Define Piecewise Functions in Julia - julia

I have an application in which I need to define a piecewise function, IE, f(x) = g(x) for [x in some range], f(x)=h(x) for [x in some other range], ... etc.
Is there a nice way to do this in Julia? I'd rather not use if-else because it seems that I'd have to check every range for large values of x. The way that I was thinking was to construct an array of functions and an array of bounds/ranges, then when f(x) is called, do a binary search on the ranges to find the appropriate index and use the corresponding function (IE, h(x), g(x), etc.
It seems as though such a mathematically friendly language might have some functionality for this, but the documentation doesn't mention piecewise in this manner. Hopefully someone else has given this some thought, thanks!

with a Heaviside function you can do a interval function:
function heaviside(t)
0.5 * (sign(t) + 1)
end
and
function interval(t, a, b)
heaviside(t-a) - heaviside(t-b)
end
function piecewise(t)
sinc(t) .* interval(t,-3,3) + cos(t) .* interval(t, 4,7)
end
and I think it could also implement a subtype Interval, it would be much more elegant

I tried to implement a piecewise function for Julia, and this is the result:
function piecewise(x::Symbol,c::Expr,f::Expr)
n=length(f.args)
#assert n==length(c.args)
#assert c.head==:vect
#assert f.head==:vect
vf=Vector{Function}(n)
for i in 1:n
vf[i]=#eval $x->$(f.args[i])
end
return #eval ($x)->($(vf)[findfirst($c)])($x)
end
pf=piecewise(:x,:([x>0, x==0, x<0]),:([2*x,-1,-x]))
pf(1) # => 2
pf(-2) # => 2
pf(0) # => -1

Why not something like this?
function piecewise(x::Float64, breakpts::Vector{Float64}, f::Vector{Function})
#assert(issorted(breakpts))
#assert(length(breakpts) == length(f)+1)
b = searchsortedfirst(breakpts, x)
return f[b](x)
end
piecewise(X::Vector{Float64}, bpts, f) = [ piecewise(x,bpts,f) for x in X ]
Here you have a list of (sorted) breakpoints, and you can use the optimized searchsortedfirst to find the first breakpoint b greater than x. The edge case when no breakpoint is greater than x is also handled appropriately since length(breakpts)+1 is returned, so b is the correct index into the vector of functions f.

Related

Inclusivity of Julia ranges

I hate that ranges include the end. Here is an example where I've deliberately removed the end of the range.
N = 100
for x in 0.0 : 2*pi/N : 2*pi*(N-1)/N
println(x)
end
Is there any way to avoid the ugliness of this for loop?
Yes, there is
N = 100
for x in range(0; step=2π/N, length=N)
println(x)
end
Maybe not the most elegant way... take the first n-1 elements
r = 0.0 : 2*pi/N : 2*pi
r = Iterators.take(r,length(r)-1)
Unfortunately, inclusive ranges (and 1-based indexing) is baked into the idioms of Julia at a fundamental level.
However, for this specific case, do note that stepping with floating point values can be problematic, as adding N values might be less than, equal to, or greater than the final value, giving different results for the for loop. Although julia tries really hard, there's no way to quite do the right thing in all circumstances. As a bonus, working in integer values only for the ranges simplifies things. You might want to consider:
for ix in 0:N-1
x = ix * 2 * pi / N
println(x)
end
Alternatively, the range() function has a form with a len parameter:
for x in range(0, 2*pi*(N-1)/N, length=n)
println(x)
end
Or indeed, combining this with the other answer of only taking (N-1) could work.
You could actually define your own operator such as:
▷(a,b) = a:b-1
Now you can write:
julia> 3▷6
3:5
Julia also natively supports custom indices for arrays. There is a package CustomUnitRanges that is maybe an overkill here.

