Currying a function to get another function: unit -> 'a - function

Given a higher-order function like the following:
let call (f : unit -> 'a) = f()
And another function:
let incr i = i + 1
Is there a way to pass incr to call, without using a lambda: (fun () -> incr 1)?
Obviously, passing (incr 1) does not work, as the function is then "fully applied."
EDIT
To clarify: I'm wondering if there's a way to curry a function, such that it becomes a function: unit -> 'a.

You can define such a shortcut yourself:
let ap f x = fun () -> f x
call (ap incr 1)
If the function you want to transform happens to be a pure function, you can define the constant function instead:
let ct x _ = x (* const is reserved for future use :( *)
call (ct (incr 1))

It looks more like an attempt to add laziness to strict F# then some kind of currying.
And in fact there is a built in facility for that in F#: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd233247.aspx - lazy keyword plus awkward Force:
Not sure if it's any better than explicit lambda, but still:
let incr i =
printf "incr is called with %i\n" i
i+1
let call (f : unit -> 'a) =
printf "call is called\n"
f()
let r = call <| (lazy incr 5).Force
printf "%A\n" r

Related

How to use an expression in function from other function in julia

When I try those code below:
function f(x)
Meta.parse("x -> x " * x) |> eval
end
function g(x)
findall(Base.invokelatest(f,x),[1,2,3]) |> println
end
g("<3")
Julia throws "The applicable method may be too new" error.
If I tried these code below:
function f(x)
Meta.parse("x -> x " * x) |> eval
end
findall(f("<3"),[1,2,3]) |> println
Julia could give me corrected result: [1, 2]
How can I modify the first codes to use an String to generate function in other function, Thx!
Test in Julia 1.6.7
Do
function g(x)
h = f(x)
findall(x -> Base.invokelatest(h, x) ,[1,2,3]) |> println
end
g("<3")
The difference in your code is that when you write:
Base.invokelatest(f, x)
you invoke f, but f is not redefined. What you want to do is invokelatest the function that is returned by f instead.
Use a macro instead of function:
macro f(expr)
Meta.parse("x -> x " * expr)
end
Now you can just do:
julia> filter(#f("<3"), [1,2,3])
2-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2

How can I return a lambda with guards and double recursion?

