Scala count chars in a string logical error - string

Question

here is the code:
val a = "abcabca"
a.groupBy((c: Char) => a.count( (d:Char) => d == c))
here is the result I want:
scala.collection.immutable.Map[Int,String] = Map(2 -> b, 2 -> c, 3 -> a)
but the result I get is
scala.collection.immutable.Map[Int,String] = Map(2 -> bcbc, 3 -> aaa)
why?
thank you.

Answer 1

Write an expression like
"abcabca".groupBy(identity).collect{
case (k,v) => (k,v.length)
}
which will give output as
res0: scala.collection.immutable.Map[Char,Int] = Map(b -> 2, a -> 3, c -> 2)

Answer 2

Let's dissect your initial attempt :
a.groupBy((c: Char) => a.count( (d:Char) => d == c))
So, you're grouping by something which is what ? the result of a.count(...), so the key of your Map will be an Int. For the char a, we will get 3, for the chars b and c, we'll get 2.
Now, the original String will be traversed and for the results accumulated, char by char.
So after traversing the first "ab", the current state is "2-> b, 3->c". (Note that for each char in the string, the .count() is called, which is a n² wasteful algorithm, but anyway).
The string is progressively traversed, and at the end the accumulated results is shown. As it turns out, the 3 "a" have been sent under the "3" key, and the b and c have been sent to the key "2", in the order the string was traversed, which is the left to right order.
Now, a usual groupBy on a list returns something like Map[T, List[T]], so you may have expected a List[Char] somewhere. It doesn't happen (because the Repr for String is String), and your list of chars is effectively recombobulated into a String, and is given to you as such.
Hence your final result !

Answer 3

Your question header reads as "Scala count chars in a string logical error". But you are using Map and you wanted counts as keys. Equal keys are not allowed in Map objects. Hence equal keys get eliminated in the resulting Map, keeping just one, because no duplicate keys are allowed. What you want may be a Seq of tuples like (count, char) like List[Int,Char]. Try this.
val x = "abcabca"
x.groupBy(identity).mapValues(_.size).toList.map{case (x,y)=>(y,x)}
In Scal REPL:
scala> x.groupBy(identity).mapValues(_.size).toList.map{case (x,y)=>(y,x)}
res13: List[(Int, Char)] = List((2,b), (3,a), (2,c))
The above gives a list of counts and respective chars as a list of tuples.So this is what you may really wanted.
If you try converting this to a Map:
scala> x.groupBy(identity).mapValues(_.size).toList.map{case (x,y)=>(y,x)}.toMap
res14: scala.collection.immutable.Map[Int,Char] = Map(2 -> c, 3 -> a)
So this is not what you want obviously.
Even more concisely use:
x.distinct.map(v=>(x.filter(_==v).size,v))
scala> x.distinct.map(v=>(x.filter(_==v).size,v))
res19: scala.collection.immutable.IndexedSeq[(Int, Char)] = Vector((3,a), (2,b), (2,c))

Answer 4

The problem with your approach is you are mapping count to characters. Which is:
In case of
val str = abcabca
While traversing the string str a has count 3, b has count 2 and c has count 2 while creating the map (with the use of groupBy) it will put all the characters in the value which has the same key that is.
Map(3->aaa, 2->bc)
That’s the reason you are getting such output for your program.
As you can see in the definition of the groupBy function:
def
groupBy[K](f: (A) ⇒ K): immutable.Map[K, Repr]
Partitions this traversable collection into a map of traversable collections according to some discriminator function.
Note: this method is not re-implemented by views. This means when applied to a view it will always force the view and return a new traversable collection.
K
the type of keys returned by the discriminator function.
f
the discriminator function.
returns
A map from keys to traversable collections such that the following invariant holds:
(xs groupBy f)(k) = xs filter (x => f(x) == k)
That is, every key k is bound to a traversable collection of those elements x for which f(x) equals k.
GroupBy returns a Map which holds the following invariant.
(xs groupBy f)(k) = xs filter (x => f(x) == k)
Which means it return collection of elements for which the key is same.