I'm a new in Visual Prolog, and as I understand, this language seems as functional. And so on, I have a question: can we do smth like this (and if 'can' then 'how'):
func1(X, Y, Func2) :-
R = somefunc(X,Y),
if R = "yes", ! then
Func2 %here I want to call function with name, which is in variable 'Func2'
else
stdIO::write("End of work"),
stdIO::nl,
fail
end if.
The cause of this question - I need to call different functions in same way, with checking answer from console. and if it wasn't 'yes' - stop running program.
First of all, Prolog doesn't have functions, those things are predicates. The difference matter a lot, since there can be multiple ways to satisfy (prove) a predicate is true, but there is typically only one way to interpret a function.
I've never used Visual Prolog, but what you are asking can be accomplished in most flavors of Prolog I've seen using =../2 and call/1 as follows:
Func2WithArgs =.. [Func2, Arg1, Arg2],
call(Func2WithArgs).
for instance:
X = writeln, Call =.. [X, 'Hellow World'], call(Call).
The code seems correct except that you need parentheses when invoking the function. i.e. you must write Func2() rather than Func2.
func1(X, Y, Func2) :-
R = somefunc(X,Y),
if R = "yes", ! then
Func2() % parentheses here
else
stdio::write("End of work\n"),
fail
end if.
However if func1 and Func2 are indeed functions you need to deal with the return value:
func1(X, Y, Func2) = Result :-
R = somefunc(X,Y),
if R = "yes", ! then
Result = Func2()
else
stdio::write("End of work\n"),
fail % No result when failing
end if.
Also notice that there is a dedicated Visual Prolog forum: http://discuss.visual-prolog.com
As a beginner in Lua, I am sorry if the answer on this is easy.
I was trying to call a function within a code, yet after 2 hours of searching I couldn't find the wanted results. (Maybe I use the wrong search query's?)
Example code
function Test123 ()
SayTest = True
if SayTest = True then
-- This Is where I want to call the function name Test123,
-- yet I can't seem to succeed in this since it is just
-- starting a new function
SystemNotice ( role, function)
end
end
This should be the result:
function Test123 ()
SayTest = True
if SayTest = True then
SystemNotice ( role, 'Test123')
end
end
If anyone can help me out, I would be thankful. If I am still being unclear, just tell me and I will try to describe it better. My excuses for my limited English.
In Lua functions are actually values. That means they do not really have a name, you can only assign them to a variable or table field, but since the value itself has no concept of its name, you can't retrieve it.
That said, with the debug library, you can do this:
function getfname()
return debug.traceback("", 2):match("in function '(.-)'");
end
function bar()
print(getfname())
end
bar(); -- prints bar
foo = bar;
foo() -- prints foo
knerf = {rab = bar};
knerf.rab() -- prints rab
Note that this only works with the default Lua error handler or one that returns the same or very similar output, however you can obviously modify the pattern to suit what you need.
Read this: I would not advise this solution for performance-intensive tasks. Both string matching and the traceback are not really suited for this. Also, obviously the debug library must be enabled so you can actually use the traceback function.
Your function declaration lacks anend.
function Test123 ()
end
Read the functions chapter from the Lua manual. Just for the record, your if will also need an end.
This is a construct that just goes against the Lua philosophy that functions are first class citizens:
a function is just another value, and as such it has no name.
A variable can be assigned a value, thus binding a function to a name.
But that name can change. or a function can have multiple names. Which one to pick?
A better solution would be creating an anonymous function with an upvalue (a closure) instead:
function genTest(name)
return function()
SayTest = true
if SayTest == true then
print ( 'role', name)
end
end
end
Test123 = genTest('Test123')
Test123()
foobar = Test123
foobar()
This creates a function with a bound local variable name (see PiL 6.1 ).
I'm struggling a bit with this: I need a function that takes any function
of type fun(Any*) : Boolean as parameter, evaluates the function and returns true or
false, depending on the success of the function evaluation.
Essentially, what I need is a function type that allows any number and any type of parameter but the function must return Boolean.