I made this function in Python:
def calc(a): return lambda op: {
'+': lambda b: calc(a+b),
'-': lambda b: calc(a-b),
'=': a}[op]
So you can make a calculation like this:
calc(1)("+")(1)("+")(10)("-")(7)("=")
And the result will be 5.
I wanbt to make the same function in Haskell to learn about lambdas, but I am getting parse errors.
My code looks like this:
calc :: Int -> (String -> Int)
calc a = \ op
| op == "+" = \ b calc a+b
| op == "-" = \ b calc a+b
| op == "=" = a
main = calc 1 "+" 1 "+" 10 "-" 7 "="
There are numerous syntactical problems with the code you have posted. I won't address them here, though: you will discover them yourself after going through a basic Haskell tutorial. Instead I'll focus on a more fundamental problem with the project, which is that the types don't really work out. Then I'll show a different approach that gets you the same outcome, to show you it is possible in Haskell once you've learned more.
While it's fine in Python to sometimes return a function-of-int and sometimes an int, this isn't allowed in Haskell. GHC has to know at compile time what type will be returned; you can't make that decision at runtime based on whether a string is "=" or not. So you need a different type for the "keep calcing" argument than the "give me the answer" argument.
This is possible in Haskell, and in fact is a technique with a lot of applications, but it's maybe not the best place for a beginner to start. You are inventing continuations. You want calc 1 plus 1 plus 10 minus 7 equals to produce 5, for some definitions of the names used therein. Achieving this requires some advanced features of the Haskell language and some funny types1, which is why I say it is not for beginners. But, below is an implementation that meets this goal. I won't explain it in detail, because there is too much for you to learn first. Hopefully after some study of Haskell fundamentals, you can return to this interesting problem and understand my solution.
calc :: a -> (a -> r) -> r
calc x k = k x
equals :: a -> a
equals = id
lift2 :: (a -> a -> a) -> a -> a -> (a -> r) -> r
lift2 f x y = calc (f x y)
plus :: Num a => a -> a -> (a -> r) -> r
plus = lift2 (+)
minus :: Num a => a -> a -> (a -> r) -> r
minus = lift2 (-)
ghci> calc 1 plus 1 plus 10 minus 7 equals
5
1 Of course calc 1 plus 1 plus 10 minus 7 equals looks a lot like 1 + 1 + 10 - 7, which is trivially easy. The important difference here is that these are infix operators, so this is parsed as (((1 + 1) + 10) - 7), while the version you're trying to implement in Python, and my Haskell solution, are parsed like ((((((((calc 1) plus) 1) plus) 10) minus) 7) equals) - no sneaky infix operators, and calc is in control of all combinations.
chi's answer says you could do this with "convoluted type class machinery", like printf does. Here's how you'd do that:
{-# LANGUAGE ExtendedDefaultRules #-}
class CalcType r where
calc :: Integer -> String -> r
instance CalcType r => CalcType (Integer -> String -> r) where
calc a op
| op == "+" = \ b -> calc (a+b)
| op == "-" = \ b -> calc (a-b)
instance CalcType Integer where
calc a op
| op == "=" = a
result :: Integer
result = calc 1 "+" 1 "+" 10 "-" 7 "="
main :: IO ()
main = print result
If you wanted to make it safer, you could get rid of the partiality with Maybe or Either, like this:
{-# LANGUAGE ExtendedDefaultRules #-}
class CalcType r where
calcImpl :: Either String Integer -> String -> r
instance CalcType r => CalcType (Integer -> String -> r) where
calcImpl a op
| op == "+" = \ b -> calcImpl (fmap (+ b) a)
| op == "-" = \ b -> calcImpl (fmap (subtract b) a)
| otherwise = \ b -> calcImpl (Left ("Invalid intermediate operator " ++ op))
instance CalcType (Either String Integer) where
calcImpl a op
| op == "=" = a
| otherwise = Left ("Invalid final operator " ++ op)
calc :: CalcType r => Integer -> String -> r
calc = calcImpl . Right
result :: Either String Integer
result = calc 1 "+" 1 "+" 10 "-" 7 "="
main :: IO ()
main = print result
This is rather fragile and very much not recommended for production use, but there it is anyway just as something to (eventually?) learn from.
Here is a simple solution that I'd say corresponds more closely to your Python code than the advanced solutions in the other answers. It's not an idiomatic solution because, just like your Python one, it will use runtime failure instead of types in the compiler.
So, the essence in you Python is this: you return either a function or an int. In Haskell it's not possible to return different types depending on runtime values, however it is possible to return a type that can contain different data, including functions.
data CalcResult = ContinCalc (Int -> String -> CalcResult)
| FinalResult Int
calc :: Int -> String -> CalcResult
calc a "+" = ContinCalc $ \b -> calc (a+b)
calc a "-" = ContinCalc $ \b -> calc (a-b)
calc a "=" = FinalResult a
