe and type-safe (even the coercion of expressions to values). It is, esentially, a huge subset of the GHC API wrapped in a simpler API. Works with GHC 6.10.x and 6.8.x
First we define our list of functions. This could be built using more machinery, but for the sake of example I just make one explicit list:
listOfFunctions :: [(Int, IO ())]
listOfFunctions = [(0, print "HI") -- notice the anonymous function
,(1, someNamedFunction) -- and something more traditional here
]
someNamedFunction = getChar >>= \x -> print x >> print x
Then we can select from this list however we want and execute the function:
executeFunctionWithVal :: Int -> IO ()
executeFunctionWithVal v = fromMaybe (return ()) (lookup v listOfFunctions)
and it works (if you import Data.Maybe):
Ok, modules loaded: Main.
> executeFunctionWithVal 0
"HI"
> executeFunctionWithVal 01
a'a'
'a'
Don't store the functions as strings, or rather, try storing the actual functions and then tagging them with a string. That way you can just call the function directly. Functions are first class values, so you can call the function using whatever name you assign it to.

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