Maybe and recursion on list - haskell

I try to implement the reverse function with Maybe. I don't know how to return Just in pattern matching using recursion. By example, ghci> myReverse [1,2,3] need to return Just [3,2,1]. Here is my code :
myReverse :: [a] -> Maybe [a]
myReverse [] = Nothing
myReverse [x] = Just [x]
myReverse (x:xs) = myReverse xs ++ [x] -- here's my problem.
I thought that myReverse (x:xs) = Just $ myReverse xs ++ [x] work, but no and I don't know how to do it. What I would to know it is how to do it and why.
Thanks for your help!

myReverse returns a Maybe [a], which can't be directly appended to something because it is not a list. IOW the value of myReverse xs will be either Nothing, or Just <some list>. You need to pattern match on the result.
myReverse (x:xs) =
case myReverse xs of
Just list -> ...
Nothing -> ...
And of course, you need to decide what needs to be done in each of these cases, depending on what you want myReverse to do.
Also keep in mind that not every function needs to be recursive, so you can call the regular reverse from myReverse if you need it.

As [a] is a Monoid define by,
instance Monoid [a] where
mempty = []
mappend = (++)
Then Maybe [a] is also a Monoid,
instance Monoid a => Monoid (Maybe a) where
mempty = Nothing
Nothing `mappend` m = m
m `mappend` Nothing = m
Just m1 `mappend` Just m2 = Just (m1 `mappend` m2)
Note the type constraint in the instance declaration which impose a to be a Monoid or else Maybe a won't.
We can then use mappend, (<>), to chain our recursive call at the condition to transform the head of the list to a singleton.
import Data.Monoid ((<>))
myReverse :: [a] -> Maybe [a]
myReverse [] = Nothing
myReverse (x:xs) = myReverse xs <> Just [x]
Last note, the previous fold solution can be improve too.
>>> let mrev = foldl' (\x y -> Just [y] <> x ) Nothing
>>> mrev []
Nothing
>>> mrev "hello"
Just "olleh"
Previous fold answer
Knowing that reverse can be define using fold as follow,
>>> foldl' (flip (:)) [] [1..5]
[5,4,3,2,1]
This can be rewritten as,
>>> foldl' (\x y -> y:x) [] [1..5]
[5,4,3,2,1]
To adapt for Maybe type, we do the following transformation,
The seed [] become (Just [])
The anonymous function must now be apply inside Just, we use fmap to do it.
This lead us to,
>>> foldl' (\x y -> fmap (y:) x) (Just []) [1..5]
Just [5,4,3,2,1]
Finally,
mreverse xs | null xs = Nothing
| foldl' (\x y -> fmap (y:) x) (Just []) xs

I thought of something along the lines of luqui's, except applying the Maybe at the end:
myReverse :: [a] -> Maybe [a]
myReverse ys
| null (myReverse' ys) = Nothing
| otherwise = Just (myReverse' ys)
where
myReverse' [] = []
myReverse' (x:xs) = myReverse' xs ++ [x]
Or, if you will,
myReverse ys | null (reverse ys) = Nothing
| otherwise = Just (reverse ys)

Related

Couldn't match expected type `[a1]' with actual type `([a1], [a1])'