For reasons that will become clear at the end, I would actually propose the following variant, which is, unlike typical Haskell, not curried:
calc :: (Int, String) -> CalcResult
calc (a,"+") = ContinCalc $ \b op -> calc (a+b,op)
calc (a,"-") = ContinCalc $ \b op -> calc (a-b,op)
calc (a,"=") = FinalResult a
Now, you can't just pile on function applications on this, because the result is never just a function – it can only be a wrapped function. Because applying more arguments than there are functions to handle them seems to be a failure case, the result should be in the Maybe monad.
contin :: CalcResult -> (Int, String) -> Maybe CalcResult
contin (ContinCalc f) (i,op) = Just $ f i op
contin (FinalResult _) _ = Nothing
For printing a final result, let's define
printCalcRes :: Maybe CalcResult -> IO ()
printCalcRes (Just (FinalResult r)) = print r
printCalcRes (Just _) = fail "Calculation incomplete"
printCalcRes Nothing = fail "Applied too many arguments"
And now we can do
ghci> printCalcRes $ contin (calc (1,"+")) (2,"=")
3
Ok, but that would become very awkward for longer computations. Note that we have after two operations a Maybe CalcResult so we can't just use contin again. Also, the parentheses that would need to be matched outwards are a pain.
Fortunately, Haskell is not Lisp and supports infix operators. And because we're anyways getting Maybe in the result, might as well include the failure case in the data type.
Then, the full solution is this:
data CalcResult = ContinCalc ((Int,String) -> CalcResult)
| FinalResult Int
| TooManyArguments
calc :: (Int, String) -> CalcResult
calc (a,"+") = ContinCalc $ \(b,op) -> calc (a+b,op)
calc (a,"-") = ContinCalc $ \(b,op) -> calc (a-b,op)
calc (a,"=") = FinalResult a
infixl 9 #
(#) :: CalcResult -> (Int, String) -> CalcResult
ContinCalc f # args = f args
_ # _ = TooManyArguments
printCalcRes :: CalcResult -> IO ()
printCalcRes (FinalResult r) = print r
printCalcRes (ContinCalc _) = fail "Calculation incomplete"
printCalcRes TooManyArguments = fail "Applied too many arguments"
Which allows to you write
ghci> printCalcRes $ calc (1,"+") # (2,"+") # (3,"-") # (4,"=")
2
A Haskell function of type A -> B has to return a value of the fixed type B every time it's called (or fail to terminate, or throw an exception, but let's neglect that).
A Python function is not similarly constrained. The returned value can be anything, with no type constraints. As a simple example, consider:
def foo(b):
if b:
return 42 # int
else:
return "hello" # str
In the Python code you posted, you exploit this feature to make calc(a)(op) to be either a function (a lambda) or an integer.
In Haskell we can't do that. This is to ensure that the code can be type checked at compile-time. If we write
bar :: String -> Int
bar s = foo (reverse (reverse s) == s)
the compiler can't be expected to verify that the argument always evaluates to True -- that would be undecidable, in general. The compiler merely requires that the type of foo is something like Bool -> Int. However, we can't assign that type to the definition of foo shown above.
So, what we can actually do in Haskell?
One option could be to abuse type classes. There is a way in Haskell to create a kind of "variadic" function exploiting some kind-of convoluted type class machinery. That would make
calc 1 "+" 1 "+" 10 "-" 7 :: Int
type-check and evaluate to the wanted result. I'm not attempting that: it's complex and "hackish", at least in my eye. This hack was used to implement printf in Haskell, and it's not pretty to read.
Another option is to create a custom data type and add some infix operator to the calling syntax. This also exploits some advanced feature of Haskell to make everything type check.
{-# LANGUAGE GADTs, FunctionalDependencies, TypeFamilies, FlexibleInstances #-}
data R t where
I :: Int -> R String
F :: (Int -> Int) -> R Int
instance Show (R String) where
show (I i) = show i
type family Other a where
Other String = Int
Other Int = String
(#) :: R a -> a -> R (Other a)
I i # "+" = F (i+) -- equivalent to F (\x -> i + x)
I i # "-" = F (i-) -- equivalent to F (\x -> i - x)
F f # i = I (f i)
I _ # s = error $ "unsupported operator " ++ s
main :: IO ()
main =
print (I 1 # "+" # 1 # "+" # 10 # "-" # 7)
The last line prints 5 as expected.
The key ideas are:
The type R a represents an intermediate result, which can be an integer or a function. If it's an integer, we remember that the next thing in the line should be a string by making I i :: R String. If it's a function, we remember the next thing should be an integer by having F (\x -> ...) :: R Int.
The operator (#) takes an intermediate result of type R a, a next "thing" (int or string) to process of type a, and produces a value in the "other type" Other a. Here, Other a is defined as the type Int (respectively String) when a is String (resp. Int).

