F# recursive pattern matching method overrides argument - recursion

When building snake in an F# console app, I used the following code to update the console window.
//Sets the next character in accumulator
//(i, j) are the coordinates of the game
//(px, py) are the coordinates of snake's head
let rec setConsoleChar acc i j px py =
if i=px && j=py then
setConsoleChar (acc+"H") (i+1) j px py
else
match i, j with
| ...
But I couldn't help but wonder whether the comparison of (px, py) could be in the pattern matching block as well. I tried using the following code, however when hit, the (i, j) pointers changed pointing to (px, py) which resulted in a faulty return value containing nothing but 'H's.
match i, j with
| px, py -> setConsoleChar (acc+"H") (i+1) j px py
| ...
PS: if anyone knows a way to simplify things, please do share.

The px and py inside the match aren't the one given in argument.
They are the matched i and j and px and py are just the name you choose to give them (shadowing the original px and py)
And by consequence it's i and j disguised in px and py you give to the recursive call instead of the "real" px and py.

There are some comments and an answer that you should take into account. That said, when the conditions are complicated and you end up using a lot of when guards, it might be a good idea to look into active patterns. See below for an example that factors out the equality check. It has the advantage of making the code more readable (usually).
let (|MATCH|NOMATCH|) (i,j,px,py) =
if i = px && j = py then MATCH
else
NOMATCH
let setConsoleChar (i,j,px,py) =
match (i,j,px,py) with
| MATCH -> printfn "%A %A %A %A" (i+1) j px py
| NOMATCH -> printfn "%A" "Wot???"
setConsoleChar (1,2,3, 4)
setConsoleChar (1, 0, 1, 0)
"Wot???" val it : unit = ()
2 0 1 0 val it : unit = ()

Related

Functionally idiomatic FFT

I've written the this radix-2 FFT with the goal of making it functionally idiomatic without sacrificing too much performance:
let reverse x bits =
let rec reverse' x bits y =
match bits with
| 0 -> y
| _ -> ((y <<< 1) ||| (x &&& 1))
|> reverse' (x >>> 1) (bits - 1)
reverse' x bits 0
let radix2 (vector: Complex[]) (direction: int) =
let z = vector.Length
let depth = floor(Math.Log(double z, 2.0)) |> int
if (1 <<< depth) <> z then failwith "Vector length is not a power of 2"
// Complex roots of unity; "twiddle factors"
let unity: Complex[] =
let xpn = float direction * Math.PI / double z
Array.Parallel.init<Complex> (z/2) (fun i ->
Complex.FromPolarCoordinates(1.0, (float i) * xpn))
// Permutes elements of input vector via bit-reversal permutation
let pvec = Array.Parallel.init z (fun i -> vector.[reverse i depth])
let outerLoop (vec: Complex[]) =
let rec recLoop size =
if size <= z then
let mid, step = size / 2, z / size
let rec inrecLoop i =
if i < z then
let rec bottomLoop idx k =
if idx < i + mid then
let temp = vec.[idx + mid] * unity.[k]
vec.[idx + mid] <- (vec.[idx] - temp)
vec.[idx] <- (vec.[idx] + temp)
bottomLoop (idx + 1) (k + step)
bottomLoop i 0
inrecLoop (i + size)
inrecLoop 0
recLoop (size * 2)
recLoop 2
vec
outerLoop pvec
The outerLoop segment is the biggest nested tail-recursive mess I have ever written. I replicated the algorithm in the Wikipedia article for the Cooley-Tukey algorithm, but the only functional constructs I could think to implement using higher-order functions result in massive hits to both performance and memory efficiency. Are there other solutions that would yield the same results without resulting in massive slow-downs, while still being idiomatic?
I'm not an expert on how the algorithm works, so there might be a nice functional implementation, but it is worth noting that using a localised mutation is perfectly idiomatic in F#.
Your radix2 function is functional from the outside - it takes vector array as an input, never mutates it, creates a new array pvec which it then initializes (using some mutation along the way) and then returns it. This is a similar pattern to what built-in functions like Array.map use (which initializes a new array, mutates it and then returns it). This is often a sensible way of doing things, because some algorithms are better written using mutation.
In this case, it's perfectly reasonable to also use local mutable variables and loops. Doing that will make your code more readable compared to the tail-recursive version. I have not tested this, but my naive translation of your outerLoop function would just be to use three nested loops - something like this:
let mutable size = 2
while size <= z do
let mid, step = size / 2, z / size
let mutable i = 0
while i < z do
for j in 0 .. mid - 1 do
let idx, k = i + j, step * j
let temp = pvec.[idx + mid] * unity.[k]
pvec.[idx + mid] <- (pvec.[idx] - temp)
pvec.[idx] <- (pvec.[idx] + temp)
i <- i + size
size <- size * 2
This might not be exactly right (I did this just be refactoring your code), but I think it's actually more idiomatic than using complex nested tail-recursive functions in this case.

