For Comprehensions
import IEx.Helpers
Basics
h(for / 1)
defmacro for(args)
Comprehensions allow you to quickly build a data structure from an enumerable
or a bitstring.
Let's start with an example:
iex> for n <- [1, 2, 3, 4], do: n * 2
[2, 4, 6, 8]
A comprehension accepts many generators and filters. for uses the <- operator
to extract values from the enumerable on its right side and match them against
the pattern on the left. We call them generators:
# A list generator:
iex> for n <- [1, 2, 3, 4], do: n * 2
[2, 4, 6, 8]
# A comprehension with two generators
iex> for x <- [1, 2], y <- [2, 3], do: x * y
[2, 3, 4, 6]
Filters can also be given:
# A comprehension with a generator and a filter
iex> for n <- [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], rem(n, 2) == 0, do: n
[2, 4, 6]
Filters must evaluate to truthy values (everything but nil and false). If a
filter is falsy, then the current value is discarded.
Generators can also be used to filter as it removes any value that doesn't
match the pattern on the left side of <-:
iex> users = [user: "john", admin: "meg", guest: "barbara"]
iex> for {type, name} when type != :guest <- users do
...> String.upcase(name)
...> end
["JOHN", "MEG"]
Bitstring generators are also supported and are very useful when you need to
organize bitstring streams:
iex> pixels = <<213, 45, 132, 64, 76, 32, 76, 0, 0, 234, 32, 15>>
iex> for <>, do: {r, g, b}
[{213, 45, 132}, {64, 76, 32}, {76, 0, 0}, {234, 32, 15}]
Variable assignments inside the comprehension, be it in generators, filters or
inside the block, are not reflected outside of the comprehension.
Variable assignments inside filters must still return a truthy value, otherwise
values are discarded. Let's see an example. Imagine you have a keyword list
where the key is a programming language and the value is its direct parent.
Then let's try to compute the grandparent of each language. You could try this:
iex> languages = [elixir: :erlang, erlang: :prolog, prolog: nil]
iex> for {language, parent} <- languages, grandparent = languages[parent], do: {language, grandparent}
[elixir: :prolog]
Given the grandparents of Erlang and Prolog were nil, those values were
filtered out. If you don't want this behaviour, a simple option is to move the
filter inside the do-block:
iex> languages = [elixir: :erlang, erlang: :prolog, prolog: nil]
iex> for {language, parent} <- languages do
...> grandparent = languages[parent]
...> {language, grandparent}
...> end
[elixir: :prolog, erlang: nil, prolog: nil]
However, such option is not always available, as you may have further filters.
An alternative is to convert the filter into a generator by wrapping the right
side of = in a list:
iex> languages = [elixir: :erlang, erlang: :prolog, prolog: nil]
iex> for {language, parent} <- languages, grandparent <- [languages[parent]], do: {language, grandparent}
[elixir: :prolog, erlang: nil, prolog: nil]
## The `:into` and `:uniq` options
In the examples above, the result returned by the comprehension was always a
list. The returned result can be configured by passing an :into option, that
accepts any structure as long as it implements the Collectable protocol.
For example, we can use bitstring generators with the :into option to easily
remove all spaces in a string:
iex> for <>, c != ?\s, into: "", do: <>
"helloworld"
The IO module provides streams, that are both Enumerable and Collectable, here
is an upcase echo server using comprehensions:
for line <- IO.stream(), into: IO.stream() do
String.upcase(line)
end
Similarly, uniq: true can also be given to comprehensions to guarantee the
results are only added to the collection if they were not returned before. For
example:
iex> for x <- [1, 1, 2, 3], uniq: true, do: x * 2
[2, 4, 6]
iex> for <>, uniq: true, into: "", do: <>
"ABC"
## The `:reduce` option
While the :into option allows us to customize the comprehension behaviour to a
given data type, such as putting all of the values inside a map or inside a
binary, it is not always enough.
For example, imagine that you have a binary with letters where you want to
count how many times each lowercase letter happens, ignoring all uppercase
ones. For instance, for the string "AbCabCABc", we want to return the map %{"a"
=> 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 1}.
If we were to use :into, we would need a data type that computes the frequency
of each element it holds. While there is no such data type in Elixir, you could
implement one yourself.
A simpler option would be to use comprehensions for the mapping and filtering
of letters, and then we invoke Enum.reduce/3 to build a map, for example:
iex> letters = for <>, x in ?a..?z, do: <>
iex> Enum.reduce(letters, %{}, fn x, acc -> Map.update(acc, x, 1, & &1 + 1) end)
%{"a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 1}
While the above is straight-forward, it has the downside of traversing the data
at least twice. If you are expecting long strings as inputs, this can be quite
expensive.
Luckily, comprehensions also support the :reduce option, which would allow us
to fuse both steps above into a single step:
iex> for <>, x in ?a..?z, reduce: %{} do
...> acc -> Map.update(acc, <>, 1, & &1 + 1)
...> end
%{"a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 1}
When the :reduce key is given, its value is used as the initial accumulator and
the do block must be changed to use -> clauses, where the left side of ->
receives the accumulated value of the previous iteration and the expression on
the right side must return the new accumulator value. Once there are no more
elements, the final accumulated value is returned. If there are no elements at
all, then the initial accumulator value is returned.
Generators
for x <- 1..100 do
x * 2
end
[2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52,
54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100,
...]
for x <- ~c"abcdefg" do
inspect(x)
end
["97", "98", "99", "100", "101", "102", "103"]
for x <- [one: 1, two: 2, three: 3] do
inspect(x)
end
["{:one, 1}", "{:two, 2}", "{:three, 3}"]
for <> do
inspect(x)
end
["97", "98", "99"]
for x <- 1..3, y <- 1..3, z <- 1..2, do: {x, y, z}
[
{1, 1, 1},
{1, 1, 2},
{1, 2, 1},
{1, 2, 2},
{1, 3, 1},
{1, 3, 2},
{2, 1, 1},
{2, 1, 2},
{2, 2, 1},
{2, 2, 2},
{2, 3, 1},
{2, 3, 2},
{3, 1, 1},
{3, 1, 2},
{3, 2, 1},
{3, 2, 2},
{3, 3, 1},
{3, 3, 2}
]
slice_y = 3
3
for x <- 1..3, y <- 1..3, z <- 1..2, y == 3, x in [2, 3], do: {x, y, z}
[{2, 3, 1}, {2, 3, 2}, {3, 3, 1}, {3, 3, 2}]
for x <- 1..3, y <- 1..3, z <- 1..2, y == 3, do: {x, y, z}
[{1, 3, 1}, {1, 3, 2}, {2, 3, 1}, {2, 3, 2}, {3, 3, 1}, {3, 3, 2}]
