Related
The full practice exam question is:
Using anonymous functions and mapping functions, define Haskell
functions which return the longest String in a list of Strings, e.g.
for [“qw”, “asd”,”fghj”, “kl”] the function should return “fghj”.
I tried doing this and keep failing and moving onto others, but I would really like to know how to tackle this. I have to use mapping functions and anonymous functions it seems, but I don't know how to write code to make each element check with each to find the highest one.
I know using a mapping function like "foldr" can make you perform repeating operations to each element and return one result, which is what we want to do with this question (check each String in the list of Strings for the longest, then return one string).
But with foldr I don't know how to use it to make checks between elments to see which is "longest"... Any help will be gladly appreciated.
So far I've just been testing if I can even use foldr to test the length of each element but it doesn't even work:
longstr :: [String] -> String
longstr lis = foldr (\n -> length n > 3) 0 lis
I'm quite new to haskell as this is a 3 month course and it's only been 1 month and we have a small exam coming up
I'd say they're looking for a simple solution:
longstr xs = foldr (\x acc -> if length x > length acc then x else acc) "" xs
foldr is like a loop that iterates on every element of the list xs. It receives 2 arguments: x is the element and acc (for accumulator) in this case is the longest string so far.
In the condition if the longest string so far is longer than the element we keep it, otherwise we change it.
Another idea:
Convert to a list of tuples: (length, string)
Take the maximum of that list (which is some pair).
Return the string of the pair returned by (2).
Haskell will compare pairs (a,b) lexicographically, so the pair returned by (2) will come from the string with largest length.
Now you just have to write a maximum function:
maximum :: Ord a => [a] -> a
and this can be written using foldr (or just plain recursion.)
To write the maximum function using recursion, fill in the blanks:
maximum [a] = ??? -- maximum of a single element
maximum (a:as) = ??? -- maximum of a value a and a list as (hint: use recursion)
The base case for maximum begins with a single element list since maximum [] doesn't make sense here.
You can map the list to a list of tuples, consisting of (length, string). Sort by length (largest first) and return the string of the first element.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/9157940/127059 has an answer as well.
Here's an example of building what you want from the bottom up.
maxBy :: Ord b => (a -> b) -> a -> a -> a
maxBy f x y = case compare (f x) (f y) of
LT -> y
_ -> x
maximumBy :: Ord b => (a -> b) -> [a] -> Maybe a
maximumBy _ [] = Nothing
maximumBy f l = Just . fst $ foldr1 (maxBy snd) pairs
where
pairs = map (\e -> (e, f e)) l
testData :: [String]
testData = ["qw", "asd", "fghj", "kl"]
test :: Maybe String
test = maximumBy length testData
main :: IO ()
main = print test
Suppose I have the arrays:
A = "ABACUS"
B = "YELLOW"
And they are zipped so: Pairing = zip A B
I also have a function Connect :: Char -> [(Char,Char)] -> [(Char,Char,Int)]
What I want to do is given a char such as A, find the indices of where it is present in the first string and return the character in the same positions in the second string, as well as the position e.g. if I did Connect 'A' Pairing I'd want (A,Y,0) and (A,L,2) as results.
I know I can do
pos = x!!map fst pairing
to retrieve the positions. And fnd = findIndices (==pos) map snd pairing to get what's in this position in the second string but in Haskell how would I do this over the whole set of data (as if I were using a for loop) and how would I get my outputs?
To do exactly as you asked (but correct the initial letter of function names to be lowercase), I could define
connect :: Char -> [(Char,Char)] -> [(Char,Char,Int)]
connect c pairs = [(a,b,n)|((a,b),n) <- zip pairs [0..], a == c]
so if
pairing = zip "ABACUS" "YELLOW"
we get
ghci> connect 'A' pairing
[('A','Y',0),('A','L',2)]
However, I think it'd be neater to zip once, not twice, using zip3:
connect3 :: Char -> String -> String -> [(Char,Char,Int)]
connect3 c xs ys = filter (\(a,_,_) -> a==c) (zip3 xs ys [0..])
which is equivalent to
connect3' c xs ys = [(a,b,n)| (a,b,n) <- zip3 xs ys [0..], a==c]
they all work as you wanted:
ghci> connect3 'A' "ABACUS" "YELLOW"
[('A','Y',0),('A','L',2)]
ghci> connect3' 'A' "ABACUS" "AQUAMARINE"
[('A','A',0),('A','U',2)]
In comments, you said you'd like to get pairs for matches the other way round.