Which would allow me to write functions like:
def checkLenght(str : String, length : Int) : Boolean ={
if (str.lenght == length)}
or
def ceckAB(a : Int, b : Int) : Boolean = {
if(a < b && a >= 23 && b < 42) }
so that, for example
eval(checkLenght(abc, 3)) //returns true
eval(ceckAB(4,1)) // returns false
I thought, a function type of:
type CheckFunction = (Any*) => Boolean
may does the trick but I struggle with writing the generic eval function.
Any advise?
Thank you
Solution:
The function requires
1) Another function of return type Boolean: "(func : => Boolean)"
2) Return type Boolean ": Boolean"
3) Returns the value of the passed function-parameter: " = func"
Altogether the function is:
def eval(func : => Boolean) : Boolean = func
It amazes me over again how simple simple things are in Scala.
As pointed out by the comments, this is a rather unusual function with no obvious
sense. Just a word about the underlying reasons.
Motivation:
There were a lot of question about the underlying motivation, so here a short
summary why such a function is needed.
Essentially, there are two reasons.
First one is about moving the failure handling away from the function itself
into a handler function. This preserves the purity of the check function and even allows
re-usage of generic checks.
Second, it's all about "pluggable failure handling". This means, the eval function only
tells if a failure happened (or not). In case of a failure, a handler is called through an interface. The implementation of the handler can be swapped using profiles as required.
Why?
Swapping profiles means, I code my checks and functions as usual but by switching the
profile, I switch the handler which means I can chose between full-stop, console print out, email alert, SNMP notification, push message... you name it. To do so, I need to decouple the check function from its evaluation and from its handling. That's the motivation for such a rather strange looking eval function.
And for the sake of completeness, I've already implemented all that stuff but was I facing the limitation of only handling trivial checks i.e. check(Boolean*) which is neat but often I would prefer to write a function to do more sophisticated checks.
Solved
The function is defined by returning the value of the passed function:
def eval(func : => Boolean) : Boolean = {func}
I can't say that I really understand your motivations for wanting to do what you want to do, but I guess that's beside the point. Maybe the eval function will check something before invoking the supplied function and not invoke that other function (like a fast fail) given some certain condition. Maybe you do some post checking after invoking the function and change the result based on something else. Either way, I suppose you could accomplish something similar to what you want with code looking like this:
def main(args: Array[String]) {
val str = "hello world"
println(eval(checkLength(str, 3)))
println(eval(intsEqual(1,1)))
}
def eval(func: => Boolean):Boolean = {
//Do whetever you want before invoking func, maybe
//not even invoke it if some other condition is present
val fres = func
//Maybe change something here before returning based on post conditions
fres
}
def checkLength(s:String, len:Int) = s.length() == len
def intsEqual(a:Int, b:Int) = a == b
If you really want the eval function to be able to support any function that takes any types of args and returns a Boolean, then using a by-name function like this, and then leveraging closure inside the by-name function to pass any params along to whatever actual function you want to invoke. A better way to demonstrate this is as follows:
def checkMyString(str:String, len:Int) = {
eval(str.length == len)
}
It's probably hard to see that the check str.length == len is not invoked unless eval decides to invoke it until you expand it to it's true form:
def checkMyString(str:String, len:Int) = {
def check = {
str.length == len
}
eval(check)
}
Here, the nested function check has access to str and len due to closure, and this will allow you to get around the requirement that eval must be able to invoke a function with any params that returns a Boolean.
This is just one way to solve your problem, and it might not even be suitable given your needs, but I just wanted to throw it out there.
If your input functions only have 2 arguments, like your two examples, you can write a semi generic function take takes all functions with two arguments of any type:
def eval[A,B](func: (A,B) => Boolean, arg1: A, arg2: B) = {
func(arg1, arg2)
}
def checkLength(str: String, length: Int) : Boolean = {
str.length == length
}
eval(checkLength, "ham", 4)
res0: Boolean = false
But if you want to support functions with more arguments, you would have to write one eval function for three arguments, four arguments, etc
Maybe there is a better way that can handle all cases?
