Kotlin functional strategy pattern doesn't compile - functional-programming

I'm trying to put several functions in a map. The idea is to have: Map<String, [function]>.
The code is as follows:
class UserIdQueriesHandler {
val strategy: Map<String, KFunction2<#ParameterName(name = "id") String, #ParameterName(name = "options") Array<Options>, Answer>> =
mapOf( // the compiler complains here
"d" to ::debt,
"p" to ::currentProduct
)
fun debt(id: String, options: Array<DebtOptions>): UserDebt = UserDebt(isPresent = true, amount = 0.0)
fun currentProduct(id: String, options: Array<CurrentProductOptions>): UserProducts = UserProducts(products = emptyList())
}
enum class DebtOptions : Options { BOOL, AMOUNT }
enum class CurrentProductOptions : Options { ALL, PRINT, DIGITAL, ENG, HEB, TM }
data class UserDebt(val isPresent: Boolean, val amount: Double) : Answer
data class UserProducts(val products: List<Int>): Answer
Answer and Options are simple kotlin interfaces:
interface Answer
interface Options
Compiler output:
Type inference failed. Expected type mismatch:
required:
Map<String, KFunction2<#ParameterName String, #ParameterName Array<Options>, Answer>>
found:
Map<String, KFunction2<#ParameterName String, {[#kotlin.ParameterName] Array & [#kotlin.ParameterName] Array }, Answer>>

The type of strategy says functions you put into it can accept any Array<Options> as the second argument, which debt and currentProduct can't.
The simplest workaround would be to change their argument type to Array<Options> (or List<Options>; they probably don't need to mutate it!) and fail at runtime if wrong options are passed or ignore them.
Variance section in the documentation is also relevant.

Since an Array can be both read and written, its type parameter is invariant. This makes it so that you can't assign an Array<DebtOptions> to a variable that has the type of Array<Options>. The former isn't a subtype of the latter, because it would allow you to put other elements in the array that are Options, but not DebtOptions, leading to problems to code that has a reference to this array as an Array<DebtOptions>.
A solution would be to make your functions accept Array<Options>, if you can.
val strategy: Map<String, KFunction2<String, Array<Options>, Answer>> =
mapOf(
"d" to ::debt,
"p" to ::currentProduct
)
fun debt(id: String, options: Array<Options>): UserDebt = ...
fun currentProduct(id: String, options: Array<Options>): UserProducts = ...
You could combine this with using the nicer functional type instead of a KFunction2:
val strategy: Map<String, (String, Array<Options>) -> Answer> = ...

Related

How do I specify a type for a function parameter that optionally includes a given method?

Updated Question
I want to define a function named bsearch() to do binary searches against arrays of arbitrary object types. When I invoke the function, I want it to check whether or not the Type of the array contains a compare() method and use it, if it does. If it does not, I want it to fall back to using < and === (so it will work with strings and numbers).
What should the function declaration look like? (I don't need an actual implementation, just the syntax for a type-safe solution.)
Or maybe I'm going about this all wrong? How can I create a function that uses a method built into a parameter type if it exists, or use some other function when it doesn't?
Original Question
This is the original question, but I've replaced it with the above as it seems this wasn't getting my point across.
I want to define a function named bsearch() to do binary searches against arrays of arbitrary object types. So I'd like to do something like this:
type Comparator = <Type>(a: Type, b: Type) => -1 | 0 | 1;
static bsearch<Type extends { compare?: Comparator }>(
ary: Type[],
value: Type
): number { ... }
My goal is to specify that Type must extend a type that may or may not include the compare method. In my function, I will check whether the compare method exists on the value parameter and call if it does, or use a generic function (that uses < and ===) if it does not.
The definition of bsearch() does not produce any warnings or errors, but attempts to invoke it from my unit test does:
class Person {
name: string;
length: number;
compare: Comparator<Person>; // What goes here?
}
describe('Utils tests', () => {
const arrayOfInt = [10, 20, 30, 40];
const arrayOfStr = ['Alfred', 'Bob', 'Chuck'];
const arrayOfPersons: Person = [
{name:'Barney',length:2},
{name:'Fred',length:6}
{name:'Wilma',length:12},
];
it('can find integer in an array of integers', () => {
let search_for = 30;
let result = Utils.bsearch(arrayOfInt, search_for)
expect(result).to.be.equal(2);
});
it('can find string in an array of strings', () => {
let search_for = 'Bob';
let result = Utils.bsearch(arrayOfStr, search_for)
expect(result).to.be.equal(1);
});
it('can find Person in an array of Persons', () => {
// This one uses Person.compare() to do the search.
// The previous two tests used the fallback technique.
let search_for = {name:'Fred',length:6};
let result = Utils.bsearch(arrayOfPersons, search_for)
expect(result).to.be.equal(1);
});
});
The error message is:
TS2345: Argument of type 'number[]' is not assignable to parameter of type '{ compare?: Comparator | undefined; }[]'.   Type 'number' has no properties in common with type '{ compare?: Comparator | undefined; }'.
I would appreciate pointers to other techniques if there is a better way to accomplish this (I'm still a TypeScript newbie).
Your generic is:
Type extends { compare?: Comparator }
Which means that Type must fulfill { compare?: Comparator } type. While passing object value, for example { name: 'Barney', length: 2, comparator: /* snip */}, is obviously correct, it's not the case for primitives like 10 and Bob. You need to include information about primitive types in the generic, for example:
Type extends ({ compare?: Comparator }) | number | string
Also, you'd probably want to enrich a bit the object typing:
{[key: string]: unknown, compare?: () => void } | number | string
Because, based on your description, you'd also want to accept also objects that do not have compare function in their type signature at all. If it does sound strange, I recommend reading about excess property checking.