This time, it'd be most convenient to use the monadic do notation, since lists are an example of a monad.
connectEither :: (Char,Char) -> String -> String -> [(Char,Char,Int)]
connectEither (c1,c2) xs ys = do
(a,b,n) <- zip3 xs ys [0..]
if a == c1 then return (a,b,n) else
if b == c2 then return (b,a,n) else
fail "Doesn't match - leave it out"
I've used the fail function to leave out ones that don't match. The three lines starting if, if and fail are increasingly indented because they're actually one line from Haskell's point of view.
ghci> connectEither ('a','n') "abacus" "banana"
[('a','b',0),('a','n',2),('n','u',4)]
In this case, it hasn't included ('n','a',2) because it's only checking one way.
We can allow both ways by reusing existing functions:
connectBoth :: (Char,Char) -> String -> String -> [(Char,Char,Int)]
connectBoth (c1,c2) xs ys = lefts ++ rights where
lefts = connect3 c1 xs ys
rights = connect3 c2 ys xs
which gives us everything we want to get:
ghci> connectBoth ('a','n') "abacus" "banana"
[('a','b',0),('a','n',2),('n','a',2),('n','u',4)]
but unfortunately things more than once:
ghci> connectBoth ('A','A') "Austria" "Antwerp"
[('A','A',0),('A','A',0)]
So we can get rid of that using nub from Data.List. (Add import Data.List at the top of your file.)
connectBothOnce (c1,c2) xs ys = nub $ connectBoth (c1,c2) xs ys
giving
ghci> connectBothOnce ('A','A') "ABACUS" "Antwerp"
[('A','A',0),('A','t',2)]
I would recommend not zipping the lists together, since that'd just make it more difficult to use the function elemIndices from Data.List. You then have a list of the indices that you can use directly to get the values out of the second list.
You can add indices with another zip, then filter on the given character and convert tuples to triples. Especially because of this repackaging, a list comprehension seems appropriate:
connect c pairs = [(a, b, idx) | ((a, b), idx) <- zip pairs [0..], a == c]
I'm trying to write a Haskell function that will take a String say "PLATYPUS" and will return the relative percentages of Characters in that word i.e. characterPercentages "PLATYPUS" would return: [(P,25),(A,13),(L,13),(S,13),(T,13),(U,13),(Y,13)]. I know I can use tuples, but after that I'm a bit stumped?
First, you need to understand what are you going to get.
As I understand, you wish to have
type String = [Char] --already in Prelude
String -> [(Char,Int)]
"PLATYPUS" -=> [('P',2),('A',1),('L',1),('S',1),('T',1),('U',1),('Y',1)]
You could combine group grouping lists from Data-List with mapping using length function
String -> [[Char]]
[[Char]] -> [(Char,Int)]
UPDATED
If we talk about first part - count letters, we can do next:
> :m Data.List
> map (\c -> (head c, length c)) $ group $ sort "PLATYPUSAAA"
[('A',4),('L',1),('P',2),('S',1),('T',1),('U',1),('Y',1)]
So, let's found relative numbers, we change length c to 100*(length c) 'div' ls:
> let frqLetters s = let ls = length s in
map (\c -> (head c, 100 * (length c) `div` ls)) $ group $ sort s
> frqLetters "PLATYPUSAAA"
[('A',36),('L',9),('P',18),('S',9),('T',9),('U',9),('Y',9)]
I am teaching myself Haskell and have run into a problem and need help.
Background:
type AInfo = (Char, Int)
type AList = [AInfo] (let’s say [(‘a’, 2), (‘b’,5), (‘a’, 1), (‘w’, 21)]
type BInfo = Char
type BList = [BInfo] (let’s say [‘a’, ‘a’, ‘c’, ‘g’, ‘a’, ‘w’, ‘b’]
One quick edit: The above information is for illustrative purposes only. The actual elements of the lists are a bit more complex. Also, the lists are not static; they are dynamic (hence the uses of the IO monad) and I need to keep/pass/"return"/have access to and change the lists during the running of the program.
I am looking to do the following:
For all elements of AList check against all elements of BList and where the character of the AList element (pair) is equal to the character in the Blist add one to the Int value of the AList element (pair) and remove the character from BList.
So what this means is after the first element of AList is checked against all elements of BList the values of the lists should be:
AList [(‘a’, 5), (‘b’,5), (‘a’, 1), (‘w’, 21)]
BList [‘c’, ‘g’, ‘w’, ‘b’]
And in the end, the lists values should be:
AList [(‘a’, 5), (‘b’,6), (‘a’, 1), (‘w’, 22)]
BList [‘c’, ‘g’]
Of course, all of this is happening in an IO monad.
Things I have tried:
Using mapM and a recursive helper function. I have looked at both:
Every element of AList checked against every element of bList -- mapM (myHelpF1 alist) blist and
Every element of BList checked against every element of AList – mapM (myHelpF2 alist) blist
Passing both lists to a function and using a complicated
if/then/else & helper function calls (feels like I am forcing
Haskell to be iterative; Messy convoluted code, Does not feel
right.)
