Simple question, simple answer for someone who actually uses scheme. How can I find out if a variable is a letter of the alphabet?
I assumed it was something like this (letter? x) where x is some indefinate type. Can anyone tell me what boolean function could be used?
edit:
How could I make something that looks like this: (somFunction-isALetter? a)
Return: #t
Where a is not a variable.
In Racket, the char-alphabetic? function only takes characters as arguments, but it's easy to define a function that returns false for all non-characters instead of failing:
(define (letter? x) (and (char? x) (char-alphabetic? x)))
Use the char-alphabetic? procedure for this. From the documentation:
char-alphabetic? returns #t if char has the Unicode “Alphabetic” property.
Use it like this:
(char-alphabetic? #\a)
> #t
If the character is in a variable:
(define x #\a)
(char-alphabetic? x)
#t
Notice that char-alphabetic? only works for characters.
UPDATE:
Re-reading the question I believe I misunderstood it. If you're interested in finding out if a variable 's name is just a single letter, this will work:
(define (is-variable-a-letter? x)
(let ((var (string->list (symbol->string x))))
(and (= (length var) 1)
(char-alphabetic? (car var)))))
(is-variable-a-letter? 'x)
> #t
On the other hand, if you're interested in the actual contents of the variable, then apply the first part of this answer.
Related
For example, assuming 'match is a macro and 'car isn't:
> (macro? 'match)
#t
> (macro? 'car)
#f
Most schemes have no such macro? function. To distinguish normal functions from macros you can use procedure? from RnRS:
> (procedure? car)
#t
The problem is that you cannot name the keyword using Scheme syntax:
> (procedure? let)
Exception: invalid syntax let
So you have to use a symbol, like 'let, to refer to it. Given that eval needs to be able to tell keywords apart from other identifiers, you can try something like this:
(define keyword?
(lambda (symbol)
(guard (x [else (syntax-violation? x)])
(eval symbol)
#f)))
(keyword? 'let) ⇒ #t
(keyword? 'car) ⇒ #f
(keyword? 'does-not-exist) ⇒ #f
But this is certainly a rather big hammer. And this single-argument form of eval is a Chez Scheme extension, supplying (interaction-environment) as the default environment. It is also not completely safe because this hangs:
(let-syntax ([foo (lambda (x) (raise "oops"))])
(keyword? 'foo))
How can I evaluate an s-expression only by the first term?
(define (fn x y) (print x) (print y))
(eval '(fn a b))
I am trying to evaluate something like this on a bigger expression but the interpreter is complaining that a and b variables don't exist (unbound variable a).
Is there something I can do to leave symbols as they are?
I have been trying to find information about this but I can't find it anywhere.
How about the following?
(let ((expr '(fn a b)))
(cons (eval (car expr)) (cdr expr)))
But please note that if you have to rely on eval, you're almost certainly doing things wrong.
So I stumbled across this today and it has me puzzled.
(define (x) '(1))
(eq? (x) (x)) ;=> #t
(eq? '(1) '(1)) ;=> #f
(define (y) (list 1))
(eq? (y) (y)) ;=> #f
(eq? (list 1) (list 1)) ;=> #f
Can anyone explain what's happening here ?
When compiled this program
(define (x) '(1))
(eq? (x) (x))
(eq? '(1) '(1))
is compiled into (something like):
(define datum1 '(1))
(define datum2 '(1))
(define datum3 '(1))
(define (x) datum1)
(eq? (x) (x))
(eq? datum2 datum3)
Therefore (x) will always return the object stored in datum1.
The expressions (eq? '(1) '(1)) on the other hand will
find out that datum2 and datum3 does not store the same object.
Note: There is a choice for the compiler writer. Many Scheme implementation will compile the above program to:
(define datum1 '(1))
(define (x) datum1)
(eq? (x) (x))
(eq? datum1 datum1)
and then the result will be true in both cases.
Note: The documentation of quote doesn't explicitly state whether multiple occurrences of '(1) in a program will produce the same value or not. Therefore this behavior might change in the future. [Although I believe the current behavior is a deliberate choice]
eq? checks if the objects are the same (think "if the pointer refers to the same address in memory").
In the first case you're working with literals created at compile time. Comparing (and modifying) literals is generally undefined behaviour. Here it looks like procedure x returns the same literal every time, but in the second expression it looks like the 2 literals are not the same. As I said, undefined behaviour.
In the second case you're not working with literals but list creates a new list at execution time. So each call to y or list creates a fresh list.
uselpa's answer is correct.† I wanted to expand on what a quoted datum is, a little further, though.
As you know, all Scheme programs are internally read in as a syntax tree. In Racket, in particular, you use the read-syntax procedure to do it:
> (define stx (with-input-from-string "(foo bar)" read-syntax))
> stx
#<syntax::1 (foo bar)>
You can convert a syntax tree to a datum using syntax->datum:
> (syntax->datum stx)
'(foo bar)
quote is a special form, and what it does is return the quoted portion of the syntax tree as a datum. This is why, for many Scheme implementations, your x procedure returns the same object each time: it's returning the same portion of the syntax tree as a datum. (This is an implementation detail, and Scheme implementations are not required to have this behaviour, but it helps explain why you see what you see.)
And as uselpa's answer says, list creates a fresh list each time, if the list is non-empty. That's why the result of two separate non-empty invocations of list will always be distinct when compared with eq?.