How to create Map of tuples in ReasonML?

I'm very new to Reason. I have a tuple containing two strings and want to make a Map where the keys are of that tuple type.
How should I go about doing it?
Map.Make is a functor, which means it expects a module as its argument, not a type. The module argument must conform to the OrderedType signature:
module type OrderedType = {
type t
let compare : (t, t) => int
}
In your case that would be something like:
module TuplesMap = Map.Make({
type t = (string, string)
let compare = (a, b) => ...
});
Then all you need to do is to implement the compare function.

instance::class.java vs. instance.javaClass

Given Kotlin 1.1. For an instance of some class, instance::class.java and instance.javaClass seem to be nearly equivalent:
val i = 0
println(i::class.java) // int
println(i.javaClass) // int
println(i::class.java === i.javaClass) // true
There is a subtle difference, however:
val c1: Class<out Int> = i::class.java
val c2: Class<Int> = i.javaClass
instance.javaClass is negligibly shorter, but instance::class.java is more consistent with the corresponding usage on a type. While you can use .javaClass on some types, the result may not be what you would expect:
println(i::class.java === Int::class.java) // true
println(i.javaClass === Int.javaClass) // false
println(Int::class.java === Int.javaClass) // false
println(Int.javaClass) // class kotlin.jvm.internal.IntCompanionObject
So, I would argue that it is better to never use .javaClass for more consistency. Are there any arguments against that?
The difference in these two constructs is that, for an expression foo of static (declared or inferred) type Foo:
foo.javaClass is typed as Class<Foo>
foo::class.java is typed as Class<out Foo>
In fact, the latter is more precise, because the actual value that foo evaluates to can be an instance of not Foo itself but one of its subtypes (and it's exactly what's denoted by the covariant out Foo).
As #marstran correctly noted in the comment on the question, .javaClass once was considered to be deprecated (see the Kotlin 1.1 RC announcement) because it can break type safety (see below), but it was afterwards left as-is because it was widely used and replacing it with the alternative of ::class.java would require adding explicit unchecked casts in the code.
Also, see the comments under this answer: (link)
Please note that Int.javaClass does not denote the type of Int but instead is the Java class of the Int's companion object. Whereas Int::class.java is an unbound class reference and denotes the type. To get it with .javaClass, you need to call it on an Int instance, e.g. 1.javaClass.
Here's how exactly .javaClass can break type safety. This code compiles but breaks at runtime:
open class Foo
class Bar : Foo() {
val baz: Int = 0
}
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
val someFoo: Foo = Bar()
val anotherFoo: Foo = Foo()
val someFooProperty: KProperty1<in Foo, *> = // 'in Foo' is bad
someFoo.javaClass.kotlin.memberProperties.first()
val someValue = someFooProperty.get(anotherFoo)
}
This example uses kotlin-reflect.
That's because someFooProperty represents a property of Bar, not Foo, but since it was obtained from someFoo.javaClass (Class<Foo> then converted to KClass<Foo>) the compiler allows us to use it with the in Foo projection.

Is there a way to filter out null Any? values in Kotlin Map?