I am new to coding with Haskell and am stuck on this code that my professor wanted us to write. I am supposed to deal a single list into a pair of lists like so:
deal [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] = ([1,3,5,7], [2,4,6])
but I am getting this error on my 'xs' and also 'ys'
* Couldn't match expected type `[a1]'
with actual type `([a1], [a1])'
* In the expression: deal xs
In an equation for `xs': xs = deal xs
In an equation for `deal':
deal (x : y : xs : ys)
= (x : xs, y : ys)
where
xs = deal xs
ys = deal ys
* Relevant bindings include xs :: [a1] (bound at lab2.hs:16:17)
|
| xs = deal xs
| ^^^^^^^
Here is my code:
deal :: [a] -> ([a],[a])
deal [] = ([], [])
deal [x] = ([x], [])
deal (x:y:xs:ys) = (x:xs,y:ys)
where
xs = deal xs
ys = deal ys
This is logical, since here your deal xs and deal ys will return, given the signature a 2-tuple of lists, and xs has type [a]. Note that by using the same name, you here made a recursive expression, which will not work. Using the same name multiple times is not a good idea. If you turn on warnings, the compiler will normally warn against that.
You probably want to call deal on the rest of the list, and then retrieve the two lists that you use as tails:
deal :: [a] -> ([a],[a])
deal [] = ([], [])
deal [x] = ([x], [])
deal (x:y:rest) = (x:xs, y:ys)
where (xs, ys) = deal rest
or we can make use of (***) :: a b c -> a b' c' -> a (b, b') (c, c'):
import Control.Arrow((***))
deal :: [a] -> ([a],[a])
deal [] = ([], [])
deal [x] = ([x], [])
deal (x:y:rest) = ((x:) *** (y:)) (deal rest)
an alternative is to each time swap the tuple, and append to the other side:
import Control.Arrow(first)
import Data.Tuple(swap)
deal :: [a] -> ([a],[a])
deal [] = ([], [])
deal (x:xs) = first (x:) (swap (deal xs))
we can thus define this as a foldr pattern:
import Control.Arrow(first)
import Data.Tuple(swap)
deal :: Foldable f => f a -> ([a],[a])
deal [] = foldr ((. swap) . first . (:)) ([], [])
This gives us the expected result:
Prelude> deal [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
([1,3,5,7],[2,4,6])

ConcatMap in haskell without ++

I'm trying to write the code for Haskell concatmap without using the ++ operator where
concatMap :: (a -> [b]) -> [a] -> [b]
and producing the same result of
concatMap f = foldr ((++) . f) []
I'm quite new to Haskell and this was just an exercise I found. Actually, I do not even know if this can be done.
Here's a way that makes the state of the computation explicit:
concatMap :: (a -> [b]) -> [a] -> [b]
concatMap f = go []
where
-- We have b values; use one.
go (b:bs) as = b : go bs as
-- No bs left; get some more.
go [] (a:as) = go (f a) as
-- Nothing left; we're done.
go [] [] = []
This maintains the current list of bs, filling it up whenever it's empty.
This might be cheating, but how about:
myConcatMap f s = concat (map f s)
The concat function uses some sort of ++ in its source code, so that is why you might not like it. You can try to use an alternative concat that does list comprehensions, it has a more "from scratch" feeling.
myconcat ll = [y | x <- ll, y <- x]
You can use the fact that foldr (:) = flip (++)
concatMap f = foldr (flip (foldr (:)) . f) []
Or pointfree:
concatMap = flip foldr [] . (flip (foldr (:)) .)

Finding head of a list using foldl and the last element using foldr

It is known that we can find head of a list using foldr like this:
head'' :: [a] -> a
head'' = foldr (\x _ -> x) undefined
but, is there any way to get the same result using foldl?
Similarly, we can find the last element of list using foldl like this:
last'' :: [a] -> a
last'' = foldl (\_ x -> x) undefined
Is there any way to get the same result using foldr?
head cannot be written with foldl, because foldl goes into an infinite loop on infinite lists, while head doesn't. Otherwise, sure:
head' :: [a] -> a
head' = fromJust . foldl (\y x -> y <|> Just x) Nothing
Drop the fromJust for a safe version.
last can definitely be written as a foldr, in about the same way:
last' :: [a] -> a
last' = fromJust . foldr (\x y -> y <|> Just x) Nothing
For head, we start with Nothing. The first element (the wanted one) is wrapped into Just and used to "override" the Nothing with (<|>). The following elements are ignored. For last, it's about the same, but flipped.
The first thing that springs to mind is to use foldl1 instead of foldl, then:
head'' :: [a] -> a
head'' = foldl1 (\x _ -> x)
and since foldl1 is defined in terms of foldl if the list is non-empty (and crashes if the list is empty - but so does head):
foldl1 f (x:xs) = foldl f x xs
we can say
head'' (x:xs) = foldl (\x _ -> x) x xs
The same of course for last, using foldr1

