I wrote a small function that takes a list and returns a list composed of only positive numbers. This all works fine, but for some reason, it is reversing the order. More information below on that. Could someone please tell me if this is normal, or if I miss-wrote something? Thank you in advance.
(define (positive-nums-only lst)
(if (empty? lst)
'()
(append (positive-nums-only (cdr lst))
(if (>= (car lst) 0)
(list (car lst))
'()))))
(positive-nums-only '(1 2 -4 90 -4))
The above test case returns '(90 2 1)
You did not make a mistake, the program is making what you asked.
See, the program finishes the recursion calls first, before going into resolving the if statement. This causes the (list ... ) to start listing from the last element that is positive, in this example it will be 90.
Changing the code order will produce the result you want.
(define (positive-nums-only lst)
(if (empty? lst) '()
(append (if (>= (car lst) 0 )
(list (car lst))
'())
(positive-nums-only (cdr lst)))
)
)
On the other hand, this kind of recursion could be expensive to the computer. I'd use tail recursion, like this:
(define positive-nums-only-tail
(λ (lst r)
(cond ((empty? lst) (reverse r))
((positive? (car lst))
(positive-nums-only-tail (cdr lst)
(cons (car lst) r)))
(else (positive-nums-only-tail (cdr lst) r))
)
)
)
Have you tried reversing the append?
(define (positive-nums-only lst)
(if (empty? lst)
'()
(append (if (>= (car lst) 0) (list (car lst)) '())
(positive-nums-only (cdr lst)))))
Personally I find it more natural to write it like this:
(define (positive-nums-only lst)
(if (empty? lst)
'()
(let ((rest (positive-nums-only (cdr lst))))
(if (>= (car lst) 0)
(cons (car lst) rest)
rest))))
Related
Consider:
(define (nested-reverse lst)
(cond ((null? lst) '())
((list? (car lst)) (nested-reverse (car lst)))
(else
(cons (nested-reverse (cdr lst))
(list (car lst))))))
When I input,
(nested-reverse '((a b c) 42))
it gives me ((() 42) (a b c)). It's supposed to give me (42 (c b a)). How I would change my code so that the nested lists also get reversed?
Keep in mind that a list (1 2 3) is (cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 '()))). Using append is a very poor choice on how to reverse a list since append is implemented like this:
(define (append lst1 lst2)
(if (null? lst1)
lst2
(cons (car lst1) (append (cdr lst1) lst2))))
A list can be iterated from the first element towards the end while it can only be made in reverse. Thus the obvious none recursive reverse would look like something like this:
(define (simple-reverse lst)
(let loop ((lst lst) (result '()))
(if (null? lst)
result
(loop (cdr lst) (cons (car lst) result)))))
To make it work for nested list you check if you need to reverse (car lst) by checking of it's a list or not and use the same procedure as you are creating to do the reverse on the element as well. Other than that it's very similar.
I'm new to Scheme and I've spent about a week on this.
Write a Lisp function sumlist which takes a list and returns the sum of all the numbers in the list, at the top level. Thus,
(sumlist '(1 2 (3) (4 a) nil b 5)) should return 1+2+5=8. The numbers 3 and 4 are not at the top level. Use number? to check if a thing is a number."
This is what I have so far. It can recognize whether something is a number or not, but I can't get it to only add up the numbers on the top level.
(define (sumlist lst)
(cond ((null? lst) 0)
((number? lst) lst)
((list? lst)
(+ (sumlist (car lst)) (sumlist (cdr lst))))
(#t 0)))
; no values returned
> (sumlist '(1 2 (3) (4 a) nil b 5))
15
Any help is appreciated.
EDIT: Both Jedi's and Daniel's answers work. Thank you both very much.
I think it can be a bit simpler:
(define (sumlist lst)
(cond
((null? lst) 0)
((number? (car lst)) (+ (car lst) (sumlist (cdr lst))))
(else (sumlist (cdr lst)))))
Since you only care if an element is a number or not, you only have 3 cases.
(define (sumlist lst)
(cond ((null? lst) 0) ;; list is empty, we're done ;;
((number? (car lst)) (+ (car lst) (sumlist (cdr lst)))) ;; the first item is a number, so we add it to the rest
(else (sumlist (cdr lst))) ;; the first item was not a number, we just check the rest of the list
))
So i have these two functions that work fine alone. I am trying to write one function to accomplish both but i keep getting a car error. Any guidance on the best way to solve this?