I'm trying to think of a function that would allow a Map<String, Any?> object to be treated as Map<String,Any> through type inference through applying a single function.
I am pretty new to the transformation functions in Kotlin and have tried the various filter and filterValues filterNot on the map like so:
val input = mapOf(Pair("first",null))
val filtered: Map<String,Any> = input.filter { it.value!=null }
it also fails to compile with any of these
input.filterValues { it!=null }
input.filterNot { it.value==null }
input.filterNot { it.value is Nothing }
The closest I can seem to get is applying multiple steps or having an Unchecked cast warning. I would have thought that filtering the values to be !=null would suffice. My only other thought is that it's due to the generics?
The filter functions return a Map with the same generic types as the original map. To transform the type of the value, you need to map the values from Any? to Any, by doing a cast. The compiler can't know that the predicate you pass to filter() makes sure all the values of the filtered map are non-null, so it can't use type inference. So your best et is to use
val filtered: Map<String, Any> = map.filterValues { it != null }.mapValues { it -> it.value as Any }
or to define a function doing the filtering and the transformation in a single pass, and thus be able to use smart casts:
fun filterNotNullValues(map: Map<String, Any?>): Map<String, Any> {
val result = LinkedHashMap<String, Any>()
for ((key, value) in map) {
if (value != null) result[key] = value
}
return result
}
The compiler just doesn't perform type analysis deep enough to infer that, for example, input.filterValues { it != null } filters out null values from the map and thus the resulting map should have a not-null value type. Basically there can be arbitrary predicate with arbitrary meaning in terms of types and nullability.
There is no special case function for filtering null values out of a map in the stdlib (like there is .filterIsInstance<T>() for iterables). Therefore your easiest solution is to apply an unchecked cast thus telling the compiler that you are sure about the type safety not being violated:
#Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
fun <K, V> Map<K, V?>.filterNotNullValues() = filterValues { it != null } as Map<K, V>
See also: another question with a similar problem about is-check.
This yields no warnings kotlin 1.5.30
listOfNotNull(
nullableString?.let { "key1" to it },
nullableString?.let { "key2" to it }
).toMap()

Is it possible to have a dictionary with a mutable array as the value in Swift

I am trying to do this:
var dictArray = [String:[String]]()
dictArray["test"] = [String]()
dictArray["test"]! += "hello"
But I am getting the weird error NSString is not a subtype of 'DictionaryIndex<String, [(String)]>'.
I just want to be able to add objects to an array inside a dictionary.
Update: Looks like Apple considers this a "known issue" in Swift, implying it will work as expected eventually. From the Xcode 6 Beta 4 release notes:
...Similarly, you cannot modify the underlying value of a mutable
optional value, either conditionally or within a force-unwrap:
tableView.sortDescriptors! += NSSortDescriptor(key: "creditName", ascending: true)
Workaround: Test the optional value explicitly and then assign the
result back:
if let window = NSApplication.sharedApplication.mainWindow {
window.title = "Currently experiencing problems"
}
tableView.sortDescriptors = tableView.sortDescriptors!
You can only do this
var dictArray = [String:[String]]()
dictArray["test"] = [String]()
var arr = dictArray["test"]!;
arr += "hello"
dictArray["test"] = arr
because dictArray["test"] give you Optional<[String]> which is immutable
6> var test : [String]? = [String]()
test: [String]? = 0 values
7> test += "hello"
<REPL>:7:1: error: '[String]?' is not identical to 'UInt8'
append also won't work due to the same reason, Optional is immutable
3> dictArray["test"]!.append("hello")
<REPL>:3:18: error: '(String, [(String)])' does not have a member named 'append'
dictArray["test"]!.append("hello")
^ ~~~~~~
BTW the error message is horrible...
You may use NSMutableArray instead of [String] as a value type for your dictionary:
var dictArray: [String: NSMutableArray] = [:]
dictArray["test"] = NSMutableArray()
dictArray["test"]!.addObject("hello")
This is still an issue in Swift 3. At least I was able to create method that can handle it for you.
func appendOrCreate(newValue: Any, toArrayAt key: String, in existingDictionary: inout [AnyHashable:Any]) {
var mutableArray = [Any]()
if let array = existingDictionary[key] as? [Any]{
//include existing values in mutableArray before adding new value
for existingValue in array {
mutableArray.append(existingValue)
}
}
//append new value
mutableArray.append(newValue)
//save updated array in original dictionary
existingDictionary[key] = mutableArray
}
The problem is that we want class semantics here but have to use structs. If you put class objects into the dictionary, you get what you want!
So, if you have¹ to have mutable values, you can wrap them in a class and perform updates with a closure:
class MutableWrapper<T> {
var rawValue: T
init(_ val: T) {
self.rawValue = val
}
func update(_ with: (inout T) -> Void) {
with(&self.rawValue)
}
}
Example:
func foo() {
var dict = [String: MutableWrapper<[String]>]()
dict["bar"] = MutableWrapper(["rum"])
dict["bar"]?.update({$0.append("gin")})
print(dict["bar"]!.rawValue)
// > ["rum", "gin"]
}
For what it's worth, I do not see a way to keep caller and wrapper in sync. Even if we declare init(_ val: inout T) we will end up with a copy in rawValue.
Performance is not necessarily an issue since the compiler optimizes structs heavily. I'd benchmark any mutable solution against what looks like lots of copy-updates in the code.
Since Swift 4.1 you can provide a default value to the subscript which allows you to solve this quite naturally now:
dictArray["test", default: []].append("hello")

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