A module with a store - reference

Question

It happens quite often that it is costly to calculate a property from a value. So it would be better to be able to store the property once it is calculated. I am wondering how to code this properly.
Let's take an example. Assume we have a type integer, and very often we need to calculate prime factors of a value of such type (let's assume the prime factors of a negative integer is None):
module I =
struct
type t = C of int
type pf = (int list) option
let calculate_prime_factors (x: t) : pf =
(* a costly function to calculate prime factors *)
... ...
let get_prime_factors (x: t) : pf =
calculate_prime_factors x
end
let () =
let v = I.C 100 in
let pf_1 = I.get_prime_factors v in
let pf_2 = I.get_prime_factors v in
let pf_3 = I.get_prime_factors v in
...
At the moment, get_prime_factors just calls calculate_prime_factors, as a consequence, all the calculations of pf_1, pf_2, pf_3 are time consuming. I would like to have a mechanism to enable storing prime factors inside the module, so that as long as the integer does not change, the second and third times of get_prime_factors just read what have been stored.
Does anyone know how to modify the module I to achieve this?
It is possible that we need references to make this mechanism possible (eg, let vr = ref (I.C 100) in ...). It is OK for me to use references. But I don't know how to trigger automatically calculate_prime_factors if the hold value (ie, !vr) is changed.

Answer 1

What you want to do is memoization, no ?
You could try this :
module I =
struct
type t = C of int
type pf = (int list) option
let calculate_prime_factors (x: t) : pf =
(* a costly function to calculate prime factors *)
... ...
module HI = Hashtbl.Make (struct
type t = C of int
let equal = (=)
let hash (C x) = x
end)
let get_prime_factors =
let h = Hashtbl.create 17 in
fun x ->
try Hashtbl.find h x
with
Not_found -> let pf = calculate_prime_factors x in
Hashtbl.add h x pf;
pf
end
let () =
let v = I.C 100 in
let pf_1 = I.get_prime_factors v in
let pf_2 = I.get_prime_factors v in
let pf_3 = I.get_prime_factors v in
...
You could adapt it for negative integers (with exceptions, for example, which is better than options) but I hope you get the idea.

Answer 2

Looks like, that you're looking for this solution:
module I = struct
type t = {
c : int;
mutable result : int option;
}
let create c = {c; result = None}
let calculate_prime_factors t = match t.result with
| Some r -> r
| None ->
let r = do_calculate t.c in
t.result <- Some r;
r
end
This is called memoizing. And this particular example can be solved even easier, with Lazy computations.
module I = struct
type t = int Lazy.t
let create c = lazy (do_calculate c)
let calculate_prime_factors = Lazy.force
end

Answer 3

I would do the following :
let get_prime_factors x =
match get x with
| None ->
let res = calculate_prime_factors x
in
begin
set x res ;
res
end
| Some res -> res
;;
You need a mutable data structure accessed by get and set. For instance, with a reference on a list (but you may prefer a hashtable) :
let my_storage = ref [] (* or something mutable *)
let get x =
if List.mem_assoc x !my_storage
then Some (List.assoc x !my_storage)
else None
let set x r =
my_storage := (x,r) :: !my_storage ;;
You can also use exceptions instead of the option type (None and Some _).