interleaving two strings, preserving order: functional style

In this question, the author brings up an interesting programming question: given two string, find possible 'interleaved' permutations of those that preserves order of original strings.
I generalized the problem to n strings instead of 2 in OP's case, and came up with:
-- charCandidate is a function that finds possible character from given strings.
-- input : list of strings
-- output : a list of tuple, whose first value holds a character
-- and second value holds the rest of strings with that character removed
-- i.e ["ab", "cd"] -> [('a', ["b", "cd"])] ..
charCandidate xs = charCandidate' xs []
charCandidate' :: [String] -> [String] -> [(Char, [String])]
charCandidate' [] _ = []
charCandidate' ([]:xs) prev =
charCandidate' xs prev
charCandidate' (x#(c:rest):xs) prev =
(c, prev ++ [rest] ++ xs) : charCandidate' xs (x:prev)
interleavings :: [String] -> [String]
interleavings xs = interleavings' xs []
-- interleavings is a function that repeatedly applies 'charCandidate' function, to consume
-- the tuple and build permutations.
-- stops looping if there is no more tuple from charCandidate.
interleavings' :: [String] -> String -> [String]
interleavings' xs prev =
let candidates = charCandidate xs
in case candidates of
[] -> [prev]
_ -> concat . map (\(char, ys) -> interleavings' ys (prev ++ [char])) $ candidates
-- test case
input :: [String]
input = ["ab", "cd"]
-- interleavings input == ["abcd","acbd","acdb","cabd","cadb","cdab"]
it works, however I'm quite concerned with the code:
it is ugly. no point-free!
explicit recursion and additional function argument prev to preserve states
using tuples as intermediate form
How can I rewrite the above program to be more "haskellic", concise, readable and more conforming to "functional programming"?
I think I would write it this way. The main idea is to treat creating an interleaving as a nondeterministic process which chooses one of the input strings to start the interleaving and recurses.
Before we start, it will help to have a utility function that I have used countless times. It gives a convenient way to choose an element from a list and know which element it was. This is a bit like your charCandidate', except that it operates on a single list at a time (and is consequently more widely applicable).
zippers :: [a] -> [([a], a, [a])]
zippers = go [] where
go xs [] = []
go xs (y:ys) = (xs, y, ys) : go (y:xs) ys
With that in hand, it is easy to make some non-deterministic choices using the list monad. Notionally, our interleavings function should probably have a type like [NonEmpty a] -> [[a]] which promises that each incoming string has at least one character in it, but the syntactic overhead of NonEmpty is too annoying for a simple exercise like this, so we'll just give wrong answers when this precondition is violated. You could also consider making this a helper function and filtering out empty lists from your top-level function before running this.
interleavings :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
interleavings [] = [[]]
interleavings xss = do
(xssL, h:xs, xssR) <- zippers xss
t <- interleavings ([xs | not (null xs)] ++ xssL ++ xssR)
return (h:t)
You can see it go in ghci:
> interleavings ["abc", "123"]
["abc123","ab123c","ab12c3","ab1c23","a123bc","a12bc3","a12b3c","a1bc23","a1b23c","a1b2c3","123abc","12abc3","12ab3c","12a3bc","1abc23","1ab23c","1ab2c3","1a23bc","1a2bc3","1a2b3c"]
> interleavings ["a", "b", "c"]
["abc","acb","bac","bca","cba","cab"]
> permutations "abc" -- just for fun, to compare
["abc","bac","cba","bca","cab","acb"]
This is fastest implementation I've come up with so far. It interleaves a list of lists pairwise.
