FSharp Computation Expression: Cannot reference binding value in custom operation - f#

I am trying to make a builder using FSharp Computation Expression, but get error FS0039:
type UpdatebBuilder() =
member this.Yield (x) = x
member this.Return (x) = x
member this.Bind (x, cont) = cont(x)
member this.Quote (x) = x
member this.For (x, a) = x
[<CustomOperation("set", MaintainsVariableSpace =true,AllowIntoPattern=true)>]
member this.Set (x, a, b) = x
let update = UpdatebBuilder()
let testUpdate () =
update {
for x in [| 1; 2 ; 3|] do
set x 123 // Compile Error FS0039: The value or constructor 'x' is not defined.
}
What I want to implement is something like query expression:
query {
for x in collection do
where x = 2 // Why no FS0039 error here?
select x
}
Also tried MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind=true, and get same error. What should I do to make it compile?

To me it looks like you are trying to define a State monad and implementing the Set operation as a custom operation.
I will admit I never fully got my head around custom operations in F# (and I used F# alot). IMHO it feels like custom operations had one purpose; enable a LINQ like syntax in F#. As time goes in it seems few C# developers are using the LINQ like syntax (ie from x where y select z) and few F# developers are using the query computation expression. I have no data here but just goes from example code I see.
This could explain why the documentation on custom operations are often succinct and hard to grasp. What does this even mean? MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind: Indicates if the custom operation maintains the variable space of the query or computation expression through the use of a bind operation.
Anyway, so in order to learn a bit more about custom operations I tried to implement the state monad with a custom operation for set and I got a bit farther but ran into a problem which I think is an intentional limitation of the compiler. Still thought I share it with the hope that it helps OP get a bit further.
I chose this definition for State<_>:
type [<Struct>] State<'T> = S of (Map<string, obj> -> 'T*Map<string, obj>)
State<_> is a function that given a global state (a map) produces a value (that could derive from the global state but not necessarily) and a potentially updated global state.
return or value as I tend to call it as return is an F# keyword is easy to define as we just return v and the non-updated global state:
let value v = S <| fun m -> v, m
bind is useful to bind several state computations together. First run t on the global state and from the returned value create the second computation and run the updated global state through it:
let bind uf (S t) = S <| fun m ->
let tv, tm = t m
let (S u) = uf tv
u tm
get and set are used to interact with the global state:
let get k : State<'T option> = S <| fun m ->
match m |> Map.tryFind k with
| Some (:? 'T as v) -> Some v, m
| _ -> None, m
let set k v = S <| fun m ->
let m = m |> Map.add k (box v)
(), m
I created some other methods as well but in the end the builder was created like this:
type Builder() =
class
member x.Bind (t, uf) = bind uf t
member x.Combine (t, u) = combine u t
member x.Delay tf = delay tf
member x.For (s, tf) = forEach s tf
member x.Return v = value v
member x.ReturnFrom t = t : State<'T>
member x.Yield v = value v
member x.Zero () = value ()
[<CustomOperation("set", MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind = true)>]
member x.Set (s, k, v) = s |> combine (set k v)
end
I used MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind because otherwise it doesn't see v. MaintainsVariableSpace yields strange errors asking for seq types which I vaguely suspect is an optimization for computations based around seq. Checking the generated code is seems to do the right thing in that it binds the custom operations together using my bind function in the proper order.
I am now ready to do define a state computation
state {
// Works fine
set "key" -1
for v in 0..2 do
// Won't work because: FS3086: A custom operation may not be used in conjunction with 'use', 'try/with', 'try/finally', 'if/then/else' or 'match' operators within this computation expression
set "hello" v
return! State.get "key"
}
Unfortunately the compiler stops me from using custom ops in conditional operations like if, try and also for (even though it's not in the list it's conditional in some sense). This seems to be an intentional limitation. It's possible to workaround it but it feels meh
state {
set "key" -1
for v in 0..2 do
// Meh
do! state { set "key" v }
return! State.get "key"
}
IMHO I prefer just using normal do!/let! over custom operations:
state {
for v in 0..2 do
do! State.set "key" v
return! State.get "key"
}
So not really a proper answer to the question from OP but perhaps it can help you get a bit further?