Cumulative Integration Options With Julia

I have two 1-D arrays in which I would like to calculate the approximate cumulative integral of 1 array with respect to the scalar spacing specified by the 2nd array. MATLAB has a function called cumtrapz that handles this scenario. Is there something similar that I can try within Julia to accomplish the same thing?
The expected result is another 1-D array with the integral calculated for each element.
There is a numerical integration package for Julia (see the link) that defines cumul_integrate(X, Y) and uses the trapezoidal rule by default.
If this package didn't exist, though, you could easily write the function yourself and have a very efficient implementation out of the box because the loop does not come with a performance penalty.
Edit: Added an #assert to check matching vector dimensions and fixed a typo.
function cumtrapz(X::T, Y::T) where {T <: AbstractVector}
# Check matching vector length
#assert length(X) == length(Y)
# Initialize Output
out = similar(X)
out[1] = 0
# Iterate over arrays
for i in 2:length(X)
out[i] = out[i-1] + 0.5*(X[i] - X[i-1])*(Y[i] + Y[i-1])
end
# Return output
out
end

How to inherit from a regular matrix

using ShiftedArrays
struct CircularMatrix{T} <: AbstractArray{T,2}
data::Array{T,2}
view::CircShiftedArray
currentIndex::Int
function CircularMatrix{T}(dims...) where T
data = zeros(T, dims...)
CircularMatrix(data, ShiftedArrays.circshift(data, (0, -1)), 1)
end
end
Base.size(M::CircularMatrix) = size(M.data)
Base.eltype(::Type{CircularMatrix{T}}) where {T} = T
function shift_forward!(M::CircularMatrix)
M.shift_forward!(1)
end
function shift_forward!(M::CircularMatrix, n)
# replace the view with a view shifted forwards.
M.currentIndex += n
M.view = ShiftedArrays.circshift(M.data, (n, M.currentIndex))
end
#inline Base.#propagate_inbounds function Base.getindex(M::CircularMatrix, i) = M.view[i]
#inline Base.#propagate_inbounds function Base.setindex!(M::CircularMatrix, data, i) = M.view[i] = data
How can I make CircularMatrix act just like a regular matrix.
So that I can access it like
m = CircularMatrix{Int}(4,4)
m[1, 1] = 5
x = view(m, 1, :)
Your matrix type is defined to be a subtype of AbstractArray{T, 2}. You need to implement a few methods in the informal array interface of Julia for your type to make functions and features that work on AbstractArray{T, 2} to also work on your custom type, that is, to make your CircularMatrix an iterable, indexable, completely functioning matrix.
The methods to implement are
size(M::CircularMatrix)
getindex(M::CircularMatrix, i::Int)
getindex(M::CircularMatrix, I::Vararg{Int, N})
setindex!(M::CircularMatrix, v, i::Int)
setindex!(M::CircularMatrix, v, I::Vararg{Int, N})
You already implement 1, 2 and 4 but have not yet set your indexing style. You might not need 3 and 5 if you choose linear indexing style. You only need to set IndexStyle to be IndexLinear() and maybe a few modifications, then everything should just work for your matrix.
1. size(M::CircularMatrix)
The first one is size. size(A::CircularMatrix) returns a Tuple of dimensions of A. I believe for your matrix probably something like the following
Base.size(M::CircularMatrix) = size(M.data)
2. getindex(M::CircularMatrix, i::Int)
This method is needed if you choose linear indexing style. getindex(M, i::Int) should give you the value at linear index i. You already implement it in your code. If you choose linear indexing, you need to set IndexStyle for your type and then you simply skip 3 and 5. Julia will automatically convert multiple index accesses, e.g. a[3, 5], to a linear index access.
Base.IndexStyle(::Type{<:CircularMatrix}) = IndexLinear()
Base.#propogate_inbounds function Base.getindex(M::CircularMatrix, i::Int)
#boundscheck checkbounds(M, i)
#inbounds M.view[i]
end
It might be better to use #inbounds here on the second line. If the caller doesn't use #inbounds, we check the bounds first and this hopefully makes the subsequent bounds check unnecessary. You might want to omit this during development, though.
3. getindex(M::CircularMatrix, I::Vararg{Int, N})
The third one is for Cartesian indexing style. If you choose this style you need to implement this method. Vararg{Int, N} in the signature stands for "exactly N Int arguments". Here N should be equal to the dimensionality of CircularMatrix. Since this is a matrix, N should be two. If you choose this style, you need to define something like the following
Base.#propogate_inbounds function Base.getindex(A::CircularMatrix, I::Vararg{Int, 2})
#boundscheck checkbounds(A, I...)
#inbounds A.view[# convert I[1]` and `I[2]` to a linear index in `view`]
end
or since your dimensionality is not parametric and a matrix is 2D, simply
Base.#propogate_inbounds function Base.getindex(A::CircularMatrix, i::Int, j::Int)
#boundscheck checkbounds(A, i, j)
#inbounds A.view[# convert i` and `j` to a linear index in `view`]
end
4. setindex!(M::CircularMatrix, v, i::Int)
The fourth one is similar to the second. This method should set the value at linear index i, if you choose linear indexing style.
5. setindex!(M::CircularMatrix, v, I::Vararg{Int, N})
The fifth one should be similar to the third, if you choose Cartesian indexing style.
After the implementations for 1, 2, and 4 and setting IndexStyle, you should have a custom matrix type that just works.
m[1, 1] = 5
x = view(m, 1, :)
for e in
...
end
for i in eachindex(m)
...
end
display(m)
println(m)
length(m)
ndims(m)
map(f, A)
....
These should all work.
A few notes
There is a documentation for Abstract Arrays interface here with a few examples. You can also see Optional Methods to implement.
There is a JuliaArray organization on GitHub that provides lots of useful custom array implementations including StaticArrays, OffsetArrays, etc. and also a JuliaMatrices organization that provides custom matrix types. You might want to take a look at their implementations.
#inline is redundant if you use Base.#propogate_inbounds.
#propagate_inbounds
Tells the compiler to inline a function while retaining the caller's
inbounds context.
You do not need to define eltype for your matrix, since there is already a definition for AbstractArray{T, N} which returns T.