interleavings :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
interleavings = foldr (concatMap . interleave2) [[]]
This horribly ugly mess is the best way I could find to interleave two lists. It's intended to be asymptotically optimal (which I believe it is); it's not very pretty. The constant factors could be improved by using a special-purpose queue (such as the one used in Data.List to implement inits) rather than sequences, but I don't feel like including that much boilerplate.
{-# LANGUAGE BangPatterns #-}
import Data.Monoid
import Data.Foldable (toList)
import Data.Sequence (Seq, (|>))
interleave2 :: [a] -> [a] -> [[a]]
interleave2 xs ys = interleave2' mempty xs ys []
interleave2' :: Seq a -> [a] -> [a] -> [[a]] -> [[a]]
interleave2' !prefix xs ys rest =
(toList prefix ++ xs ++ ys)
: interleave2'' prefix xs ys rest
interleave2'' :: Seq a -> [a] -> [a] -> [[a]] -> [[a]]
interleave2'' !prefix [] _ = id
interleave2'' !prefix _ [] = id
interleave2'' !prefix xs#(x : xs') ys#(y : ys') =
interleave2' (prefix |> y) xs ys' .
interleave2'' (prefix |> x) xs' ys
Using foldr over interleave2
interleave :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
interleave = foldr ((concat .) . map . iL2) [[]] where
iL2 [] ys = [ys]
iL2 xs [] = [xs]
iL2 (x:xs) (y:ys) = map (x:) (iL2 xs (y:ys)) ++ map (y:) (iL2 (x:xs) ys)
Another approach would be to use the list monad:
interleavings xs ys = interl xs ys ++ interl ys xs where
interl [] ys = [ys]
interl xs [] = [xs]
interl xs ys = do
i <- [1..(length xs)]
let (h, t) = splitAt i xs
map (h ++) (interl ys t)
So the recursive part will alternate between the two lists, taking all from 1 to N elements from each list in turns and then produce all possible combinations of that. Fun use of the list monad.
Edit: Fixed bug causing duplicates
Edit: Answer to dfeuer. It turned out tricky to do code in the comment field. An example of solutions that do not use length could look something like:
interleavings xs ys = interl xs ys ++ interl ys xs where
interl [] ys = [ys]
interl xs [] = [xs]
interl xs ys = splits xs >>= \(h, t) -> map (h ++) (interl ys t)
splits [] = []
splits (x:xs) = ([x], xs) : map ((h, t) -> (x:h, t)) (splits xs)
The splits function feels a bit awkward. It could be replaced by use of takeWhile or break in combination with splitAt, but that solution ended up a bit awkward as well. Do you have any suggestions?
(I got rid of the do notation just to make it slightly shorter)
Combining the best ideas from the existing answers and adding some of my own:
import Control.Monad
interleave [] ys = return ys
interleave xs [] = return xs
interleave (x : xs) (y : ys) =
fmap (x :) (interleave xs (y : ys)) `mplus` fmap (y :) (interleave (x : xs) ys)
interleavings :: MonadPlus m => [[a]] -> m [a]
interleavings = foldM interleave []
This is not the fastest possible you can get, but it should be good in terms of general and simple.

Foldr compare acc to empty list

I'm trying to write function and i dont know why i cannot make it in that way
ssm' = foldr (\x acc -> if acc == [] then [x]++acc else if (x > (maximum acc)) then [x]++acc else acc) []
give me a clue please.
By the way, your code looks way too complicated. You overuse if, and [x]++acc is just x:acc. Scanning acc in every step using maximum is wasteful, as its biggest element must be its head. Alltogether I'd write:
ssm' :: Ord a => [a] -> [a]
ssm' = foldr go [] where
go x [] = [x]
go x ms#(m:_)
| x > m = x:ms
| otherwise = ms
If you really like one-liners, try
import Data.List
ssm' xs = reverse $ map head $ groupBy (>) (reverse xs)
You've run into the monomorphism restriction. You can fix it by adding a type signature.
ssm' :: Ord a => [a] -> [a]
ssm' = ...

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