Full source code:
type [<Struct>] State<'T> = S of (Map<string, obj> -> 'T*Map<string, obj>)
module State =
let value v = S <| fun m -> v, m
let bind uf (S t) = S <| fun m ->
let tv, tm = t m
let (S u) = uf tv
u tm
let combine u (S t) = S <| fun m ->
let _, tm = t m
let (S u) = u
u tm
let delay tf = S <| fun m ->
let (S t) = tf ()
t m
let forEach s tf = S <| fun m ->
let mutable a = m
for v in s do
let (S t) = tf v
let (), tm = t m
a <- tm
(), a
let get k : State<'T option> = S <| fun m ->
match m |> Map.tryFind k with
| Some (:? 'T as v) -> Some v, m
| _ -> None, m
let set k v = S <| fun m ->
let m = m |> Map.add k (box v)
(), m
let run (S t) m = t m
type Builder() =
class
member x.Bind (t, uf) = bind uf t
member x.Combine (t, u) = combine u t
member x.Delay tf = delay tf
member x.For (s, tf) = forEach s tf
member x.Return v = value v
member x.ReturnFrom t = t : State<'T>
member x.Yield v = value v
member x.Zero () = value ()
[<CustomOperation("set", MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind = true)>]
member x.Set (s, k, v) = s |> combine (set k v)
end
let state = State.Builder ()
let testUpdate () =
state {
// Works fine
set "key" -1
for v in 0..2 do
// Won't work because: FS3086: A custom operation may not be used in conjunction with 'use', 'try/with', 'try/finally', 'if/then/else' or 'match' operators within this computation expression
// set "hello" v
// Workaround but kind of meh
// do! state { set "key" v }
// Better IMHO
do! State.set "key" v
return! State.get "key"
}
[<EntryPoint>]
let main argv =
let tv, tm = State.run (testUpdate ()) Map.empty
printfn "v:%A" tv
printfn "m:%A" tm
0

Related

Dynamic functions in F#

I'm trying to explore the dynamic capabilities of F# for situations where I can't express some function with the static type system. As such, I'm trying to create a mapN function for (say) Option types, but I'm having trouble creating a function with a dynamic number of arguments. I've tried:
let mapN<'output> (f : obj) args =
let rec mapN' (state:obj) (args' : (obj option) list) =
match args' with
| Some x :: xs -> mapN' ((state :?> obj -> obj) x) xs
| None _ :: _ -> None
| [] -> state :?> 'output option
mapN' f args
let toObjOption (x : #obj option) =
Option.map (fun x -> x :> obj) x
let a = Some 5
let b = Some "hi"
let c = Some true
let ans = mapN<string> (fun x y z -> sprintf "%i %s %A" x y z) [a |> toObjOption; b |> toObjOption; c |> toObjOption]
(which takes the function passed in and applies one argument at a time) which compiles, but then at runtime I get the following:
System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'ans#47' to type
'Microsoft.FSharp.Core.FSharpFunc`2[System.Object,System.Object]'.
I realize that it would be more idiomatic to either create a computation expression for options, or to define map2 through map5 or so, but I specifically want to explore the dynamic capabilities of F# to see whether something like this would be possible.
Is this just a concept that can't be done in F#, or is there an approach that I'm missing?
I think you would only be able to take that approach with reflection.
However, there are other ways to solve the overall problem without having to go dynamic or use the other static options you mentioned. You can get a lot of the same convenience using Option.apply, which you need to define yourself (or take from a library). This code is stolen and adapted from F# for fun and profit:
module Option =
let apply fOpt xOpt =
match fOpt,xOpt with
| Some f, Some x -> Some (f x)
| _ -> None
let resultOption =
let (<*>) = Option.apply
Some (fun x y z -> sprintf "%i %s %A" x y z)
<*> Some 5
<*> Some "hi"
<*> Some true
To explain why your approach does not work, the problem is that you cannot cast a function of type int -> int (represented as FSharpFunc<int, int>) to a value of type obj -> obj (represented as FSharpFunc<obj, obj>). The types are the same generic types, but the cast fails because the generic parameters are different.
