I'm trying to define a function in Haskell using the foldr function:
fromDigits :: [Int] -> Int
This function takes a list of Ints (each on ranging from 0 to 9) and converts to a single Int. For example:
fromDigits [0,1] = 10
fromDigits [4,3,2,1] = 1234
fromDigits [2,3,9] = 932
fromDigits [2,3,9,0,1] = 10932
Anyway, I have no trouble defining this using explicit recursion or even using zipWith:
fromDigits n = sum (zipWith (*) n (map ((^)10) [0..]))
But now I have to define it using a foldr, but I don't know how to get the powers of 10. What I have is:
fromDigits xs = foldr (\x acc -> (x*10^(???)) + acc) 0 xs
How can I get them to decrease? I know I can start with (length xs - 1) but what then?
Best Regards
You were almost there:
your
fromDigits xs = foldr (\x acc -> (x*10^(???)) + acc) 0 xs
is the solution with 2 little changes:
fromDigits = foldr (\x acc -> acc*10 + x) 0
(BTW I left out the xs on each sides, that's not necessary.
Another option would be
fromDigits = foldl (\x acc -> read $ (show x) ++ (show acc)) 0
The nice thing about foldr is that it's so extemely easy to visualise!
foldr f init [a,b, ... z]
≡ foldr f init $ a : b : ... z : []
≡ a`f b`f`... z`f`init
≡ f a (f b ( ... (f z init)...)))
so as you see, the j-th list element is used in j consecutive calls of f. The head element is merely passed once to the left of the function. For you application, the head element is the last digit. How should that influence the outcome? Well, it's just added to the result, isn't it?
15 = 10 + 5
623987236705839 = 623987236705830 + 9
– obvious. Then the question is, how do you take care for the other digits? Well, to employ the above trick you first need to make sure there's a 0 in the last place of the carried subresult. A 0 that does not come from the supplied digits! How do you add such a zero?
That should really be enough hint given now.
The trick is, you don't need to compute the power of 10 each time from scratch, you just need to compute it based on the previous power of ten (i.e. multiply by 10). Well, assuming you can reverse the input list.
(But the lists you give above are already in reverse order, so arguably you should be able to re-reverse them and just say that your function takes a list of digits in the correct order. If not, then just divide by 10 instead of multiplying by 10.)
Related
I do not understand a sample solution for the following problem: given a list of elements, remove the duplicates. Then count the unique digits of a number. No explicit recursion may be used for either problem.
My code:
removeDuplicates :: Eq a => [a] -> [a]
removeDuplicates = foldr (\x ys -> x:(filter (x /=) ys)) []
differentDigits :: Int -> Int
differentDigits xs = length (removeDuplicates (show xs))
The solution I am trying to understand has a different definition for differentDigits, namely
differentDigits xs = foldr (\ _ x -> x + 1) 0 ( removeDuplicates ( filter (/= '_') ( show xs )))
Both approaches work, but I cannot grasp the sample solution. To break my question down into subquestions,
How does the first argument to filter work? I mean
(/= '_')
How does the lambda for foldr work? In
foldr (\ _ x -> x + 1)
^
the variable x should still be the Char list? How does Haskell figure out that actually 0 should be incremented?
filter (/= '_') is, I'm pretty sure, redundant. It filters out underscore characters, which shouldn't be present in the result of show xs, assuming xs is a number of some sort.
foldr (\ _ x -> x + 1) 0 is equivalent to length. The way foldr works, it takes the second argument (which in your example is zero) as the starting point, then applies the first argument (in your example, lambda) to it over and over for every element of the input list. The element of the input list is passed into the lambda as first argument (denoted _ in your example), and the running sum is passed as second argument (denoted x). Since the lambda just returns a "plus one" number on every pass, the result will be a number representing how many times the lambda was called - which is the length of the list.
First, note that (2) is written in so called point free style, leaving out the third argument of foldr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_programming#Functional_programming
Also, the underscore in \_ x -> x + 1 is a wild card, that simply marks the place of a parameter but that does not give it a name (a wild card works as a nameless parameter).
Second, (2) is a really nothing else than a simple recursive function that folds to the right. foldr is a compact way to write such recursive functions (in your case length):
foldr :: (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a]
foldr f z [] = z
foldr f z (x:xs) = f x (foldr f z xs)
If we write
foldr f c ls
ls is the list over which our recursive function should recur (a is the type of the elements).
c is the result in the base case (when the recursive recursive function is applied on an empty list).
f computes the result in the general case (when the recursive function is applied on a non-empty list). f takes two arguments:
The head of the list and
the result of the recursive call on the tail of the list.
So, given f and c, foldr will go through the list ls recursively.
A first example
The Wikipedia page about point free style gives the example of how we can compute the sum of all elements in a list using foldr:
Instead of writing
sum [] = 0
sum (x:xs) = x + sum xs
we can write
sum = foldr (+) 0
The operator section (+) is a 2-argument function that adds its arguments. The expression
sum [1,2,3,4]
is computed as
1 + (2 + (3 + (4)))
(hence "folding to the right").
Example: Multiplying all elements.