I found one topic that's about post hooking, but I don't think it's the same thing as I want to accomplish. topic i found
What I need is the following:
local someBoolean = false
function doSomething() -- this is the function used in __index in a proxy table
someBoolean = true
return aFunction -- this is function that we can NOT alter
end
I need to ble able to run the code "someBoolean = false" after the return... (yes, I know that's not supposed to happen :p) considering aFunction may contain other functions itself, I want someBoolean to be true for the entire scope of aFunction, but after that, it HAS to be turned back to false
I'm sorry if I didn't manage to explain it well enough. Copy pasting the relevant code of my actual project would be way too large, and I don't want to waste your time.
I've been stuck on this for a while now, and I just can't seem to figure it out...
(edit: I can't just put someBoolean = false after the function, because the function is actually an __index function on a proxy table)
edit: relevent piece of code. I hope it's a bit clear
local function objectProxyDelegate(t, key)
if not done then -- done = true when our object is fully initialised
return cls[key] -- cls is the class, newinst is the new instance (duh...)
end
print("trying to delegate " .. key)
if accessTable.public[key] then
print(key .. " passed the test")
objectScope = true
if accessTable.static[key] then -- static function. return the static one
return cls[key] -- we need to somehow set objectScope back to false after this, otherwise we'll keep overriding protected/private functions
else
return newinst[key]
end
elseif objectScope then
print("overridden protected/private")
return cls[key]
end
if accessTable.private[key] then
error ("This function is not visible. (private)", 2)
elseif accessTable.protected[key] then
error ("This function is not visible to an instance. (protected)", 2)
else
error ("The function " .. key .. " doesn't exiist in " .. newinst:getType(), 2) -- den deze...
end
end
Since you need to return a function (rather than evaluate a function) you can create a proxy for the aFunction and return that instead. Here's how it could work (with a bunch of code taken from the solution by Nicol Bolas):
local someBoolean = false
function doSomething(...) -- this is the function used in __index in a proxy table
someBoolean = true
-- Return a proxy function instead of aFunction
return function(...)
local rets = { aFunction(...) }
someBoolean = false
return table.unpack(rets)
end
end
You cannot execute code after a return statement. The correct answer is to call the function, catch the return values, set the variable, and then return the return values. For example:
local someBoolean = false
function doSomething(...) -- this is the function used in __index in a proxy table
someBoolean = true
local rets = { aFunction(...) } -- this is function that we can NOT alter
someBoolean = false
return table.unpack(rets)
end
In the Lua wiki I found a way to define default values for missing arguments:
function myfunction(a,b,c)
b = b or 7
c = c or 5
print (a,b,c)
end
Is that the only way? The PHP style myfunction (a,b=7,c=5) does not seem to work. Not that the Lua way doesn't work, I am just wondering if this is the only way to do it.
If you want named arguments and default values like PHP or Python, you can call your function with a table constructor:
myfunction{a,b=3,c=2}
(This is seen in many places in Lua, such as the advanced forms of LuaSocket's protocol modules and constructors in IUPLua.)
The function itself could have a signature like this:
function myfunction(t)
setmetatable(t,{__index={b=7, c=5}})
local a, b, c =
t[1] or t.a,
t[2] or t.b,
t[3] or t.c
-- function continues down here...
end
Any values missing from the table of parameters will be taken from the __index table in its metatable (see the documentation on metatables).
Of course, more advanced parameter styles are possible using table constructors and functions- you can write whatever you need. For example, here is a function that constructs a function that takes named-or-positional argument tables from a table defining the parameter names and default values and a function taking a regular argument list.
As a non-language-level feature, such calls can be changed to provide new behaviors and semantics:
Variables could be made to accept more than one name
Positional variables and keyword variables can be interspersed - and defining both can give precedence to either (or cause an error)
Keyword-only positionless variables can be made, as well as nameless position-only ones
The fairly-verbose table construction could be done by parsing a string
The argument list could be used verbatim if the function is called with something other than 1 table
Some useful functions for writing argument translators are unpack (moving to table.unpack in 5.2), setfenv (deprecated in 5.2 with the new _ENV construction), and select (which returns a single value from a given argument list, or the length of the list with '#').
In my opinion there isn't another way. That's just the Lua mentality: no frills, and except for some syntactic sugar, no redundant ways of doing simple things.
Technically, there's b = b == nil and 7 or b (which should be used in the case where false is a valid value as false or 7 evaluates to 7), but that's probably not what you're looking for.