If you insert a lot of boxing and unboxing, then your function actually works, but this is probably not something you want to write:
let ans = mapN<string> (fun (x:obj) -> box (fun (y:obj) -> box (fun (z:obj) ->
box (Some(sprintf "%i %s %A" (unbox x) (unbox y) (unbox z))))))
[a |> toObjOption; b |> toObjOption; c |> toObjOption]
If you wanted to explore more options possible thanks to dynamic hacks - then you can probably do more using F# reflection. I would not typically use this in production (simple is better - I'd just define multiple map functions by hand or something like that), but the following runs:
let rec mapN<'R> f args =
match args with
| [] -> unbox<'R> f
| x::xs ->
let m = f.GetType().GetMethods() |> Seq.find (fun m ->
m.Name = "Invoke" && m.GetParameters().Length = 1)
mapN<'R> (m.Invoke(f, [| x |])) xs
mapN<obj> (fun a b c -> sprintf "%d %s %A" a b c) [box 1; box "hi"; box true]

How to implement the List Monad (computation expression) with a condition?

I'm trying to understand how to use F# computation expressions and it certainly puzzles me.
The following example makes some amount of sense to me.
type ListMonad() =
member o.Bind( (m:'a list), (f: 'a -> 'b list) ) = List.collect f m
member o.Return(x) = [x]
let list = ListMonad()
let test =
list {
let! x = [ 1 .. 10]
let! y = [2 .. 2 .. 20]
return (x,y)
}
My question is, how would you add a condition to this computation expression? Specifically, how would you alter it to return a list of elements only where the x value is strictly smaller than the y value? (Let's not filter it out afterward).
Since computation expressions can be parameterized, you might first think to try something like this:
let filterAndCollect (pred : 'a -> 'b -> bool) (f : 'a -> 'b list) (m : 'a list) =
let f' a = [ for b in f a do if pred a b then yield b ]
List.collect f' m
type FilteringListMonad(pred) =
member o.Bind( (m:'a list), (f: 'a -> 'b list) ) = filterAndCollect pred f m
member o.Return(x) = [x]
let filteredList = FilteringListMonad(fun x y -> x < y)
let test2 =
filteredList {
let! x = [1 .. 10]
let! y = [2 .. 2 .. 20]
return (x,y)
}
However, that fails with a type error on the (x,y) tuple:
This expression was expected to have type 'int' but here has type ''a * 'b'
There are also two compiler warnings: on the y of the x < y expression in the FilteringListMonad constructor, there's a warning:
This construct causes code to be less generic than indicated by the type annotations. The type variable 'a has been constrained to be type ''b'.
And on the number 1 in the let! x = [1 .. 10] expression, there's a warning:
This construct causes code to be less generic than indicated by the type annotations. The type variable 'b has been constrained to be type 'int'.
So between these two constraints, the return type of the computation expression (a 'b list) has been constrained to be int list, but your expression is returning a int * int list instead. After some thinking about the type constraints, you might conclude that there's no way this can work. But there's a way to make it work. The key is to realize that the 'b type that will be the output of your computation expression is, in this example, actually the tuple int * int, so you rewrite the predicate function to actually just take that 'b type, and then everything works:
let filterAndCollect (pred : 'b -> bool) (f : 'a -> 'b list) (m : 'a list) =
let f' a = [ for b in f a do if pred b then yield b ]
List.collect f' m
type FilteringListMonad(pred) =
member o.Bind( (m:'a list), (f: 'a -> 'b list) ) = filterAndCollect pred f m
member o.Return(x) = [x]
let filteredList = FilteringListMonad(fun (x:int,y:int) -> x < y)
let test2 =
filteredList {
let! x = [ 1 .. 10]
let! y = [2 .. 2 .. 20]
return (x,y)
}
Note that I also had to specify the types of the predicate function's inputs. Without that, F# was generalizing them to be "any type that implements System.IComparable, but I was passing in ints, which are value types and thus don't implement any interfaces. This led to the error
This expression was expected to have type 'System.IComparable' but here has type 'int'.
However, declaring both parameters to the predicate as int did the trick.
OP already accepted an answer, I will just provide a different approach which might be useful to help understand computation expressions in F#
One can extend computation expression with the useful ReturnFrom and Zero like so:
type ListMonad() =
member o.Bind (m, f) = List.collect f m
member o.Return x = [x]
member o.ReturnFrom l = l : _ list
member o.Zero () = []
let listM = ListMonad()
ReturnFrom allows us to return empty lists using return! [] as a result which enables filtering. Zero is a short-hand for this in that if the else branch isn't defined Zero is used.
