PROGRAMMING IN HASKELL
Chapter 5 - List Comprehensions
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Set Comprehensions
In mathematics, the comprehension notation can be used to construct new sets from old sets.
{x2 | x {1...5}}
The set {1,4,9,16,25} of all numbers x2 such that x is an element of the set {15}.
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Lists Comprehensions
In Haskell, a similar comprehension notation can be used to construct new lists from old lists.
[x^2 | x [1..5]]
The list [1,4,9,16,25] of all numbers x^2 such that x is an element of the list [1..5].
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Note:
The expression x [1..5] is called a generator, as it states how to generate values for x. Comprehensions can have multiple generators, separated by commas. For example:
> [(x,y) | x [1,2,3], y [4,5]] [(1,4),(1,5),(2,4),(2,5),(3,4),(3,5)]
Changing the order of the generators changes the order of the elements in the final list:
> [(x,y) | y [4,5], x [1,2,3]]
[(1,4),(2,4),(3,4),(1,5),(2,5),(3,5)]
Multiple generators are like nested loops, with later generators as more deeply nested loops whose variables change value more frequently.
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For example:
> [(x,y) | y [4,5], x [1,2,3]] [(1,4),(2,4),(3,4),(1,5),(2,5),(3,5)]
x [1,2,3] is the last generator, so the value of the x component of each pair changes most frequently.
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Dependant Generators
Later generators can depend on the variables that are introduced by earlier generators.
[(x,y) | x [1..3], y [x..3]]
The list [(1,1),(1,2),(1,3),(2,2),(2,3),(3,3)] of all pairs of numbers (x,y) such that x,y are elements of the list [1..3] and y x.
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Using a dependant generator we can define the library function that concatenates a list of lists:
concat :: [[a]] [a] concat xss = [x | xs xss, x xs]
For example:
> concat [[1,2,3],[4,5],[6]] [1,2,3,4,5,6]
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Guards
List comprehensions can use guards to restrict the values produced by earlier generators.
[x | x [1..10], even x]
The list [2,4,6,8,10] of all numbers x such that x is an element of the list [1..10] and x is even.
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Using a guard we can define a function that maps a positive integer to its list of factors:
factors :: Int [Int] factors n = [x | x [1..n], n `mod` x == 0]
For example:
> factors 15 [1,3,5,15]
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A positive integer is prime if its only factors are 1 and itself. Hence, using factors we can define a function that decides if a number is prime:
prime :: Int Bool prime n = factors n == [1,n]
For example:
> prime 15 False > prime 7 True
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Using a guard we can now define a function that returns the list of all primes up to a given limit:
primes :: Int [Int] primes n = [x | x [2..n], prime x]
For example:
> primes 40 [2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37]
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The Zip Function
A useful library function is zip, which maps two lists to a list of pairs of their corresponding elements.
zip :: [a] [b] [(a,b)]
For example:
> zip [a,b,c] [1,2,3,4] [(a,1),(b,2),(c,3)]
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Using zip we can define a function returns the list of all pairs of adjacent elements from a list:
pairs :: [a] [(a,a)] pairs xs = zip xs (tail xs)
For example:
> pairs [1,2,3,4] [(1,2),(2,3),(3,4)]
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Using pairs we can define a function that decides if the elements in a list are sorted:
sorted :: Ord a [a] Bool sorted xs = and [x y | (x,y) pairs xs]
For example:
> sorted [1,2,3,4] True > sorted [1,3,2,4] False
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Using zip we can define a function that returns the list of all positions of a value in a list:
positions :: Eq a a [a] [Int] positions x xs = [i | (x,i) zip xs [0..n], x == x] where n = length xs - 1
For example:
> positions 0 [1,0,0,1,0,1,1,0] [1,2,4,7]
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String Comprehensions
A string is a sequence of characters enclosed in double quotes. Internally, however, strings are represented as lists of characters.
"abc" :: String
Means [a,b,c] :: [Char].
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Because strings are just special kinds of lists, any polymorphic function that operates on lists can also be applied to strings. For example:
> length "abcde" 5 > take 3 "abcde" "abc" > zip "abc" [1,2,3,4] [(a,1),(b,2),(c,3)]
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Similarly, list comprehensions can also be used to define functions on strings, such as a function that counts the lower-case letters in a string:
lowers :: String Int lowers xs = length [x | x xs, isLower x]
For example:
> lowers "Haskell" 6
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Exercises
(1) A triple (x,y,z) of positive integers is called pythagorean if x2 + y2 = z2. Using a list comprehension, define a function
pyths :: Int [(Int,Int,Int)]
that maps an integer n to all such triples with components in [1..n]. For example:
> pyths 5 [(3,4,5),(4,3,5)]
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(2) A positive integer is perfect if it equals the sum of all of its factors, excluding the number itself. Using a list comprehension, define a function
perfects :: Int [Int]
that returns the list of all perfect numbers up to a given limit. For example:
> perfects 500
[6,28,496]
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(3) The scalar product of two lists of integers xs and ys of length n is give by the sum of the products of the corresponding integers: n-1
i=0
(xs * ys )
i i
Using a list comprehension, define a function that returns the scalar product of two lists.
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