Ocaml 99 problems: can't understand the solution for generating combinations

https://ocaml.org/learn/tutorials/99problems.html
I am trying to understand the solution for generating the combinations of K distinct objects chosen from the N elements of a list. Here are the code:
let extract k list =
let rec aux k acc emit = function
| [] -> acc
| h :: t ->
if k = 1 then aux k (emit [h] acc) emit t else
let new_emit x = emit (h :: x) in
aux k (aux (k-1) acc new_emit t) emit t
in
let emit x acc = x :: acc in
aux k [] emit list;;
The emit function is defined to accept two parameters:
let emit x acc = x :: acc
So I don't quite understand how the following line works since it call emit giving only a single argument:
let new_emit x = emit (h :: x)
Also, the new_emit function accept only a single parameter and is passed as an argument to the aux function, how can it deal with the following line (the emit here is called by giving two arguments):
if k = 1 then aux k (emit [h] acc) emit t
Functions in OCaml are usually curried, meaning that multiple argument functions are expressed by taking one argument and returning a function that takes the next argument (and so on). OCaml has some syntax sugar to make this nicer to read: let f x y = ... is short for let f = fun x -> fun y -> ....
Usually programmers use such functions by passing all the arguments at once, but it is possible to only pass one and get back a 'partially applied' function as a result. That is what is happening with emit.
So you can read let emit_new x = emit (h :: x) as defining a version of emit with the first argument already supplied.
The point that you are missing here is that due to currying and first-class functions, the number of parameters of a function is not as rigid as you think it is.
In this particular case, the definition of emit as
let emit x acc = x :: acc
gives it the type 'a -> 'a list -> 'a list. This type can have two different readings, you can either think of it as a function that takes two argument, one of type 'a and one of type 'a list and returns an object of type 'a list. But, you can also read it as function that takes one argument of type 'a and returns a function of type 'a list -> 'a list.
The definition
let new_emit x = emit (h :: x)
is using this curried interpretation: since emit has for type
'a -> 'a list -> 'a list, applying it to h::x yields a function of type
'a list -> 'a list, consequently the function new_emit has for type
'a -> 'a list -> 'a list. In other words, the function new_emit still accepts two input parameters, even if it definitions only involve one argument. Note, to make things easier to understand the definition of new_emit can also be written either
let new_emit x = fun acc -> emit (h :: x) acc
or
let new_emit x acc = emit (h :: x) acc
In context, the emit element_list combination_list is used to add a new combination to the list of combinations by taking the element_list and adding to it all previously picked elements. The definition of new_emit is then used to pick the new element h. In other words, this line
if k = 1 then aux k (emit [h] acc) emit t else
means add the element list [h] plus all previously picked elements to the combination list since all elements have been picked, whereas
let new_emit x = emit (h :: x) in
aux k (aux (k-1) acc new_emit t) emit t
could be decomposed as:
First pick the element h:
let new_emit x = emit (h :: x)
then construct all combinations where h is present:
let combination_where_h_was_selected = aux (k-1) acc new_emit t
and then construct all combination where h is absent:
aux k combination_where_h_was_selected emit t
p.s.:
As a far more advanced remarks on the subject of the numbers of parameters of a function, note that even "variadic" function are perfectly possibly in OCaml. For instance, an abstruse and inefficient way to define list would be
let start f = f (fun x -> x)
let elt x t k = k (fun l -> t (fun l -> x ::l) l)
let stop f = f (fun x -> x) []
let [] = start stop
let l = start (elt 1) (elt 2) (elt 3) (elt 4) stop
;; assert ( l = [1;2;3;4] )