Instead of
prod [] = 1
prod (x:xs) = x * prod xs
we can write
prod = foldr (*) 1
Example: Remove all occurrences of a value from a list.
Instead of
remove _ [] = []
remove v (x:xs) = if x==v then remove v xs else x:remove v xs
we can write
remove v = foldr (\x r -> if x==v then r else x:r) []
Your case, (2)
We can now fully understand that
length = foldr (\ _ x -> x + 1) 0
in fact is the same as
length [] = 0
length (x:xs) = length xs + 1
that is, the length function.
Hope this recursive view on foldr helped you understand the code.
On my functional programming exam, I had the following question:
How many times is (+ 1) function computed in the following code?
(map (+ 1) [1 .. 10]) !! 5
where the index function is defined like this:
(h:_) !! 0 = h
(_:t) !! x = t !! (x-1)
I would say 6 times, but the correct answer seems to be 1, and I cannot understand why. I could not find a good enough explanation of lazy evaluation in Haskell, so I would like to know what is the correct answer and why. Thank you in advance!
many times is (+ 1) function computed in the following code?
It is calculated only once. map does not force to calculate f xi on the elements in the result list. These calculations are postponed (just like everything else in Haskell), only when we need to calculate the value of a specific item, we do that.
map is specified in chapter 9 of the Haskell'10 report as:
-- Map and append
map :: (a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]
map f [] = []
map f (x:xs) = f x : map f xs
There are no seq, bang patterns, etc. here to force evaluation of f x, so the map function will indeed "yield" an f x, but without evaluating f x, it is postponed until it is necessary (and it might happen that we are not interested in some of these values, and thus can save some CPU cycles).
We can take a look how Haskell will evaluate this:
(!!) (map (+ 1) [1 .. 10]) 5
-> (!!) ((+1) 1 : map (+1) [2..10]) 5
-> (!!) (map (+1) [2..10]) 4
-> (!!) ((+1) 1 : map (+1) [3..10]) 4
-> (!!) (map (+1) [3..10]) 3
-> (!!) ((+1) 1 : map (+1) [4..10]) 3
-> (!!) (map (+1) [4..10]) 2
-> (!!) ((+1) 1 : map (+1) [5..10]) 2
-> (!!) (map (+1) [5..10]) 1
-> (!!) ((+1) 1 : map (+1) [6..10]) 1
-> (!!) (map (+1) [6..10]) 0
-> (!!) ((+1) 6 : map (+1) [7..10]) 0
-> (+1) 6
-> 7
This is because map f [x1, x2, ..., xn] eventually maps to a list [f x1, f x2, ..., f xn], but it does not compute f xi of the elements, that computation is postponed until we actually would need the value in that list, and do something with it (like priting it).
This can result in a significant performance boost, given f is an expensive function, and we only need the value of a small amount of elements in the list.
Let's test it by doing something horrible. You'll need to import the Debug.Trace module for this.
ghci> (map (\x -> trace "Performing..." (x + 1)) [1..10]) !! 5
Now, we'll get that totally safe IO action to happen every time the lambda expression is called. When we run this in GHCi, we get
Performing
7
So only once.
As a sanity check, we could remove the !! 5 bit.
ghci> map (\x -> trace "Performing..." (x + 1)) [1..10]
[Performing
2,Performing
3,Performing
4,Performing
5,Performing
6,Performing
7,Performing
8,Performing
9,Performing
10,Performing
11]
So it's definitely happening 10 times when we ask for the whole list.
I'm trying to solve the following problem in Haskell: given an integer return the list of its digits. The constraint is I have to only use one of the fold* functions (* = {r,l,1,l1}).
Without such constraint, the code is simple:
list_digits :: Int -> [Int]
list_digits 0 = []
list_digits n = list_digits r ++ [n-10*r]
where
r = div n 10
But how do I use fold* to, essentially grow a list of digits from an empty list?
Thanks in advance.
Is this a homework assignment? It's pretty strange for the assignment to require you to use foldr, because this is a natural use for unfoldr, not foldr. unfoldr :: (b -> Maybe (a, b)) -> b -> [a] builds a list, whereas foldr :: (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b consumes a list. An implementation of this function using foldr would be horribly contorted.
listDigits :: Int -> [Int]
listDigits = unfoldr digRem
where digRem x
| x <= 0 = Nothing
| otherwise = Just (x `mod` 10, x `div` 10)
In the language of imperative programming, this is basically a while loop. Each iteration of the loop appends x `mod` 10 to the output list and passes x `div` 10 to the next iteration. In, say, Python, this'd be written as
def list_digits(x):
output = []
while x > 0:
output.append(x % 10)
x = x // 10
return output
But unfoldr allows us to express the loop at a much higher level. unfoldr captures the pattern of "building a list one item at a time" and makes it explicit. You don't have to think through the sequential behaviour of the loop and realise that the list is being built one element at a time, as you do with the Python code; you just have to know what unfoldr does. Granted, programming with folds and unfolds takes a little getting used to, but it's worth it for the greater expressiveness.
