When COND is given only one test clause and nothing else at all it always returns the test result:
CL-USER> (cond (t))
T
CL-USER> (cond ((> 5 10)))
NIL
Isn't COND just a way to write IF statements?
This doesn't hold for this as when rewriting COND with test only:
CL-USER> (if (> 5 1))
error while parsing arguments to DESTRUCTURING-BIND:
too few elements in
((> 5 1))
to satisfy lambda list
(SB-IMPL::TEST SB-IMPL::THEN &OPTIONAL SB-IMPL::ELSE):
between 2 and 3 expected, but got 1
If it is this way then how does COND exactly transform every clause into IF version?
When COND is given only one test clause and nothing else at all it always returns the test result:
That's right. According to the HyperSpec entry on cond:
results---the values of the forms in the first clause whose test-form yields true, or the primary value of the test-form if there are no forms in that clause, or else nil if no test-form yields true.
Isn't COND just a way to write IF statements?
Well, cond is declared to be a macro, and if to be a special operator, so you can think of it that way, although the expansion of cond isn't defined specifically. But if is defined with syntax that requires a then-part, whereas cond isn't. Here's what a cond clause with no forms expands to (in SBCL):
CL-USER> (pprint (macroexpand '(cond ((+ 2 3)))))
(LET ((#:G1013 (+ 2 3)))
(IF #:G1013
#:G1013
(COND)))
The value of the form is saved in a value and then used as the then-part. When there are forms in the clause, they're wrapped in a progn (which returns the value of its last form):
CL-USER> (pprint (macroexpand
'(cond
((= 2 3) 42 78)
((+ 2 3))
((= 4 5) (print 'something-else)))))
(IF (= 2 3)
(PROGN 42 78)
(COND ((+ 2 3)) ((= 4 5) (PRINT 'SOMETHING-ELSE))))
Related
This is what ive tried till now, but im getting some errors and im kinda confused
What is want to do is:
For example calling (sub-list((2 3 4 5 6) 2 3))
will result in a recursive function like
x = 1,(sub-list('(3 4 5 6) 2 3))
x = 2, cons (car ls) (sub-list((4 5 6) 2 3))
x = 3 ,cons (car ls) (sub-list((5 6) 2 3))
x = 4 , nil since x is now greater than to.
and it should backtrack to return (4 5) something like that
(defvar *x* 1)
(defun sub-list(ls from to)
(cond
((<= *x* from) (sub-list((cdr ls) from to)))
((<= from *x* to)
(let (*x* (+ *x* 1))
cons a (sub-list((cdr ls) from to)))))
((> *x* to) nil)))
As a general recommendation, using a global and special variable to track internal state is not recommended.
As #coredump pointed out in a comment, Sublist in Lisp has an answer pointing in the right direction.
To avoid the special variable, you can (in principle) change the start and end index (as pointed out by #ScottHunter).
This means that you can change your "start accumulating" from (<= *x* from) to (<= from 0) and your "end accumulating" to (<= to 0).
This also requires changing each recursive call to be something like (sub-list (cdr list) (1- from) (1- to)) (and gets rid of the bug in the initial skip phase, where you are not incrementing *x*).
I'm trying to get the hang of recursion in scheme. I put together a Fibinachi function and it keeps returning unspecified instead of a number. How do I make this function return a number and to unspecified?
(define (F n)
(if (= n 0)
0)
(if (= n 1)
1)
(if (< n 2)
(+
(F (- n 1))
(F (- n 2)))))
(display (F 5))
(newline)
The function returns
#<unspecified>
I'm using guile (GNU Guile) 2.0.13.
The issue here is that your code is:
(begin
(if a 1)
(if b 2)
(if c 3))
What is wrong with this? The value of that will be unspecified except if c is true.
Why? The value of each if is unspecified when the condition is false. The begin returns the value of the last expression.