How can I interpret user input as a function in Julia?

I've been using the following function to take in user input for something I'm writing in Julia:
function input(prompt::AbstractString = "")
println(prompt * " ")
chomp(readline())
end
In my particular case, the input that I'm taking in is in the form of equations such as "y = x^2". After the input() function passes it to me as an ASCIIString, I then use the parse() function to convert it to an Expression:
:(y = x^2)
As an Expression, I can use the .args attribute to do things like counting the number of variables and returning the unique variables, all of which has worked fine. Now, I need to be able to evaluate the right side of the expression as the Function f(x) = x^2. To do so, I began writing the following function (which has some pretty major flaws):
function evalExpression()
L = [1,2,3,4]
equation = parse(input("Enter an equation"))
f = equation.args[2].args[2]
for i in L
x = i
value = eval(f)
println(value)
end
end
This function has two problems that I haven't been able to resolve. The first is that it gives me an UndefVarError for x when I try to run it right now; that's more or less expected. The second is that unless I knew that the user would input a function of only x, I would have no way of figuring out what the variables I needed to assign were. I wrote a recursive function that can take in an expression and return all its variables in the form of [:x, :y, etc.], but I cannot assign :x to a number to evaluate the function--I need to assign it just to x, and I cannot figure out how to access that. Is there anything that I can use to access the variables I need? Or a different approach I could take?
Thank you!
When I run the following:
function evalExpression()
L = [1,2,3,4]
equation = parse(input("Enter an equation"))
global x
for i in L
x = i
f = equation.args[2].args[2]
value = eval(f)
println(value)
end
end
and then putting y = x*x I get
evalExpression()
Enter an equation
y = x*x
1
2
3
4
What is missing, at least for x as a variable, is declaring it globally. When you eval parsed statements, these parsed statements only access global variables
So what you probably need to do after you've invented your recursive function to correctly fetch variables, is to create them globally. Maybe
eval(parse("$variable = 0"))
will do

Factorial using recursion in C

We all know the program for this
int fact(int n)
{
if(n==0)
return(1);
return(n*fact(n-1));
}
But what is not clear to me is how the inner thing is happening?
How is it calculating 5*4*3*2*1 (if n is 5)
Please give a clear explanation on this.
Thanks.....
Mathematically, the recursive definition of factorial can be expressed recursively like so (from Wikipedia):
Consider how this works for n = 3, using == to mean equivalence:
3! == 2! * 3 == (1! * 2) * 3 == ((1) * 2) * 3
This can be derived purely symbolically by repeatedly applying the recursive rule.
What this definition does is first expand out a given factorial into an equivalent series of multiplications. It then performs the actual multiplications. The C code you have performs the exact same way.
What might help to understand it, is that when you are recursively calling the function, the new "cycle" will use N-1, not N.
This way, once you get to N==0, the last function you called will return a 1. At this point all the stack of functions are waiting for the return of the nested function. That is how now you exactly multiply the results of each of the functions on the stack.
In other words, you factorize the number given as input.

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