(In Scheme, the empty list is required to be represented as a singleton object. So (eq? '() '()) is guaranteed to be true, as is (eq? (list) '()), (eq? (cdr (list 'foo)) (list)), etc.)
† I would not use the phrasing "undefined behaviour" for comparing literals because that's easily confused with the C and C++ meaning of UB, which is nasal demons, and although the result of comparing literals may not be what you expect, it would not cause your program to crash, etc. Modifying literals is nasal demons, of course.
I have an experiment for my project, basically, I need to embedded some s-expression into the code and make it run, like this,
(define (test lst)
(define num 1)
(define l (list))
`#lst) ; oh, this is not the right way to go.
(define lst
`( (define num2 (add1 num))
(displayln num2)))
I want the test function be like after test(lst) in racket code:
(define (test lst)
(define num 1)
(define l (list))
(define num2 (add1 num)
(displayln num2))
How can I do this in racket?
Update
The reason I would like to use eval or the previous questions is that I am using Z3 racket binding, I need to generate formulas (which uses racket binding APIs), and then I will fire the query at some point, that's when I need to evaluate those code.
I have not figured out other ways to go in my case...
One super simple example is, imagine
(let ([arr (array-alloc 10)])
(array-set! arr 3 4))
I have some model to analyze the constructs (so I am not using racketZ3 directly), during each analyzing point, I will map the data types in the program into the Z3 types, and made some assertions,
I will generate something like:
At allocation site, I will need to make the following formula:
(smt:declare-fun arr_z3 () IntList)
(define len (make-length 10))
Then at the array set site, I will have the following assertions and to check whether the 3 is less then the length
(smt:assert (</s 3 (len arr_z3)))
(smt:check-sat)
Then finally, I will gather the formulas generated as above, and wrap them in the form which is able to fire Z3 binding to run the following gathered information as code:
(smt:with-context
(smt:new-context)
(define len (make-length 10))
(smt:assert (</s 3 (len arr_z3)))
(smt:check-sat))
This is the super simple example I can think of... making sense?
side note. Z3 Racket binding will crash for some reason on version 5.3.1, but it mostly can work on version 5.2.1
Honestly, I don’t understand what exactly you would like to achieve. To quote N. Holm, Sketchy Scheme, 4.5th edition, p. 108: »The major purpose of quasiquotation is the construction of fixed list structures that contain only a few variable parts«. I don’t think that quasiquotation would be used in a context like you are aiming at.
For a typical context of quasiquotation consider the following example:
(define (square x)
(* x x))
(define sentence
'(The square of))
(define (quasiquotes-unquotes-splicing x)
`(,#sentence ,x is ,(square x)))
(quasiquotes-unquotes-splicing 2)
===> (The square of 2 is 4)
Warning: if you're not familiar with how functions work in Scheme, ignore the answer! Macros are an advanced technique, and you need to understand functions first.
It sounds like you're asking about macros. Here's some code that defines test to be a function that prints 2:
(define-syntax-rule (show-one-more-than num)
(begin
(define num2 (add1 num))
(displayln num2)))
(define (test)
(define num1 1)
(show-one-more-than num1))
Now, I could (and should!) have written show-one-more-than as a function instead of a macro (the code will still work if you change define-syntax-rule to define), but macros do in fact operate by producing code at their call sites. So the above code expands to:
(define (test)
(define num1 1)
(begin
(define num2 (add1 num1))
(displayln num2)))
Without knowing the problem better, it's hard to say what the correct approach to this problem is. A brute force approach, such as the following:
#lang racket
(define (make-test-body lst)
(define source `(define (test)
(define num 1)
(define l (list))
,#lst))
source)
(define lst
`((define num2 (add1 num))
(displayln num2)))
(define test-source
(make-test-body lst))
(define test
(parameterize ([current-namespace (make-base-namespace)])
(eval `(let ()
,test-source
test))))
(test)
may be what you want, but probably not.
rt.
I want to redefine a function at run time so that i can change the behavior of the system at run time.
thanks.
(define (foo x) ...stuff...)
(set! foo (lambda (x) ...different stuff...))
It might be advisable to use let to do this locally, this can also apply to keywords in this sense:
(let ((define +))
(define 2 3)) ; ===> 5
Or even redefine them to constants, remember, Scheme is a lisp-1:
(let ((define 2) (+ 4))
(- define +)) ; ===> -2
Or even:
(let ((quote /))
'3) ===> 1/3
Doing it only locally preserves the functional style.
Assuming you want to overload a function you defined earlier, simply define it again. This also works for redefining functions such as car and cdr, e.g. to make car into cdr:
(define (car x) (cdr x))
However, I think you won't be able to affect other already defined functions with such a redefinition, so a system function which uses car will still use the original system car and not yours:
(define (test x) (car x))
(define (car x) (cdr x))
(test '(1 2 3))
1
I guess the reason for this is that internally the symbols disappear once a function gets read or evaluated and the symbols are replaced by what they're bound to; in this case, the actual code of the function. So rebinding a symbol to a different function won't affect the rest of your already defined code. This is usually a good thing because it helps uphold referential transparency.
If you want to redefine scheme keywords such as lambda or cond, use let-syntax (see http://community.schemewiki.org/?scheme-faq-language)