Where did the begin come from you might ask as it didn't appear in my code? To make it easier every lambda and define contains an implicit begin which is why your code was even accepted for execution.
You should use either nested ifs or a cond form:
(if a 1
(if b 2
(if c 3)))
(cond (a 1)
(b 2)
(c 3))
So i was asked to do a function i LISP that calculates the average of any given numbers. The way i was asked to do this was by using the &rest parameter. so i came up with this :
(defun average (a &rest b)
(cond ((null a) nil)
((null b) a)
(t (+ (car b) (average a (cdr b))))))
Now i know this is incorrect because the (cdr b) returns a list with a list inside so when i do (car b) it never returns an atom and so it never adds (+)
And that is my first question:
How can i call the CDR of a &rest parameter and get only one list instead of a list inside a list ?
Now there is other thing :
When i run this function and give values to the &rest, say (average 1 2 3 4 5) it gives me stackoverflow error. I traced the funcion and i saw that it was stuck in a loop, always calling the function with the (cdr b) witch is null and so it loops there.
My question is:
If i have a stopping condition: ( (null b) a) , shouldnt the program stop when b is null and add "a" to the + operation ? why does it start an infinite loop ?
EDIT: I know the function only does the + operation, i know i have to divide by the length of the b list + 1, but since i got this error i'd like to solve it first.
(defun average (a &rest b)
; ...
)
When you call this with (average 1 2 3 4) then inside the function the symbol a will be bound to 1 and the symbol b to the proper list (2 3 4).
So, inside average, (car b) will give you the first of the rest parameters, and (cdr b) will give you the rest of the rest parameters.
But when you then recursively call (average a (cdr b)), then you call it with only two arguments, no matter how many parameters where given to the function in the first place. In our example, it's the same as (average 1 '(3 4)).
More importantly, the second argument is now a list. Thus, in the second call to average, the symbols will be bound as follows:
a = 1
b = ((3 4))
b is a list with only a single element: Another list. This is why you'll get an error when passing (car b) as argument to +.
Now there is other thing : When i run this function and give values to the &rest, say (average 1 2 3 4 5) it gives me stackoverflow error. I traced the funcion and i saw that it was stuck in a loop, always calling the function with the (cdr b) witch is null and so it loops there. My question is:
If i have a stopping condition: ( (null b) a) , shouldnt the program stop when b is null and add "a" to the + operation ? why does it start an infinite loop ?
(null b) will only be truthy when b is the empty list. But when you call (average a '()), then b will be bound to (()), that is a list containing the empty list.
Solving the issue that you only pass exactly two arguments on the following calls can be done with apply: It takes the function as well as a list of parameters to call it with: (appply #'average (cons a (cdr b)))
Now tackling your original goal of writing an average function: Computing the average consists of two tasks:
Compute the sum of all elements.
Divide that with the number of all elements.
You could write your own function to recursively add all elements to solve the first part (do it!), but there's already such a function:
(+ 1 2) ; Sum of two elements
(+ 1 2 3) ; Sum of three elements
(apply #'+ '(1 2 3)) ; same as above
(apply #'+ some-list) ; Summing up all elements from some-list
Thus your average is simply
(defun average (&rest parameters)
(if parameters ; don't divide by 0 on empty list
(/ (apply #'+ parameters) (length parameters))
0))
As a final note: You shouldn't use car and cdr when working with lists. Better use the more descriptive names first and rest.
If performance is critical to you, it's probably best to fold the parameters (using reduce which might be optimized):
(defun average (&rest parameters)
(if parameters
(let ((accum
(reduce #'(lambda (state value)
(list (+ (first state) value) ;; using setf is probably even better, performance wise.
(1+ (second state))))
parameters
:initial-value (list 0 0))))
(/ (first accum) (second accum)))
0))
(Live demo)
#' is a reader macro, specifically one of the standard dispatching macro characters, and as such an abbreviation for (function ...)
Just define average*, which calls the usual average function.