I have thought about using filter, the character value of AList
element and Blist to create a third list of Bool and the count the
number of True values. Update the Int value. Then use filter on
BList to remove the BList elements that …… (again Does not feel
right, not very Haskell-like.)
Things I think I know about the problem:
The solution may be exceeding trivial. So much so, the more experienced Haskellers will be muttering under their breath “what a noob” as they type their response.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. (mutter away….)
A few pointers:
Don't use [(Char, Int)] for "AList". The data structure you are looking for is a finite map: Map Char Int. Particularly look at member and insertWith. toList and fromList convert from the representation you currently have for AList, so even if you are stuck with that representation, you can convert to a Map for this algorithm and convert back at the end. (This will be more efficient than staying in a list because you are doing so many lookups, and the finite map API is easier to work with than lists)
I'd approach the problem as two phases: (1) partition out the elements of blist by whether they are in the map, (2) insertWith the elements which are already in the map. Then you can return the resulting map and the other partition.
I would also get rid of the meaningless assumptions such as that keys are Char -- you can just say they are any type k (for "key") that satisfies the necessary constraints (that you can put it in a Map, which requires that it is Orderable). You do this with lowercase type variables:
import qualified Data.Map as Map
sieveList :: (Ord k) => Map.Map k Int -> [k] -> (Map.Map k Int, [k])
Writing algorithms in greater generality helps catch bugs, because it makes sure that you don't use any assumptions you don't need.
Oh, also this program has no business being in the IO monad. This is pure code.
import Data.List
type AInfo = (Char, Int)
type AList = [AInfo]
type BInfo = Char
type BList = [BInfo]
process :: AList -> BList -> AList
process [] _ = []
process (a:as) b = if is_in a b then (fst a,snd a + 1):(process as (delete (fst a) b)) else a:process as b where
is_in f [] = False
is_in f (s:ss) = if fst f == s then True else is_in f ss
*Main> process [('a',5),('b',5),('a',1),('b',21)] ['c','b','g','w','b']
[('a',5),('b',6),('a',1),('b',22)]
*Main> process [('a',5),('b',5),('a',1),('w',21)] ['c','g','w','b']
[('a',5),('b',6),('a',1),('w',22)]
Probably an important disclaimer: I'm rusty at Haskell to the point of ineptness, but as a relaxing midnight exercise I wrote this thing. It should do what you want, although it doesn't return a BList. With a bit of modification, you can get it to return an (AList,BList) tuple, but methinks you'd be better off using an imperative language if that kind of manipulation is required.
Alternately, there's an elegant solution and I'm too ignorant of Haskell to know it.
While I am by no means a Haskell expert, I have a partial attempt that returns that result of an operation once. Maybe you can find out how to map it over the rest to get your solution. The addwhile is clever, since you only want to update the first occurrence of an element in lista, if it exists twice, it will just add 0 to it. Code critiques are more than welcome.
import Data.List
type AInfo = (Char, Int)
type AList = [AInfo]
type BInfo = Char
type BList = [BInfo]
lista = ([('a', 2), ('b',5), ('a', 1), ('w', 21)] :: AList)
listb = ['a','a','c','g','a','w','b']
--step one, get the head, and its occurrences
items list = (eleA, eleB) where
eleA = length $ filter (\x -> x == (head list)) list
eleB = head list
getRidOfIt list ele = (dropWhile (\x -> x == ele) list) --drop like its hot
--add to lista
addWhile :: [(Char, Int)] -> Char -> Int -> [(Char,Int)]
addWhile [] _ _ = []
addWhile ((x,y):xs) letter times = if x == letter then (x,y+times) : addWhile xs letter times
else (x,y) : addWhile xs letter 0
--first answer
firstAnswer = addWhile lista (snd $ items listb) (fst $ items listb)
--[('a',5),('b',5),('a',1),('w',21)]
The operation you describe is pure, as #luqui points out, so we just define it as a pure Haskell function. It can be used inside a monad (including IO) by means of fmap (or do).
import Data.List
combine alist blist = (reverse a, b4) where
First we sort and count the B list:
b = map (\g->(head g,length g)) . group . sort $ blist
We need the import for group and sort to be available. Next, we roll along the alist and do our thing:
(a,b2) = foldl g ([],b) alist
g (acc,b) e#(x,c) = case pick x b of
Nothing -> (e:acc,b)
Just (n,b2) -> ((x,c+n):acc,b2)
b3 = map fst b2
b4 = [ c | c <- blist, elem c b3 ]
Now pick, as used, must be
pick x [] = Nothing
pick x ((y,n):t)
| x==y = Just (n,t)
| otherwise = case pick x t of Nothing -> Nothing
Just (k,r) -> Just (k, (y,n):r)
Of course pick performs a linear search, so if performance (speed) becomes a problem, b should be changed to allow for binary search (tree etc, like Map). The calculation of b4 which is filter (`elem` b3) blist is another potential performance problem with its repeated checks for presence in b3. Again, checking for presence in trees is faster than in lists, in general.
