I am trying to Implement the function makeNeg() that takes a list of numbers and a number representing an index as a parameter and changes the list item at the specified index to be negative. If the number at the specified index is already negative, the function shouldn't change the list. The function should verify that the index is correct for the list. If the index isn't valid for the list, the function shouldn't change the list.
I have been trying to solve this problem but I can not find the way to start it. Can someone guide me in the right direction? Thank you for your help!
You will get some trouble with accessing mylist[n], even after checking the list length...
First you can compare the length of the list with your index:
def MkNeg(mylist, n):
if len(mylist)<n:
print ("Error, this index does not exist")
The thing is, you can't access any value of a list item that doesn't exist. Even if it's in an if/elif/else position, so that it won't be executed. What I'm saying is
def MkNeg(mylist, n):
if len(mylist)<n:
print ("Error, this index does not exist")
elif mylist[n]>0:
#do ur stuff
this doesn't work, because the compiler sees a reference that doesn't exist.
That's why you need to try it:
def MkNeg(mylist, n):
try:
if mylist[n]>0:
mylist[n]=-mylist[n]
except IndexError:
print ("Index doesn't exist for this list.")
return mylist
I didn't check the length, because you will get an IndexError if the index doesn't exist.
What try does is trying to execute the command. If it fails, you can handle the further execution with except. If not, everything is fine.
Related
I am used to implement a recursive function that checks if a given list L is written in a reverse-order:
orderIsReverse(L):-
[X|Q]=L,
[XP|_]=Q,
(X<XP -> false; orderIsReverse(Q)),
true.
However after compiling the code and prompting orderIsReverse([3,2,1]) within SWI Prolog, I get false returned.
What's wrong with the code?
You need to handle the case when the input list is empty (and also when it contains one single element, as you need two for a comparison).
orderIsReverse([X1,X2|L]):-
X1 > X2, orderIsReverse([X2|L]).
orderIsReverse([_]).
orderIsReverse([]).
Update: fixed the logic.
I'm learning Erlang from the very basic and have a problem with a tail recursive function. I want my function to receive a list and return a new list where element = element + 1. For example, if I send [1,2,3,4,5] as an argument, it must return [2,3,4,5,6]. The problem is that when I send that exact arguments, it returns [[[[[[]|2]|3]|4]|5]|6].
My code is this:
-module(test).
-export([test/0]).
test()->
List = [1,2,3,4,5],
sum_list_2(List).
sum_list_2(List)->
sum_list_2(List,[]).
sum_list_2([Head|Tail], Result)->
sum_list_2(Tail,[Result|Head +1]);
sum_list_2([], Result)->
Result.
However, if I change my function to this:
sum_list_2([Head|Tail], Result)->
sum_list_2(Tail,[Head +1|Result]);
sum_list_2([], Result)->
Result.
It outputs [6,5,4,3,2] which is OK. Why the function doesn't work the other way around([Result|Head+1] outputing [2,3,4,5,6])?
PS: I know this particular problem is solved with list comprehensions, but I want to do it with recursion.
For this kind of manipulation you should use list comprehension:
1> L = [1,2,3,4,5,6].
[1,2,3,4,5,6]
2> [X+1 || X <- L].
[2,3,4,5,6,7]
it is the fastest and most idiomatic way to do it.
A remark on your fist version: [Result|Head +1] builds an improper list. the construction is always [Head|Tail] where Tail is a list. You could use Result ++ [Head+1] but this would perform a copy of the Result list at each recursive call.
You can also look at the code of lists:map/2 which is not tail recursive, but it seems that actual optimization of the compiler work well in this case:
inc([H|T]) -> [H+1|inc(T)];
inc([]) -> [].
[edit]
The internal and hidden representation of a list looks like a chained list. Each element contains a term and a reference to the tail. So adding an element on top of the head does not need to modify the existing list, but adding something at the end needs to mutate the last element (the reference to the empty list is replaced by a reference to the new sublist). As variables are not mutable, it needs to make a modified copy of the last element which in turn needs to mutate the previous element of the list and so on. As far as I know, the optimizations of the compiler do not make the decision to mutate variable (deduction from the the documentation).
The function that produces the result in reverse order is a natural consequence of you adding the newly incremented element to the front of the Result list. This isn't uncommon, and the recommended "fix" is to simply list:reverse/1 the output before returning it.
Whilst in this case you could simply use the ++ operator instead of the [H|T] "cons" operator to join your results the other way around, giving you the desired output in the correct order:
sum_list_2([Head|Tail], Result)->
sum_list_2(Tail, Result ++ [Head + 1]);
doing so isn't recommended because the ++ operator always copies it's (increasingly large) left hand operand, causing the algorithm to operate in O(n^2) time instead of the [Head + 1 | Tail] version's O(n) time.