The only way i've found so far that makes any sense is to do something like this:
function new(params)
params = params or {}
options = {
name = "Object name"
}
for k,v in pairs(params) do options[k] = v end
some_var = options.name
end
new({ name = "test" })
new()
If your function expects neither Boolean false nor nil to be passed as parameter values, your suggested approach is fine:
function test1(param)
local default = 10
param = param or default
return param
end
--[[
test1(): [10]
test1(nil): [10]
test1(true): [true]
test1(false): [10]
]]
If your function allows Boolean false, but not nil, to be passed as the parameter value, you can check for the presence of nil, as suggested by Stuart P. Bentley, as long as the default value is not Boolean false:
function test2(param)
local default = 10
param = (param == nil and default) or param
return param
end
--[[
test2(): [10]
test2(nil): [10]
test2(true): [true]
test2(false): [false]
]]
The above approach breaks when the default value is Boolean false:
function test3(param)
local default = false
param = (param == nil and default) or param
return param
end
--[[
test3(): [nil]
test3(nil): [nil]
test3(true): [true]
test3(false): [false]
]]
Interestingly, reversing the order of the conditional checks does allow Boolean false to be the default value, and is nominally more performant:
function test4(param)
local default = false
param = param or (param == nil and default)
return param
end
--[[
test4(): [false]
test4(nil): [false]
test4(true): [true]
test4(false): [false]
]]
This approach works for reasons that seem counter-intuitive until further examination, upon which they are discovered to be kind of clever.
If you want default parameters for functions that do allow nil values to be passed, you'll need to do something even uglier, like using variadic parameters:
function test5(...)
local argN = select('#', ...)
local default = false
local param = default
if argN > 0 then
local args = {...}
param = args[1]
end
return param
end
--[[
test5(): [false]
test5(nil): [nil]
test5(true): [true]
test5(false): [false]
]]
Of course, variadic parameters completely thwart auto-completion and linting of function parameters in functions that use them.
Short answer is that it's simplest and best way . in lua , variables by default equal with nil . this means if we don't pass argument to lua functions ,the argument is exits but is nil and lua programmers uses of this lua attribute for set the default value .
also it's not a way for set default value but you can use following function
this function create a error is you don't pass values to arguments
function myFn(arg1 , arg2)
err = arg1 and arg2
if not err then error("argument") end
-- or
if not arg1 and arg2 then error("msg") end
but it's not a good way and better is don't use of this function
and in diagrams shows optional argument in [,arg]
function args(a1 [,a2])
-- some
end
function args ( a1 [,a2[,a3]])
-- some
end
As always, "Lua gives you the power, you build the mechanisms". The first distinction to make here is that between named parameters and the commonly used parameter list.
The parameter list
Assuming all your args are given in the parameter list as follows, they will all be initialized. At this point, you can't distinguish between "wasn't passed" and "was passed as nil" - both will simply be nil. Your options for setting defaults are:
Using the or operator if you expect a truthy value (not nil or false). Defaulting to something even if false is given might be a feature in this case.
Using an explicit nil check param == nil, used either as if param == nil then param = default end or the typical Lua ternary construct param == nil and default or param.
If you find yourself frequently repeating the patterns from point (2), you might want to declare a function:
function default(value, default_value)
if value == nil then return default_value end
return value
end
(whether to use global or local scope for this function is another issue I won't get into here).
I've included all three ways the following example:
function f(x, y, z, w)
x = x or 1
y = y == nil and 2 or y
if z == nil then z == 3 end
w = default(w, 4
print(x, y, z, w)
end
f()
f(1)
f(1, 2)
f(1, 2, 3)
f(1, 2, 3, 4)
note that this also allows omitting arguments inbetween; trailing nil arguments will also be treated as absent:
f(nil)
f(nil, 2, 3)
f(nil, 2, nil, 4)
f(1, 2, 3, nil)
Varargs
A lesser known feature of Lua is the ability to actually determine how many arguments were passed, including the ability to distinguish between explicitly passed nil arguments and "no argument" through the select function. Let's rewrite our function using this:
function f(...)
local n_args = select("#", ...) -- number of arguments passed
local x, y, z, w = ...