implementing an algorithm to transform a real number to a continued fraction in #F

i am trying to implement a recursive function which takes a float and returns a list of ints representing the continued fraction representation of the float (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continued_fraction) In general i think i understand how the algorithm is supposed to work. its fairly simply. What i have so far is this:
let rec float2cfrac (x : float) : int list =
let q = int x
let r = x - (float q)
if r = 0.0 then
[]
else
q :: (float2cfrac (1.0 / r ))
the problem is with the base case obviously. It seems the value r never does reduce to 0.0 instead the algorithm keeps on returning values which are the likes of 0.0.....[number]. I am just not sure how to perform the comparison. How exactly should i go about it. The algorithm the function is based on says the base case is 0, so i naturally interpret this as 0.0. I dont see any other way. Also, do note that this is for an assignment where i am explicitly asked to implement the algorithm recursively. Does anyone have some guidance for me? It would be much appreciated
It seems the value r never does reduce to 0.0 instead the algorithm keeps on returning values which are the likes of 0.0.....[number].
This is a classic issue with floating point comparisons. You need to use some epsilon tolerance value for comparisons, because r will never reach exactly 0.0:
let epsilon = 0.0000000001
let rec float2cfrac (x : float) : int list =
let q = int x
let r = x - (float q)
if r < epsilon then
[]
else
q :: (float2cfrac (1.0 / r))
> float2cfrac 4.23
val it : int list = [4; 4; 2; 1]
See this MSDN documentation for more.
You could define a helper function for this:
let withinTolerance (x: float) (y: float) e =
System.Math.Abs(x - y) < e
Also note your original solution isn't tail-recursive, so it consumes stack as it recurses and could overflow the stack. You could refactor it such that a float can be unfolded without recursion:
let float2cfrac (x: float) =
let q = int x
let r = x - (float q)
if withinTolerance r 0.0 epsilon then None
else Some (q, (1.0 / r))
4.23 |> Seq.unfold float2cfrac // seq [4; 4; 2; 1]

Unexpected output type

I am doing practice with F#. I am trying to create a simple program capable to find me out a couple of prime numbers that, summed together, equal a natural number input. It is the Goldbach conjecture. A single couple of primes will be enough. We will assume the input to be a even number.
I first created a function to check if a number is prime:
let rec isPrime (x: int) (i: int) :bool =
match x % i with
| _ when float i > sqrt (float x) -> true
| 0 -> false
| _ -> isPrime x (i + 1)
Then, I am trying to develop a function that (a) looks for prime numbers, (b) compare their sum with the input 'z' and (c) returns a tuple when it finds the two numbers. The function should not be correct yet, but I would get the reason behind this problem:
let rec sumPrime (z: int) (j: int) (k: int) :int * int =
match isPrime j, isPrime k with
| 0, 0 when j + k > z -> (0, 0)
| 0, 0 -> sumPrime (j + 1) (k + 1)
| _, 0 -> sumPrime j (k + 1)
| 0, _ -> sumPrime (j + 1) k
| _, _ -> if j + k < z then
sumPrime (j + 1) k
elif j + k = z then
(j, k)
The problem: even if I specified that the output should be a tuple :int * int the compiler protests, claiming that the expected output should be of type bool. When in trouble, I usually refer to F# for fun and profit, that i love, but this time I cannot find out the problem. Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.
Your code has three problems that I've spotted:
Your isPrime returns a bool (as you've specified), but your match expression in sumPrime is matching against integers (in F#, the Boolean value false is not the same as the integer value 0). Your match expression should look like:
match isPrime j, isPrime k with
| false, false when j + k > z -> (0, 0)
| false, false -> ...
| true, false -> ...
| false, true -> ...
| true, true -> ...
You have an if...elif expression in your true, true case, but there's no final else. By default, the final else of an if expression returns (), the unit type. So once you fix your first problem, you'll find that F# is complaining about a type mismatch between int * int and unit. You'll need to add an else condition to your final match case to say what to do if j + k > z.
You are repeatedly calling your sumPrime function, which takes three parameters, with just two parameters. That is perfectly legal in F#, since it's a curried language: calling sumPrime with two parameters produces the type int -> int * int: a function that takes a single int and returns a tuple of ints. But that's not what you're actually trying to do. Make sure you specify a value for z in all your recursive calls.
With those three changes, you should probably see your compiler errors go away.