I'm new to Erlang and this is a question I didn't get a proper answer surfing through the internet for several days.
I want to code something as shown in following code segment (consider it as pseudo code) :
Check =false;
lists:foreach(fun(Row) ->
if somecondition ->
Check = true;
true -> ok
end
end, RowList)
At the end I need to get the value of variable Check. As in Erlang we can't re-"assign" a value to a variable, how can I get the value of Check at the end of the code block shown above ?
I think you can use this lists:any/2.
http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/lists.html#any-2
lists:any(fun(Row) -> somecondition end, RowList).
The generic way to go through a list and modify a value for each element is to use lists:foldl/3 http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/lists.html#foldl-3. For your specific example it is easier and shorter to use lists:any/2 as above.
Is it possible to return multiple values from a function?
I want to pass the return values into another function, and I wonder if I can avoid having to explode the array into multiple values
My problem?
I am upgrading Capybara for my project, and I realized, thanks to CSS 'contains' selector & upgrade of Capybara, that the statement below will no longer work
has_selector?(:css, "#rightCol:contains(\"#{page_name}\")")
I want to get it working with minimum effort (there are a lot of such cases), So I came up with the idea of using Nokogiri to convert the css to xpath. I wanted to write it so that the above function can become
has_selector? xpath(:css, "#rightCol:contains(\"#{page_name}\")")
But since xpath has to return an array, I need to actually write this
has_selector?(*xpath(:css, "#rightCol:contains(\"#{page_name}\")"))
Is there a way to get the former behavior?
It can be assumed that right now xpath func is like the below, for brevity.
def xpath(*a)
[1, 2]
end
You cannot let a method return multiple values. In order to do what you want, you have to change has_selector?, maybe something like this:
alias old_has_selector? :has_selector?
def has_selector? arg
case arg
when Array then old_has_selector?(*arg)
else old_has_selector?(arg)
end
end
Ruby has limited support for returning multiple values from a function. In particular a returned Array will get "destructured" when assigning to multiple variables:
def foo
[1, 2]
end
a, b = foo
a #=> 1
b #=> 2
However in your case you need the splat (*) to make it clear you're not just passing the array as the first argument.
If you want a cleaner syntax, why not just write your own wrapper:
def has_xpath?(xp)
has_selector?(*xpath(:css, xp))
end
Using Cypher 1.8, there are some functions working on collections and returning a single element:
HEAD( expression ):
START a=node(2)
RETURN a.array, head(a.array)
LAST( expression ):
START a=node(2)
RETURN a.array, last(a.array)
However, I could not find a function to return the nth element of a collection. What am I missing?
There's no good way to do that at the moment. Please submit a feature request at https://github.com/neo4j/neo4j
I've seen people do head(tail(tail(tail(coll)))), and while it's probably acceptably fast, it still makes me a little ill to see in a query, especially if you're talking about the 17th element or worse.
Example:
http://console.neo4j.org/r/bbo6o4
Update:
Here's a way to do it using reduce and range. It makes it so you can give a parameter for nth at least, even though it still makes me cringe:
start n=node(*)
with collect(n) as allnodes
return head(reduce(acc=allnodes, x in range(1,3): tail(acc)));
http://console.neo4j.org/r/8erfup
Update 2 (8/31/2013):
The new collection syntax is now merged into 2.0 and will be theoretically be a part of M05! So, you'll be able to do:
start n=node(*)
with collect(n) as allnodes
return allnodes[3]; // or slices, like [1..3]
I'll add a link to the snapshot documentation when it gets updated.
I've just come across this old question, and for the benefit of anyone else recently coming across it... it seems the list support has improved.
From the Cypher 4 list docs:
Cypher has comprehensive support for lists.
^ Sidenote: I think that's list comprehensions pun? ;-)
They go on to give an example showing how you'd access the n'th element of a list:
To access individual elements in the list, we use the square brackets again. This will extract from the start index and up to but not including the end index.
... we’ll use the range function. It gives you a list containing all numbers between given start and end numbers. Range is inclusive in both ends.
RETURN range(0, 10)[3]
^ returns "3"
Currently, with the release of APOC Procedures 3.3.0.2 you can use aggregation functions.
This way, you can do thinks like:
create (:Node {node_id : 1}),
(:Node {node_id : 2}),
(:Node {node_id : 3});
match(n:Node)
with n order by n.node_id
// returns {"node_id":2}
return apoc.agg.nth(n, 1);
or:
match(n:Node)
with n order by n.node_id
// returns {"node_id":1}
// you can also use apoc.agg.last
return apoc.agg.first(n);
To work with lists UNWIND the list first:
with ['fist', 'second', 'third'] as list
unwind list as value
// returns 'second'
return apoc.agg.nth(value, 1);