This allows us to filter like so:
let test =
listM {
let! x = [ 1 .. 10]
let! y = [2 .. 2 .. 20]
if x % y = 0 then
return (x,y)
// By defining .Zero F# implicitly adds else branch if not defined
// else
// return! []
}
F# will expand the computation into something roughly like this:
let testEq =
[ 1 .. 10]
|> List.collect
(fun x ->
[2 .. 2 .. 20]
|> List.collect (fun y -> if x % y = 0 then [x,y] else [])
)

How do I write a computation expression builder that accumulates a value and also allows standard language constructs?

I have a computation expression builder that builds up a value as you go, and has many custom operations. However, it does not allow for standard F# language constructs, and I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to add this support.
To give a stand-alone example, here's a dead-simple and fairly pointless computation expression that builds F# lists:
type Items<'a> = Items of 'a list
type ListBuilder() =
member x.Yield(()) = Items []
[<CustomOperation("add")>]
member x.Add(Items current, item:'a) =
Items [ yield! current; yield item ]
[<CustomOperation("addMany")>]
member x.AddMany(Items current, items: seq<'a>) =
Items [ yield! current; yield! items ]
let listBuilder = ListBuilder()
let build (Items items) = items
I can use this to build lists just fine:
let stuff =
listBuilder {
add 1
add 5
add 7
addMany [ 1..10 ]
add 42
}
|> build
However, this is a compiler error:
listBuilder {
let x = 5 * 39
add x
}
// This expression was expected to have type unit, but
// here has type int.
And so is this:
listBuilder {
for x = 1 to 50 do
add x
}
// This control construct may only be used if the computation expression builder
// defines a For method.
I've read all the documentation and examples I can find, but there's something I'm just not getting. Every .Bind() or .For() method signature I try just leads to more and more confusing compiler errors. Most of the examples I can find either build up a value as you go along, or allow for regular F# language constructs, but I haven't been able to find one that does both.
If someone could point me in the right direction by showing me how to take this example and add support in the builder for let bindings and for loops (at minimum - using, while and try/catch would be great, but I can probably figure those out if someone gets me started) then I'll be able to gratefully apply the lesson to my actual problem.
The best place to look is the spec. For example,
b {
let x = e
op x
}
gets translated to
T(let x = e in op x, [], fun v -> v, true)
=> T(op x, {x}, fun v -> let x = e in v, true)
=> [| op x, let x = e in b.Yield(x) |]{x}
=> b.Op(let x = e in in b.Yield(x), x)
So this shows where things have gone wrong, though it doesn't present an obvious solution. Clearly, Yield needs to be generalized since it needs to take arbitrary tuples (based on how many variables are in scope). Perhaps more subtly, it also shows that x is not in scope in the call to add (see that unbound x as the second argument to b.Op?). To allow your custom operators to use bound variables, their arguments need to have the [<ProjectionParameter>] attribute (and take functions from arbitrary variables as arguments), and you'll also need to set MaintainsVariableSpace to true if you want bound variables to be available to later operators. This will change the final translation to:
b.Op(let x = e in b.Yield(x), fun x -> x)
Building up from this, it seems that there's no way to avoid passing the set of bound values along to and from each operation (though I'd love to be proven wrong) - this will require you to add a Run method to strip those values back off at the end. Putting it all together, you'll get a builder which looks like this:
type ListBuilder() =
member x.Yield(vars) = Items [],vars
[<CustomOperation("add",MaintainsVariableSpace=true)>]
member x.Add((Items current,vars), [<ProjectionParameter>]f) =
Items (current # [f vars]),vars
[<CustomOperation("addMany",MaintainsVariableSpace=true)>]
member x.AddMany((Items current, vars), [<ProjectionParameter>]f) =
Items (current # f vars),vars
member x.Run(l,_) = l
The most complete examples I've seen are in §6.3.10 of the spec, especially this one:
/// Computations that can cooperatively yield by returning a continuation
type Eventually<'T> =
| Done of 'T
| NotYetDone of (unit -> Eventually<'T>)
[<CompilationRepresentation(CompilationRepresentationFlags.ModuleSuffix)>]
module Eventually =
/// The bind for the computations. Stitch 'k' on to the end of the computation.
