How to get working variables out of a function in F# - function

Question

I have a function in F# , like:
let MyFunction x =
let workingVariable1 = x + 1
let workingVariable2 = workingVariable1 + 1
let y = workingVariable2 + 1
y
Basically, MyFunction takes an input x and returns y. However, in the process of calculation, there are a few working variables (intermediate variables), and due to the nature of my work (civil engineering), I need to report all intermediate results. How should I store all working variables of the function ?

Answer 1

I'm not exactly sure what kind of "report" your are expecting. Is this a log of intermediate values ? How long time this log should be kept ? etc. etc This is my attempt from what I understand. It is not ideal solution because it allows to report values of intermediate steps but without knowing exactly which expression has generated the intermediate value (I think that you would like to know that a value n was an output of workingVariable1 = x + 1 expression).
So my solution is based on Computation Expressions. Computation expression are a kind of F# "monads".
First you need to define a computation expression :
type LoggingBuilder() =
let log p = printfn "intermediate result %A" p
member this.Bind(x, f) =
log x
f x
member this.Return(x) =
x
Next we create an instance of computation expression builder :
let logIntermediate = new LoggingBuilder()
Now you can rewrite your original function like this:
let loggedWorkflow x =
logIntermediate
{
let! workingVariable1 = x + 1
let! workingVariable2 = workingVariable1 + 1
let! y = workingVariable2 + 1
return y,workingVariable1,workingVariable2
}
If you run loggedWorkflow function passing in 10 you get this result :
> loggedWorkflow 10;;
intermediate result 11
intermediate result 12
intermediate result 13
val it : int * int * int = (13, 11, 12)
As I said your intermediate values are logged, however you're not sure which line of code is responsible for.
We could however enchance a little bit to get the FullName of the type with a corresponding line of code. We have to change a little our computation expression builder :
member this.Bind(x, f) =
log x (f.GetType().FullName)
f x
and a log function to :
let log p f = printfn "intermediate result %A %A" p f
If you run again loggedWorkflow function passing in 10 you get this result (this is from my script run in FSI) :
intermediate result 11 "FSI_0003+loggedWorkflow#34"
intermediate result 12 "FSI_0003+loggedWorkflow#35-1"
intermediate result 13 "FSI_0003+loggedWorkflow#36-2"
This is a hack but we get some extra information about where the expressions like workingVariable1 = x + 1 were definied (in my case it is "FSI_") and on which line of code (#34, #35-1). If your code changes and this is very likely to happen, your intermediate result if logged for a long time will be false. Note that I have not tested it outside of FSI and don't know if lines of code are included in every case.
I'm not sure if we can get an expression name (like workingVariable1 = x + 1) to log from computation expression. I think it's not possible.
Note: Instead of log function you coud define some other function that persist this intermediate steps in a durable storage or whatever.
UPDATE
I've tried to came up with a different solution and it is not very easy. However I might have hit a compromise. Let me explain. You can't get a name of value is bound to inside a computation expression. So we are not able to log for example for expression workingVariable1 = x + 1 that "'workingVariable1' result is 2". Let say we pass into our computation expression an extra name of intermediate result like that :
let loggedWorkflow x =
logIntermediate
{
let! workingVariable1 = "wk1" ## x + 1
let! workingVariable2 = "wk2" ## workingVariable1 + 1
let! y = "y" ## workingVariable2 + 1
return y,workingVariable1,workingVariable2
}
As you can see before ## sign we give the name of the intermediate result so let! workingVariable1 = "wk1" ## x + 1 line will be logged as "wk1".
We need then an extra type which would store a name and a value of the expression :
type NamedExpression<'T> = {Value:'T ; Name: string}
Then we have to redefine an infix operator ## we use une computation expression :
let (##) name v = {Value = v; Name = name}
This operator just takes left and right part of the expression and wraps it within NamedExpression<'T> type.
We're not done yet. We have to modify the Bind part of our computation expression builder :
member this.Bind(x, f) =
let {Name = n; Value = v} = x
log v n
f v
First we deconstruct the NamedExpression<'T> value into name and wraped value. We log it and apply the function f to the unwrapped value v. Log function looks like that :
let log p n = printfn "'%s' has intermediate result of : %A" n p
Now when you run the workflow loggedWorkflow 10;; you get the following result :
'wk1' has intermediate result of : 11
'wk2' has intermediate result of : 12
'y' has intermediate result of : 13
Maybe there are better way to do that, something with compiler services or so, but this is the best attempt I could do so far.

Answer 2

If I understand you correctly, then there are several options:
let MyFunction1 x =
let workingVariable1 = x + 1
let workingVariable2 = workingVariable1 + 1
let y = workingVariable2 + 1
y,workingVariable1,workingVariable2
MyFunction1 2 |> printfn "%A"
type OneType()=
member val Y = 0 with get,set
member val WV1 = 0 with get,set
member val WV2 = 0 with get,set
override this.ToString() =
sprintf "Y: %d; WV1: %d; WV2: %d\n" this.Y this.WV1 this.WV2
let MyFunction2 x =
let workingVariable1 = x + 1
let workingVariable2 = workingVariable1 + 1
let y = workingVariable2 + 1
new OneType(Y=y,WV1=workingVariable1,WV2=workingVariable2)
MyFunction2 2 |> printfn "%A"
Out:
(5, 3, 4)
Y: 5; WV1: 3; WV2: 4
http://ideone.com/eYNwYm
In the first function uses the tuple:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd233200.aspx
The second native data type.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd233205.aspx

Answer 3

It's not very "functional" way, but you can use mutable variable to store intermediate results:
let mutable workingVariable1 = 0
let mutable workingVariable2 = 0
let MyFunction x =
workingVariable1 <- x + 1
workingVariable2 <- workingVariable1 + 1
let y = workingVariable2 + 1
y