If your assignment is marked by machine and it really does require you to type the word foldr into your program text, (you should ask your teacher why they did that and) you can play a sneaky trick with the following "id[]-as-foldr" function:
obfuscatedId = foldr (:) []
listDigits = obfuscatedId . unfoldr digRem
Though unfoldr is probably what the assignment meant, you can write this using foldr if you use foldr as a hylomorphism, that is, building up one list while it tears another down.
digits :: Int -> [Int]
digits n = snd $ foldr go (n, []) places where
places = replicate num_digits ()
num_digits | n > 0 = 1 + floor (logBase 10 $ fromIntegral n)
| otherwise = 0
go () (n, ds) = let (q,r) = n `quotRem` 10 in (q, r : ds)
Effectively, what we're doing here is using foldr as "map-with-state". We know ahead of time
how many digits we need to output (using log10) just not what those digits are, so we use
unit (()) values as stand-ins for those digits.
If your teacher's a stickler for just having a foldr at the top-level, you can get
away with making go partial:
digits' :: Int -> [Int]
digits' n = foldr go [n] places where
places = replicate num_digits ()
num_digits | n > 0 = floor (logBase 10 $ fromIntegral n)
| otherwise = 0
go () (n:ds) = let (q,r) = n `quotRem` 10 in (q:r:ds)
This has slightly different behaviour on non-positive numbers:
>>> digits 1234567890
[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0]
>>> digits' 1234567890
[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0]
>>> digits 0
[]
>>> digits' 0
[0]
>>> digits (negate 1234567890)
[]
>>> digits' (negate 1234567890)
[-1234567890]
I was trying to use the inits function to create a function that does:
[x1,x2,x3,x4,x5....] == [0,x1, x1+x2, x1+x2+x3, x1+x2+x3+x4, (x1+x2+x3+x4+x5) ....]
this is my attempt:
sums:: [Int]->[Int]
sums (x:xs) = [x] ++ map foldr 0 (+) initial xs
inits1:: [int] -> [[int]]
inits1 [] = [[]]
inits1 (x:xs) = [[x]] ++ map (x:) (initial xs)
Using inits is a bad way of doing it.
Think about it. If you were doing it on paper, you wouldn't add up the first number, then the first two, then the first three, then the first four.
This is silly because when you add the first four you have to re-add the first three, even when you've already added them before.
Instead, what you'd just start adding them up, keeping a total and these totals would form you results.
So you should be using scanl1, which is like foldl1 but gives you the results as it goes:
sums = scanl (+) 0
Avoiding the library functions shows better how it should be done (and roughly how scanl operates:
sums2 ls = sums_worker 0 ls where
sums_worker acc (l:ls) = acc:(sums_worker (acc + l) ls)
sums_worker acc [] = [acc]
Can you use the standard library?
sums :: Num a => [a] -> [a]
sums = scanl (+) 0
inits will give all the initial segments of a list, and sum will give the sum of a list of number, so your sums could be defined like this:
sums = map sum . inits
Example
> sums [1..10]
[0,1,3,6,10,15,21,28,36,45,55]
This is my take version using foldr:
myTake n list = foldr step [] list
where step x y | (length y) < n = x : y
| otherwise = y
main = do print $ myTake 2 [1,2,3,4]
The output is not what I expect:
[3,4]
I then tried to debug by inserting the length of y into itself and the result was:
[3,2,1,0]
I don't understand why the lengths are inserted in decreasing order. Perhaps something obvious I missed?
If you want to implement take using foldr you need to simulate traversing the list from left to right. The point is to make the folding function depend on an extra argument which encodes the logic you want and not only depend on the folded tail of the list.
take :: Int -> [a] -> [a]
take n xs = foldr step (const []) xs n
where
step x g 0 = []
step x g n = x:g (n-1)
Here, foldr returns a function which takes a numeric argument and traverses the list from left to right taking from it the amount required. This will also work on infinite lists due to laziness. As soon as the extra argument reaches zero, foldr will short-circuit and return an empty list.
foldr will apply the function step starting from the *last elements**. That is,
foldr step [] [1,2,3,4] == 1 `step` (2 `step` (3 `step` (4 `step` [])))
== 1 `step` (2 `step` (3 `step` (4:[])))
== 1 `step` (2 `step (3:4:[])) -- length y == 2 here
== 1 `step` (3:4:[])
== 3:4:[]
== [3, 4]
The lengths are "inserted" in decreasing order because : is a prepending operation. The longer lengths are added to the beginning of the list.
(Image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fold_%28higher-order_function%29)
*: For simplicity, we assume every operation is strict, which is true in OP's step implementation.
The other answers so far are making it much too complicated, because they seem excessively wedded to the notion that foldr works "from right to left." There is a sense in which it does, but Haskell is a lazy language, so a "right to left" computation that uses a lazy fold step will actually be executed from left to right, as the result is consumed.
Study this code:
take :: Int -> [a] -> [a]
take n xs = foldr step [] (tagFrom 1 xs)
where step (a, i) rest
| i > n = []
| otherwise = a:rest
tagFrom :: Enum i => i -> [a] -> [(a, i)]
tagFrom i xs = zip xs [i..]