(define (countNumbers lst)
(cond
((null? lst) 0)
((number? (car lst))(+ 1 (countNumbers (cdr lst))))
(else (countNumbers (cdr lst)))))
(define (flatten x)
(cond ((null? x) '())
((pair? x) (append (flatten (car x)) (flatten (cdr x))))
(else (list x))))
I tried something like this im rather new to functional programming in general so im still trying to wrap my mind around it it says the problem is after number?(car lst)
(define (flatten lst)
(cond ((null? lst) '())
((pair? lst) (append (flatten (car lst)) (flatten (cdr lst))))
(else (list(cond
((null? lst) 0)
((number? (car lst))(+ 1 (flatten (cdr lst))))
(else (flatten (cdr lst))))))))
As I mentioned in my comment, I don't think it's a good idea to stick everything in a single function. Anyway, you were kinda on the right track, but we have to remember that if we're going to return a number as the final result, then our base case should reflect this and also return a number (not an empty list), and the combining step should add numbers, not append them. This is what I mean:
(define (count-flatten lst)
(cond ((null? lst) 0)
((pair? lst)
(+ (count-flatten (car lst))
(count-flatten (cdr lst))))
((number? lst) 1)
(else 0)))
But I'd rather do this:
(define (count-flatten lst)
(countNumbers (flatten lst)))
We can even write an idiomatic solution using only built-in procedures, check your interpreter's documentation, but in Racket we can do this:
(define (count-flatten lst)
(count number? (flatten lst)))
Anyway, it works as expected:
(count-flatten '(1 x (x 2) x (3 (4 x (5) 6) 7)))
=> 7
I'm having trouble using my member? function. I need to recurse on my set? function until the last element in my list 'lst' is reached. I believe I have the navigation down correctly, but maybe my inputs syntax is wrong. I know there are three cases:
1) What happens if the list is empty? that means that there aren't any duplicates in it
2) What happens if the current element of the list exists somewhere in the rest of the list? then it means that there's a duplicate in the list (hint: the member procedure might be useful)
3) If none of the above are true, continue with the next element.
Here is my code.
(define (member? e lst)
(if (null? lst) #f
(if (equal? e (car lst)) #t
(member? e (cdr lst)))))
(define (set? lst)
(if (null? lst) #t ;Case1
(if (member? (car lst) lst) #f ;Case2
(set? (cdr lst))))) ;Case3
;Example tests for the set? function
(set? '(x y z))
(set? '(a 1 b 2 c 3))
(set? '())
(set? '(6 2 2))
(set? '(x y z x))
There's a small mistake with your code, look how it gets fixed:
(define (set? lst)
(if (null? lst)
#t
(if (member? (car lst) (cdr lst)) ; in here
#f
(set? (cdr lst)))))
In particular, notice what this line is doing:
(member? (car lst) lst)
That won't work: the test is checking whether the first element in lst is a member of lst - and that'll always be true. The solution is simple, just check to see if the current element is in the rest of the list, if it's there, then we know that we've found a duplicate:
(member? (car lst) (cdr lst))
And by the way, the above code would look much nicer using cond, which is great when you have nested ifs:
(define (set? lst)
(cond ((null? lst) #t)
((member? (car lst) (cdr lst)) #f)
(else (set? (cdr lst)))))
I have been working on the following function flatten and so far have it working for just lists. I was wondering if someone could provide me with some insight on how to get it work with pairs? For example (flatten '(a .a)) would return (a a). Thanks.
(define (flatten list)
(cond ((null? list) null)
((list? (car list)) (append (flatten (car list)) (flatten (cdr list))))
(else
(cons (car list) (flatten (cdr list))))))
Here's one option:
(define (flatten x)
(cond ((null? x) '())
((pair? x) (append (flatten (car x)) (flatten (cdr x))))
(else (list x))))
This does what you want, without requiring append, making it o(n). I walks the list as a tree. Some schemes might throw a stack overflow error if the list is too deeply nested. In guile this is not the case.
I claim no copyright for this code.
(define (flatten lst)
(let loop ((lst lst) (acc '()))
(cond
((null? lst) acc)
((pair? lst) (loop (car lst) (loop (cdr lst) acc)))
(else (cons lst acc)))))
(define (flatten l)
(cond
[(empty? l) empty]
[(list? l)
(append (flatten (first l))
(flatten (rest l)))]
[else (list l)]))