Test run:
> combine [('a', 2), ('b',5), ('a', 1), ('w', 21)] "aacgawb"
([('a',5),('b',6),('a',1),('w',22)],"cg")
edit: you probably want it the other way around, rolling along the blist while updating the alist and producing (or not) the elements of blist in the result (b4 in my code). That way the algorithm will operate in a more local manner on long input streams (that assuming your blist is long, though you didn't say that). As written above, it will have a space problem, consuming the input stream blist several times over. I'll keep it as is as an illustration, a food for thought.
So if you decide to go the 2nd route, first convert your alist into a Map (beware the duplicates!). Then, scanning (with scanl) over blist, make use of updateLookupWithKey to update the counts map and at the same time decide for each member of blist, one by one, whether to output it or not. The type of the accumulator will thus have to be (Map a Int, Maybe a), with a your element type (blist :: [a]):
scanl :: (acc -> a -> acc) -> acc -> [a] -> [acc]
scanning = tail $ scanl g (Nothing, fromList $ reverse alist) blist
g (_,cmap) a = case updateLookupWithKey (\_ c->Just(c+1)) a cmap of
(Just _, m2) -> (Nothing, m2) -- seen before
_ -> (Just a, cmap) -- not present in counts
new_b_list = [ a | (Just a,_) <- scanning ]
last_counts = snd $ last scanning
You will have to combine the toList last_counts with the original alist if you have to preserve the old duplicates there (why would you?).
I have a list of list of characters ::[[Char]].
I need to iterate both over the list of strings and also over each character in each string.
Say, my list is present in this variable.
let xs
Please suggest an easy way to iterate.
If you want to apply a function f to every element of a list like this:
[a, b, c, d] → [f a, f b, f c, f d]
then map f xs does the trick. map turns a function on elements to a function on lists. So, we can nest it to operate on lists of lists: if f transforms as into bs, map (map f) transforms [[a]]s into [[b]]s.
If you instead want to perform some IO action for every element of a list (which is more like traditional iteration), then you're probably looking for forM_:1
forM_ :: [a] -> (a -> IO b) -> IO ()
You give it a function, and it calls it with each element of the list in order. For instance, forM_ xs putStrLn is an IO action that will print out every string in xs on its own line. Here's an example of a more involved use of forM_:
main = do
...
forM_ xs $ \s -> do
putStrLn "Here's a string:"
forM_ s print
putStrLn "Now it's done."
If xs contains ["hello", "world"], then this will print out:
Here's a string:
'h'
'e'
'l'
'l'
'o'
Now it's done.
Here's a string:
'w'
'o'
'r'
'l'
'd'
Now it's done.
1 forM_ actually has a more general type, but the simpler version I've shown is more relevant here.
Just that:
[c | x <- xs, c <- x]
The "correct" way to iterate is actually fold. Anything you might ever want to do with a list can be done with a fold. Let's consider what you want to do. You're probably thinking of something like this:
for (row in xs):
for (c in row):
doSomething
The problem is, you're probably making use of mutable variables in doSomething. That's ok, we can deal with that. So suppose you have this.
def iter2d(xs):
outerVar = outerInit
for (row in xs):
innerVar = innerInit(row)
outerVar.adjust1(row)
for (c in row):
innerVar.adjust2(c)
outerVar.adjust3(c, innerVar)
return outerVar
Let's translate that to folds. And immutability.
iter2d :: [[Char]] -> Something
iter2d xs = foldl' outerStep outerInit xs
where outerInit = ... -- same as outerInit above
outerStep acc row = fst $ foldl' innerStep innerInit' row)
where innerInit' = ((adjust1 acc row), innerInit row)
innerInit row = ... -- same as innerInit above
innerStep (outAcc, inAcc) c = (outAcc', inAcc')
where inAcc' = adjust2 inAcc c
outAcc' = adjust3 outAcc c inAcc'
Notice with immutability, we are forced to indicate that outAc' depends on inAcc', rather than inAcc, meaning, the "state" of innerVar after it is updated.
Now you might say "wow that Haskell looks way ugly, why would I ever want to use Haskell". Yes, it does look ugly, but only because I tailored it to be a direct translation of imperative code. Once you get used to using folds instead of "iterating through a list", then you will find that folding is a very powerful technique that lets you do a lot of things in a more elegant way than for loops allow.
map (map f) l
where f :: Char -> Foo is a function to apply to each Char and l :: [[Char]]
returns l' :: [[Foo]]