Weeding duplicates from a list of functions

Is it possible to remove the duplicates (as in nub) from a list of functions in Haskell?
Basically, is it possible to add an instance for (Eq (Integer -> Integer))
In ghci:
let fs = [(+2), (*2), (^2)]
let cs = concat $ map subsequences $ permutations fs
nub cs
<interactive>:31:1:
No instance for (Eq (Integer -> Integer))
arising from a use of `nub'
Possible fix:
add an instance declaration for (Eq (Integer -> Integer))
In the expression: nub cs
In an equation for `it': it = nub cs
Thanks in advance.
...
Further, based on larsmans' answer, I am now able to do this
> let fs = [AddTwo, Double, Square]
> let css = nub $ concat $ map subsequences $ permutations fs
in order to get this
> css
[[],[AddTwo],[Double],[AddTwo,Double],[Square],[AddTwo,Square],[Double,Square],[AddTwo,Double,Square],[Double,AddTwo],[Double,AddTwo,Square],[Square,Double],[Square,AddTwo],[Square,Double,AddTwo],[Double,Square,AddTwo],[Square,AddTwo,Double],[AddTwo,Square,Double]]
and then this
> map (\cs-> call <$> cs <*> [3,4]) css
[[],[5,6],[6,8],[5,6,6,8],[9,16],[5,6,9,16],[6,8,9,16],[5,6,6,8,9,16],[6,8,5,6],[6,8,5,6,9,16],[9,16,6,8],[9,16,5,6],[9,16,6,8,5,6],[6,8,9,16,5,6],[9,16,5,6,6,8],[5,6,9,16,6,8]]
, which was my original intent.
No, this is not possible. Functions cannot be compared for equality.
The reason for this is:
Pointer comparison makes very little sense for Haskell functions, since then the equality of id and \x -> id x would change based on whether the latter form is optimized into id.
Extensional comparison of functions is impossible, since it would require a positive solution to the halting problem (both functions having the same halting behavior is a necessary requirement for equality).
The workaround is to represent functions as data:
data Function = AddTwo | Double | Square deriving Eq
call AddTwo = (+2)
call Double = (*2)
call Square = (^2)
No, it's not possible to do this for Integer -> Integer functions.
However, it is possible if you're also ok with a more general type signature Num a => a -> a, as your example indicates! One naïve way (not safe), would go like
{-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances #-}
{-# LANGUAGE NoMonomorphismRestriction #-}
data NumResLog a = NRL { runNumRes :: a, runNumResLog :: String }
deriving (Eq, Show)
instance (Num a) => Num (NumResLog a) where
fromInteger n = NRL (fromInteger n) (show n)
NRL a alog + NRL b blog
= NRL (a+b) ( "("++alog++ ")+(" ++blog++")" )
NRL a alog * NRL b blog
= NRL (a*b) ( "("++alog++ ")*(" ++blog++")" )
...
instance (Num a) => Eq (NumResLog a -> NumResLog a) where
f == g = runNumResLog (f arg) == runNumResLog (g arg)
where arg = NRL 0 "THE ARGUMENT"
unlogNumFn :: (NumResLog a -> NumResLog c) -> (a->c)
unlogNumFn f = runNumRes . f . (`NRL`"")
which works basically by comparing a "normalised" version of the functions' source code. Of course this fails when you compare e.g. (+1) == (1+), which are equivalent numerically but yield "(THE ARGUMENT)+(1)" vs. "(1)+(THE ARGUMENT)" and thus are indicated as non-equal. However, since functions Num a => a->a are essentially constricted to be polynomials (yeah, abs and signum make it a bit more difficult, but it's still doable), you can find a data type that properly handles those equivalencies.
The stuff can be used like this:
> let fs = [(+2), (*2), (^2)]
> let cs = concat $ map subsequences $ permutations fs
> let ncs = map (map unlogNumFn) $ nub cs
> map (map ($ 1)) ncs
[[],[3],[2],[3,2],[1],[3,1],[2,1],[3,2,1],[2,3],[2,3,1],[1,2],[1,3],[1,2,3],[2,1,3],[1,3,2],[3,1,2]]

OCaml: Using a comparison operator passed into a function

I'm an OCaml noob. I'm trying to figure out how to handle a comparison operator that's passed into a function.
My function just tries to pass in a comparison operator (=, <, >, etc.) and an int.
let myFunction comparison x =
if (x (comparison) 10) then
10
else
x;;
I was hoping that this code would evaluate to (if a "=" were passed in):
if (x = 10) then
10
else
x;;
However, this is not working. In particular, it thinks that x is a bool, as evidenced by this error message:
This expression has type 'a -> int -> bool
but an expression was expected of type int
How can I do what I'm trying to do?
On a side question, how could I have figured this out on my own so I don't have to rely on outside help from a forum? What good resources are available?
Comparison operators like < and = are secretly two-parameter (binary) functions. To pass them as a parameter, you use the (<) notation. To use that parameter inside your function, you just treat it as function name:
let myFunction comp x =
if comp x 10 then
10
else
x;;
printf "%d" (myFunction (<) 5);; (* prints 10 *)
OCaml allows you to treat infix operators as identifiers by enclosing them in parentheses. This works not only for existing operators but for new ones that you want to define. They can appear as function names or even as parameters. They have to consist of symbol characters, and are given the precedence associated with their first character. So if you really wanted to, you could use infix notation for the comparison parameter of myFunction:
Objective Caml version 3.12.0
# let myFunction (#) x =
x # 10;;
val myFunction : ('a -> int -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b = <fun>
# myFunction (<) 5;;
- : bool = true
# myFunction (<) 11;;
- : bool = false
# myFunction (=) 10;;
- : bool = true
# myFunction (+) 14;;
- : int = 24
#
(It's not clear this makes myFunction any easier to read. I think definition of new infix operators should be done sparingly.)
To answer your side question, lots of OCaml resources are listed on this other StackOverflow page:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2073436/ocaml-resources
Several possibilities:
Use a new definition to redefine your comparison operator:
let myFunction comparison x =
let (#) x y = comparison x y in
if (x # 10) then
10
else
x;;
You could also pass the # directly without the extra definition.
As another solution you can use some helper functions to define what you need:
let (/*) x f = f x
let (*/) f x = f x
let myFunction comparison x =
if x /* comparison */ 10 then
10
else
x