How can I correctly return produced sequences in an F# recursive algorithm

As a tutoring exercise I implemented the Knights Tour algorithm in CS and worked fine, after trying to port it to F# I cannot go past the part where I aggregate the resulting sequences of the Knight's path to return to the caller.
The code is this:
let offsets = [|(-2,-1);(-2,1);(-1,-2);(-1,2);(1,-2);(1,2);(2,-1);(2,1)|];
let squareToPair sqr =
(sqr % 8, sqr / 8)
let pairToSquare (col, row) =
row * 8 + col
// Memoizing function taken from Don Syme (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dsyme/archive/2007/05/31/a-sample-of-the-memoization-pattern-in-f.aspx)
let memoize f =
let cache = ref Map.empty
fun x ->
match (!cache).TryFind(x) with
| Some res -> res
| None ->
let res = f x
cache := (!cache).Add(x,res)
res
let getNextMoves square =
let (col, row) = squareToPair square
offsets
|> Seq.map (fun (colOff, rowOff) -> (col + colOff, row + rowOff))
|> Seq.filter (fun (c, r) -> c >= 0 && c < 8 && r >= 0 && r < 8) // make sure we don't include squares out of the board
|> Seq.map (fun (c, r) -> pairToSquare (c, r))
let getNextMovesMemoized = memoize getNextMoves
let squareToBoard square =
1L <<< square
let squareToBoardMemoized = memoize squareToBoard
let getValidMoves square board =
getNextMovesMemoized square
|> Seq.filter (fun sqr -> ((squareToBoardMemoized sqr) &&& board) = 0L)
// gets all valid moves from a particular square and board state sorted by moves which have less next possible moves
let getValidMovesSorted square board =
getValidMoves square board
|> Seq.sortBy (fun sqr -> (getValidMoves sqr board) |> Seq.length )
let nextMoves = getValidMovesSorted
let sqrToBoard = squareToBoardMemoized
let findPath square =
let board = sqrToBoard square
let rec findPathRec brd sqr sequence = seq {
match brd with
| -1L -> yield sequence
| _ -> for m in nextMoves sqr do yield! findPathRec (brd ||| (sqrToBoard m)) m m::sequence
}
findPathRec board square [square]
let solution = findPath ((4,4) |> pairToSquare) |> Seq.take 1
I am getting the following error:
The type '(int64 -> seq<int>)' is not a type whose values can be enumerated with this syntax, i.e. is not compatible with either seq<_>, IEnumerable<_> or IEnumerable and does not have a GetEnumerator method (using external F# compiler)
I could probably be misunderstanding how this work, but I would expect the results of nextMoves to be seq<_>. Is there a better way of doing this? Am I missing something? Any recommended patterns?
Thanks in advance!
So the problem is that nextMoves has type
val nextMoves : (int -> int64 -> seq<int>)
because it is identical to getValidMovesSorted. You need to supply the board argument
nextMoves is just getValidMovesSorted which takes two arguments (square and board) - now in findPath you only provided one and I guess you wanted to write this
nextMoves sqr board
but then there are more issues in the rest of the code and it's really hard to figure out what you are trying to do
I think you wanted to do something like this:
let findPath square =
let board = sqrToBoard square
let rec findPathRec brd sqr (sequence : int list) =
match brd with
| -1L -> sequence
| _ ->
[
for m in nextMoves sqr board do
yield! findPathRec (brd ||| (sqrToBoard m)) m (m::sequence)
]
this will compile (but will result in an stack-overflow exception)

Reversing an int in OCaml

I'm teaching myself OCaml, and the main resources I'm using for practice are some problem sets Cornell has made available from their 3110 class. One of the problems is to write a function to reverse an int (i.e: 1234 -> 4321, -1234 -> -4321, 2 -> 2, -10 -> -1 etc).
I have a working solution, but I'm concerned that it isn't exactly idiomatic OCaml:
let rev_int (i : int) : int =
let rec power cnt value =
if value / 10 = 0 then cnt
else power (10 * cnt) (value/10) in
let rec aux pow temp value =
if value <> 0 then aux (pow/10) (temp + (value mod 10 * pow)) (value / 10)
else temp in
aux (power 1 i) 0 i
It works properly in all cases as far as I can tell, but it just seems seriously "un-OCaml" to me, particularly because I'm running through the length of the int twice with two inner-functions. So I'm just wondering whether there's a more "OCaml" way to do this.
I would say, that the following is idiomatic enough.
(* [rev x] returns such value [y] that its decimal representation
is a reverse of decimal representation of [x], e.g.,
[rev 12345 = 54321] *)
let rev n =
let rec loop acc n =
if n = 0 then acc
else loop (acc * 10 + n mod 10) (n / 10) in
loop 0 n
But as Jeffrey said in a comment, your solution is quite idiomatic, although not the nicest one.
Btw, my own style, would be to write like this:
let rev n =
let rec loop acc = function
| 0 -> acc
| n -> loop (acc * 10 + n mod 10) (n / 10) in
loop 0 n
As I prefer pattern matching to if/then/else. But this is a matter of mine personal taste.
I can propose you some way of doing it:
let decompose_int i =
let r = i / 10 in
i - (r * 10) , r
This function allows me to decompose the integer as if I had a list.
For instance 1234 is decomposed into 4 and 123.
Then we reverse it.
let rec rev_int i = match decompose_int i with
| x , 0 -> 10 , x
| h , t ->
let (m,r) = rev_int t in
(10 * m, h * m + r)
The idea here is to return 10, 100, 1000... and so on to know where to place the last digit.
What I wanted to do here is to treat them as I would treat lists, decompose_int being a List.hd and List.tl equivalent.

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