if n_args < 4 then w = 4 end
if n_args < 3 then z = 3 end
if n_args < 2 then y = 2 end
if n_args < 1 then x = 1 end
print(x, y, z, w)
end
f() -- prints "1 2 3 4"
f(nil) -- prints "nil 2 3 4"
f(1, nil) -- prints "1 nil 3 4"
f(1, nil, 3) -- prints "1 nil 3 4"
f(nil, nil, nil, nil) -- prints 4x nil
Caveat: (1) the argument list got dragged into the function, hurting readability (2) this is rather cumbersome to write manually, and should probably be abstracted away, perhaps time using a wrapper function wrap_defaults({1, 2, 3, 4}, f) that supplies the defaults as appropriate. Implementation of this is left up to the reader as an exercise (hint: the straightforward way would first collect the args into a garbage table, then unpack that after setting the defaults).
Table calls
Lua provides syntactic sugar for calling functions with a single table as the only argument: f{...} is equivalent to f({...}). Furthermore, {f(...)} can be used to capture a vararg returned by f (caveat: if f returns nils, the table will have holes in it's list part).
Tables also allow implementing named "arguments" as table fields: Tables allow mixing a list and a hash part, making f{1, named_arg = 2} perfectly valid Lua.
In terms of limitations, the advantage of table call is that it only leaves a single argument - the table - on the stack rather than multiple arguments. For recursive functions, this allows hitting the stack overflow later. Since PUC Lua drastically increased the stack limit to ~1M this isn't much of an issue anymore; LuaJIT still has a stack limit of ~65k however, and PUC Lua 5.1 is even lower at around 15k.
In terms of performance & memory consumption, the table call is obviously worse: It requires Lua to build a garbage table, which will then waste memory until the GC gets rid of it. Garbage parameter tables should therefore probably not be used in hotspots where plenty of calls happen. Indexing a hashmap is also obviously slower than getting values straight off the stack.
That said, let's examine the ways to implement defaults for tables:
Unpacking / Destructuring
unpack (table.unpack in later versions (5.2+)) can be used to convert a table into a vararg, which can be treated like a parameter list; note however that in Lua the list part can't have trailing nil values, not allowing you to distinguish "no value" and nil. Unpacking / destructuring to locals also helps performance since it gets rid of repeated table indexing.
function f(params)
local x, y, z, w = unpack(params)
-- use same code as if x, y, z, w were regular params
end
f{1, 2, nil}
if you use named fields, you'll have to explicitly destructure those:
function f(params)
local x, y, z, w = params.x, params.y, params.z, params.w
-- use same code as if x, y, z, w were regular params
end
f{x = 1, w = 4}
mix & match is possible:
function f(params)
local x, y, z = unpack(params)
local w = params.w
-- use same code as if x, y, z, w were regular params
end
f{1, 2, w = 4}
Metatables
The __index metatable field can be used to set a table which is indexed with name if params.name is nil, providing defaults for nil values. One major drawback of setting a metatable on a passed table is that the passed table's metatable will be lost, perhaps leading to unexpected behavior on the caller's end. You could use getmetatable and setmetatable to restore the metatable after you're done operating with the params, but that would be rather dirty, hence I would recommend against it.
Bad
function f(params)
setmetatable(params, {__index = {x = 1, y = 2, z = 3, w = 4}})
-- use params.[xyzw], possibly unpacking / destructuring
end
f{x = 1}
in addition to the presumably garbage params table, this will create (1) a garbage metatable and (2) a garbage default table every time the function is called. This is pretty bad. Since the metatable is constant, simply drag it out of the function, making it an upvalue:
Okay
local defaults_metatable = {__index = {x = 1, y = 2, z = 3, w = 4}}
function f(params)
setmetatable(params, defaults_metatable)
-- use params.[xyzw], possibly unpacking / destructuring
end
Avoiding metatables
If you want a default table without the hackyness of metatables, consider once again writing yourself a helper function to complete a table with default values:
local function complete(params, defaults)
for param, default in pairs(defaults) do
if params[param] == nil then
params[param] = default
end
end
end
this will change the params table, properly setting the defaults; use as params = complete(params, defaults). Again, remember to drag the defaults table out of the function.