(defun average* (&rest numbers)
(average numbers))
I think that Rainer Joswig's answer is pretty good advice: it's easier to first define a version that takes a simple list argument, and then define the &rest version in terms of it. This is a nice opportunity to mention spreadable arglists, though. They're a nice technique that can make your library code more convenient to use.
In most common form, the Common Lisp function apply takes a function designator and a list of arguments. You can do, for instance,
(apply 'cons '(1 2))
;;=> (1 . 2)
If you check the docs, though, apply actually accepts a spreadable arglist designator as an &rest argument. That's a list whose last element must be a list, and that represents a list of all the elements of the list except the last followed by all the elements in that final list. E.g.,
(apply 'cons 1 '(2))
;;=> (1 . 2)
because the spreadable arglist is (1 (2)), so the actual arguments (1 2). It's easy to write a utility to unspread a spreadable arglist designator:
(defun unspread-arglist (spread-arglist)
(reduce 'cons spread-arglist :from-end t))
(unspread-arglist '(1 2 3 (4 5 6)))
;;=> (1 2 3 4 5 6)
(unspread-arglist '((1 2 3)))
;;=> (1 2 3)
Now you can write an average* function that takes one of those (which, among other things, gets you the behavior, just like with apply, that you can pass a plain list):
(defun %average (args)
"Returns the average of a list of numbers."
(do ((sum 0 (+ sum (pop args)))
(length 0 (1+ length)))
((endp args) (/ sum length))))
(defun average* (&rest spreadable-arglist)
(%average (unspread-arglist spreadable-arglist)))
(float (average* 1 2 '(5 5)))
;;=> 3.25
(float (average* '(1 2 5)))
;;=> 2.66..
Now you can write average as a function that takes a &rest argument and just passes it to average*:
(defun average (&rest args)
(average* args))
(float (average 1 2 5 5))
;;=> 3.5
(float (average 1 2 5))
;;=> 2.66..
I am working on program related to the different of dealing with even numbers in C and lisp , finished my c program but still having troubles with lisp
isprime function is defined and I need help in:
define function primesinlist that returns unique prime numbers in a lis
here what i got so far ,
any help with that please?
(defun comprimento (lista)
(if (null lista)
0
(1+ (comprimento (rest lista)))))
(defun primesinlist (number-list)
(let ((result ()))
(dolist (number number-list)
(when (isprime number)
( number result)))
(nreverse result)))
You need to either flatten the argument before processing:
(defun primesinlist (number-list)
(let ((result ()))
(dolist (number (flatten number-list))
(when (isprime number)
(push number result)))
(delete-duplicates (nreverse result))))
or, if you want to avoid consing up a fresh list, flatten it as you go:
(defun primesinlist (number-list)
(let ((result ()))
(labels ((f (l)
(dolist (x l)
(etypecase x
(integer (when (isprime x)
(push x result)))
(list (f x))))))
(f number-list))
(delete-duplicates (nreverse result))))
To count distinct primes, take the length of the list returned by primesinlist.
Alternatively, you can use count-if:
(count-if #'isprime (delete-duplicates (flatten number-list)))
It sounds like you've already got a primality test implemented, but for sake of completeness, lets add a very simple one that just tries to divide a number by the numbers less than it up to its square root:
(defun primep (x)
"Very simple implementation of a primality test. Checks
for each n above 1 and below (sqrt x) whether n divides x.
Example:
(mapcar 'primep '(2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13))
;=> (T T NIL T NIL T NIL NIL NIL T NIL T)
"
(do ((sqrt-x (sqrt x))
(i 2 (1+ i)))
((> i sqrt-x) t)
(when (zerop (mod x i))
(return nil))))
Now, you need a way to flatten a potentially nested list of lists into a single list. When approaching this problem, I usually find it a bit easier to think in terms of trees built of cons-cells. Here's an efficient flattening function that returns a completely new list. That is, it doesn't share any structure with the original tree. That can be useful, especially if we want to modify the resulting structure later, without modifying the original input.