/// Note combinators like this are usually written in the reverse way,
/// for example,
/// e |> bind k
let rec bind k e =
match e with
| Done x -> NotYetDone (fun () -> k x)
| NotYetDone work -> NotYetDone (fun () -> bind k (work()))
/// The return for the computations.
let result x = Done x
type OkOrException<'T> =
| Ok of 'T
| Exception of System.Exception
/// The catch for the computations. Stitch try/with throughout
/// the computation and return the overall result as an OkOrException.
let rec catch e =
match e with
| Done x -> result (Ok x)
| NotYetDone work ->
NotYetDone (fun () ->
let res = try Ok(work()) with | e -> Exception e
match res with
| Ok cont -> catch cont // note, a tailcall
| Exception e -> result (Exception e))
/// The delay operator.
let delay f = NotYetDone (fun () -> f())
/// The stepping action for the computations.
let step c =
match c with
| Done _ -> c
| NotYetDone f -> f ()
// The rest of the operations are boilerplate.
/// The tryFinally operator.
/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result", "catch" and "bind".
let tryFinally e compensation =
catch (e)
|> bind (fun res -> compensation();
match res with
| Ok v -> result v
| Exception e -> raise e)
/// The tryWith operator.
/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result", "catch" and "bind".
let tryWith e handler =
catch e
|> bind (function Ok v -> result v | Exception e -> handler e)
/// The whileLoop operator.
/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result" and "bind".
let rec whileLoop gd body =
if gd() then body |> bind (fun v -> whileLoop gd body)
else result ()
/// The sequential composition operator
/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result" and "bind".
let combine e1 e2 =
e1 |> bind (fun () -> e2)
/// The using operator.
let using (resource: #System.IDisposable) f =
tryFinally (f resource) (fun () -> resource.Dispose())
/// The forLoop operator.
/// This is boilerplate in terms of "catch", "result" and "bind".
let forLoop (e:seq<_>) f =
let ie = e.GetEnumerator()
tryFinally (whileLoop (fun () -> ie.MoveNext())
(delay (fun () -> let v = ie.Current in f v)))
(fun () -> ie.Dispose())
// Give the mapping for F# computation expressions.
type EventuallyBuilder() =
member x.Bind(e,k) = Eventually.bind k e
member x.Return(v) = Eventually.result v
member x.ReturnFrom(v) = v
member x.Combine(e1,e2) = Eventually.combine e1 e2
member x.Delay(f) = Eventually.delay f
member x.Zero() = Eventually.result ()
member x.TryWith(e,handler) = Eventually.tryWith e handler
member x.TryFinally(e,compensation) = Eventually.tryFinally e compensation
member x.For(e:seq<_>,f) = Eventually.forLoop e f
member x.Using(resource,e) = Eventually.using resource e
The tutorial at "F# for fun and profit" is first class in this regard.
http://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/posts/computation-expressions-intro/
Following a similar struggle to Joel's (and not finding §6.3.10 of the spec that helpful) my issue with getting the For construct to generate a list came down to getting types to line up properly (no special attributes required). In particular I was slow to realise that For would build a list of lists, and therefore need flattening, despite the best efforts of the compiler to put me right. Examples that I found on the web were always wrappers around seq{}, using the yield keyword, repeated use of which invokes a call to Combine, which does the flattening. In case a concrete example helps, the following excerpt uses for to build a list of integers - my ultimate aim being to create lists of components for rendering in a GUI (with some additional laziness thrown in). Also In depth talk on CE here which elaborates on kvb's points above.
module scratch
type Dispatcher = unit -> unit
type viewElement = int
type lazyViews = Lazy<list<viewElement>>
type ViewElementsBuilder() =
member x.Return(views: lazyViews) : list<viewElement> = views.Value
member x.Yield(v: viewElement) : list<viewElement> = [v]
member x.ReturnFrom(viewElements: list<viewElement>) = viewElements
member x.Zero() = list<viewElement>.Empty
member x.Combine(listA:list<viewElement>, listB: list<viewElement>) = List.concat [listA; listB]
member x.Delay(f) = f()
member x.For(coll:seq<'a>, forBody: 'a -> list<viewElement>) : list<viewElement> =
// seq {for v in coll do yield! f v} |> List.ofSeq
Seq.map forBody coll |> Seq.collect id |> List.ofSeq
let ve = new ViewElementsBuilder()
let makeComponent(m: int, dispatch: Dispatcher) : viewElement = m
let makeComponents() : list<viewElement> = [77; 33]
let makeViewElements() : list<viewElement> =
let model = {| Scores = [33;23;22;43;] |> Seq.ofList; Trainer = "John" |}
let d:Dispatcher = fun() -> () // Does nothing here, but will be used to raise messages from UI
ve {
for score in model.Scores do
yield makeComponent (score, d)
yield makeComponent (score * 100 / 50 , d)
if model.Trainer = "John" then
return lazy
[ makeComponent (12, d)
makeComponent (13, d)
]
else
return lazy
[ makeComponent (14, d)
makeComponent (15, d)
]
yield makeComponent (33, d)
return! makeComponents()
}

Seq.fold and boolean accumulator

I can never find the source code of the F# core libraries. I know it is supposedly open but google is not kind to me in helping me locate it, if so I would have looked up the impl of Seq.fold - but here goes the question.