(defun flatten-tree (x &optional (tail '()))
"Efficiently flatten a tree of cons cells into
a list of all the non-NIL leafs of the tree. A completely
fresh list is returned.
Examples:
(flatten-tree nil) ;=> ()
(flatten-tree 1) ;=> (1)
(flatten-tree '(1 (2 (3)) (4) 5)) ;=> (1 2 3 4 5)
(flatten-tree '(1 () () 5)) ;=> (1 5)
"
(cond
((null x) tail)
((atom x) (list* x tail))
((consp x) (flatten-tree (car x)
(flatten-tree (cdr x) tail)))))
Now it's just a matter of flatting a list, removing the number that are not prime, and removing duplicates from that list. Common Lisp includes functions for doing these things, namely remove-if-not and remove-duplicates. Those are the "safe" versions that don't modify their input arguments. Since we know that the flattened list is freshly generated, we can use their (potentially) destructive counterparts, delete-if-not and delete-duplicates.
There's a caveat when you're removing duplicate elements, though. If you have a list like (1 3 5 3), there are two possible results that could be returned (assuming you keep all the other elements in order): (1 3 5) and (1 5 3). That is, you can either remove the the later duplicate or the earlier duplicate. In general, you have the question of "which one should be left behind?" Common Lisp, by default, removes the earlier duplicate and leaves the last occurrence. That behavior can be customized by the :from-end keyword argument. It can be nice to duplicate that behavior in your own API.
So, here's a function that puts all those considerations together.
(defun primes-in-tree (tree &key from-end)
"Flatten the tree, remove elements which are not prime numbers,
using FROM-END to determine whether earlier or later occurrences
are kept in the list.
Examples:
(primes-in-list '(2 (7 4) ((3 3) 5) 6 7))
;;=> (2 3 5 7)
(primes-in-list '(2 (7 4) ((3 3) 5) 6 7) :from-end t)
;;=> (2 7 3 5)"
;; Because FLATTEN-TREE returns a fresh list, it's OK
;; to use the destructive functions DELETE-IF-NOT and
;; DELETE-DUPLICATES.
(delete-duplicates
(delete-if-not 'primep (flatten-tree list))
:from-end from-end))
I am trying to format an arbitrary expression, say (+ 2 3), and at the same time, its result, 5.
I have the following:
(defun expr-and-result (expr)
(format t "~a returns ~a~%" expr (eval expr)))
CL-USER> (expr-and-result '(+ 2 3))
(+ 2 3) returns 5
Though it's a simple matter by using eval, I'm curious if this effect can be accomplished without it (because I heard a lot that eval is to be avoided).
I understand that quoting the argument is necessary, because otherwise the given expression will be evaluated as the first step in calling expr-and-result, and only its result could be used inside expr-and-result. Therefore, any possible solution requires the input to be quoted, right?
I thought a bit about macros but I feel like it's the wrong approach to what I am looking for.
Edit: My intent was to construct a simple test-suite, such as:
(progn
(mapcar #'expr-and-result
'((= (my-remainder 7 3) 1)
(= (my-remainder 7 3) 2)))
'end-of-tests)
Outputs:
(= (MY-REMAINDER 7 3) 1) returns T
(= (MY-REMAINDER 7 3) 2) returns NIL
END-OF-TESTS
After reading Paulo's comment, it seems that eval is the shortest and cleanest solution for my purposes.
Here is a simple macro:
(defmacro exec-and-report (form)
`(format t "~S returns ~S~%" ',form ,form))
(macroexpand '(exec-and-report (+ 1 2)))
==>
(FORMAT T "~S returns ~S~%" '(+ 1 2) (+ 1 2)) ;
T
(exec-and-report (+ 1 2))
==>
(+ 1 2) returns 3
NIL
PS. I second #Sylvester's suggestion not to reinvent the wheel