Does anybody see any issue with the following snippet:
let success = myList |>
Seq.fold
(fun acc item -> evaluation item)
false
Logically it doesn't seem to hold water and I can and will experiment to test it. But I wanted to ask the community. If any single evaluation inside of myList retruns false, I want the success variable to be false...
So the test:
let myList = [true; true]
let success = List.fold (fun acc item -> acc && item) true myList
and
let myList = [true; false; true]
let success = List.fold (fun acc item -> acc && item) true myList
do return the proper results - I just would be more comfy seeing the source...
I think what you're looking for is something like this:
let success = myList |>
Seq.fold
(fun acc item -> acc && evaluation item)
true
This also offers "short-circut" evaluation so that if acc is false from a previous evaluation, evaluation item won't run and the expression will simply return false.
MSDN documentation for fold operator
Seq.exists will short circuit:
let success =
[1;2;3;40;5;2]
|> Seq.exists (fun item->(item>30))
|> not
I get that this is an old question, but the following may be relevant to those who have a similar question.
About the specific question here
There already exists a function that returns false as soon as one element in a Sequence is false: Seq.forAll.
So the easiest answer to the question is in fact:
let success = Seq.forAll evaluation myList
which is slightly easier to grasp than TechNeilogy’s (rewritten) answer
let success = not (Seq.exists evaluation myList)
Both in the accepted answer by Wesley Wiser and in this answer, the evaluation function is not evaluated on the items after the first item that evaluates to fold.
But, as Pascal Cuoq correctly remarked, in the accepted answer all the elements of the remainder of the list are still iterated over, which is useless.
In contrast, Seq.forAll really stops iterating when there is no use to continue. So do Seq.exists, Seq.takeWhile, …
About short-circuiting a folding in general
There are other cases where one wants to short-circuit a folding. It can be done.
Step 1: Define a folder with some kind of indication that the state won’t change during the traversal the rest of the source sequence, and the folding should be short-circuited.
Step 2: Use Seq.scan instead of Seq.fold.
Seq.scan is like Seq.fold, takes the same arguments, but computes on-demand, and returns not just the final state, but the sequence of all intermediate states and the final state.
It follows that (for finite mySequence): Seq.last (Seq.scan folder initialState mySequence) = Seq.fold folder initialState mySequence
Step 3: Use a short-circuiting function on the output of Seq.scan. Take your pick: Seq.takeWhile, Seq.forall, Seq.exists, …
In the following example, the state becomes None when a duplicate element is found, which means that the scanning may be short-circuited.
let allDistinct mySequence =
let folder state element =
match state with
| Some elementsSoFar when not (Set.contains element elementsSoFar) ->
Some (Set.add element elementsSoFar)
| _ ->
None
let initialState = Some Set.empty
let scanning = Seq.scan folder initialState mySequence
Seq.forall Option.isSome scanning
Hmmmm, I upgraded my Visual Studio and F# recently, and can't seem to locate the directory containing the F# library code. But, for what its worth, Seq.fold is equivalent to the following:
let fold f seed items =
let mutable res = seed
for item in items do
res <- f res item
res
If any single evaluation inside of
myList retruns false, I want the
success variable to be false...
It depends on how your evaluation function is implemented. If you want to return false when any of your items are false, use Seq.forall instead.
something like this
let l = [true; true; true; false; true]
let eval x = x
let x = (true, l) ||> Seq.fold(fun acc item -> acc && (eval item))
or you want to stop evaluation on first false result?
let l = [true; false; true]
l |> Seq.forall id
As for the original source, here are the fold functions from the August 10, 2010 release.
Shouldn't really need to concern yourself over the implementation, but seeing it can often be educational.
// Seq module
let fold<'T,'State> f (x:'State) (source : seq<'T>) =
checkNonNull "source" source
use e = source.GetEnumerator()
let mutable state = x
while e.MoveNext() do
state <- f state e.Current;
state
// Array module
let fold<'T,'State> (f : 'State -> 'T -> 'State) (acc: 'State) (array:'T[]) = //'
checkNonNull "array" array
let f = OptimizedClosures.FSharpFunc<_,_,_>.Adapt(f)
let mutable state = acc
let len = array.Length
for i = 0 to len - 1 do
state <- f.Invoke(state,array.[i])
state
// List module
let fold<'T,'State> f (s:'State) (list: 'T list) =
match list with
| [] -> s
| _ ->
let f = OptimizedClosures.FSharpFunc<_,_,_>.Adapt(f)
let rec loop s xs =
match xs with
| [] -> s
| h::t -> loop (f.Invoke(s,h)) t
loop s list
// MapTree module (Used by Map module)
let rec fold (f:OptimizedClosures.FSharpFunc<_,_,_,_>) x m =
match m with
| MapEmpty -> x
| MapOne(k,v) -> f.Invoke(x,k,v)
| MapNode(k,v,l,r,_) ->
let x = fold f x l
let x = f.Invoke(x,k,v)
fold f x r
// Map module
let fold<'Key,'T,'State when 'Key : comparison> f (z:'State) (m:Map<'Key,'T>) = //'
let f = OptimizedClosures.FSharpFunc<_,_,_,_>.Adapt(f)
MapTree.fold f z m.Tree
// SetTree module (Used by Set module)
let rec fold f x m =
match m with
| SetNode(k,l,r,_) ->
let x = fold f x l in
let x = f x k
fold f x r
| SetOne(k) -> f x k
| SetEmpty -> x
// Set module
let fold<'T,'State when 'T : comparison> f (z:'State) (s : Set<'T>) = //'
SetTree.fold f z s.Tree

Handy F# snippets [closed]

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 10 years ago.
There are already two questions about F#/functional snippets.
However what I'm looking for here are useful snippets, little 'helper' functions that are reusable. Or obscure but nifty patterns that you can never quite remember.
Something like:
open System.IO
let rec visitor dir filter=
seq { yield! Directory.GetFiles(dir, filter)
for subdir in Directory.GetDirectories(dir) do
yield! visitor subdir filter}
I'd like to make this a kind of handy reference page. As such there will be no right answer, but hopefully lots of good ones.
EDIT Tomas Petricek has created a site specifically for F# snippets http://fssnip.net/.
Perl style regex matching
let (=~) input pattern =
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(input, pattern)
It lets you match text using let test = "monkey" =~ "monk.+" notation.
Infix Operator
I got this from http://sandersn.com/blog//index.php/2009/10/22/infix-function-trick-for-f go to that page for more details.
If you know Haskell, you might find yourself missing infix sugar in F#:
// standard Haskell call has function first, then args just like F#. So obviously
// here there is a function that takes two strings: string -> string -> string
startsWith "kevin" "k"
//Haskell infix operator via backQuotes. Sometimes makes a function read better.
"kevin" `startsWith` "K"
While F# doesn't have a true 'infix' operator, the same thing can be accomplished almost as elegantly via a pipeline and a 'backpipeline' (who knew of such a thing??)
// F# 'infix' trick via pipelines
"kevin" |> startsWith <| "K"
Multi-Line Strings
This is pretty trivial, but it seems to be a feature of F# strings that is not widely known.
let sql = "select a,b,c \
from table \
where a = 1"
This produces:
val sql : string = "select a,b,c from table where a = 1"
When the F# compiler sees a back-slash followed by a carriage return inside a string literal, it will remove everything from the back-slash to the first non-space character on the next line. This allows you to have multi-line string literals that line up, without using a bunch of string concatenation.
Generic memoization, courtesy of the man himself
let memoize f =
let cache = System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<_,_>(HashIdentity.Structural)
fun x ->
let ok, res = cache.TryGetValue(x)
if ok then res
else let res = f x
cache.[x] <- res
res
Using this, you could do a cached reader like so:
let cachedReader = memoize reader
Simple read-write to text files
These are trivial, but make file access pipeable:
open System.IO
let fileread f = File.ReadAllText(f)
let filewrite f s = File.WriteAllText(f, s)
let filereadlines f = File.ReadAllLines(f)
let filewritelines f ar = File.WriteAllLines(f, ar)
So
let replace f (r:string) (s:string) = s.Replace(f, r)
"C:\\Test.txt" |>
fileread |>
replace "teh" "the" |>
filewrite "C:\\Test.txt"
And combining that with the visitor quoted in the question:
let filereplace find repl path =
path |> fileread |> replace find repl |> filewrite path
let recurseReplace root filter find repl =
visitor root filter |> Seq.iter (filereplace find repl)
Update Slight improvement if you want to be able to read 'locked' files (e.g. csv files which are already open in Excel...):
let safereadall f =
use fs = new FileStream(f, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite)
use sr = new StreamReader(fs, System.Text.Encoding.Default)
sr.ReadToEnd()
let split sep (s:string) = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Split(s, sep)
let fileread f = safereadall f
let filereadlines f = f |> safereadall |> split System.Environment.NewLine
For performance intensive stuff where you need to check for null
let inline isNull o = System.Object.ReferenceEquals(o, null)
if isNull o then ... else ...
Is about 20x faster then
if o = null then ... else ...
Active Patterns, aka "Banana Splits", are a very handy construct that let one match against multiple regular expression patterns. This is much like AWK, but without the high performance of DFA's because the patterns are matched in sequence until one succeeds.
#light
open System
open System.Text.RegularExpressions
let (|Test|_|) pat s =
if (new Regex(pat)).IsMatch(s)
then Some()
else None
let (|Match|_|) pat s =
let opt = RegexOptions.None
let re = new Regex(pat,opt)
let m = re.Match(s)
if m.Success
then Some(m.Groups)
else None
Some examples of use:
let HasIndefiniteArticle = function
| Test "(?: |^)(a|an)(?: |$)" _ -> true
| _ -> false
type Ast =
| IntVal of string * int
| StringVal of string * string
| LineNo of int
| Goto of int
let Parse = function
| Match "^LET\s+([A-Z])\s*=\s*(\d+)$" g ->
IntVal( g.[1].Value, Int32.Parse(g.[2].Value) )
| Match "^LET\s+([A-Z]\$)\s*=\s*(.*)$" g ->
StringVal( g.[1].Value, g.[2].Value )
| Match "^(\d+)\s*:$" g ->
LineNo( Int32.Parse(g.[1].Value) )
| Match "^GOTO \s*(\d+)$" g ->
Goto( Int32.Parse(g.[1].Value) )
| s -> failwithf "Unexpected statement: %s" s
Maybe monad
type maybeBuilder() =
member this.Bind(v, f) =
match v with
| None -> None
| Some(x) -> f x
member this.Delay(f) = f()
member this.Return(v) = Some v
let maybe = maybeBuilder()
Here's a brief intro to monads for the uninitiated.
Option-coalescing operators
I wanted a version of the defaultArg function that had a syntax closer to the C# null-coalescing operator, ??. This lets me get the value from an Option while providing a default value, using a very concise syntax.
/// Option-coalescing operator - this is like the C# ?? operator, but works with
/// the Option type.
/// Warning: Unlike the C# ?? operator, the second parameter will always be
/// evaluated.
/// Example: let foo = someOption |? default
let inline (|?) value defaultValue =
defaultArg value defaultValue
/// Option-coalescing operator with delayed evaluation. The other version of
/// this operator always evaluates the default value expression. If you only
/// want to create the default value when needed, use this operator and pass
/// in a function that creates the default.
/// Example: let foo = someOption |?! (fun () -> new Default())
let inline (|?!) value f =
match value with Some x -> x | None -> f()
'Unitize' a function which doesn't handle units
Using the FloatWithMeasure function http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee806527(VS.100).aspx.
let unitize (f:float -> float) (v:float<'u>) =
LanguagePrimitives.FloatWithMeasure<'u> (f (float v))
Example:
[<Measure>] type m
[<Measure>] type kg
let unitize (f:float -> float) (v:float<'u>) =
LanguagePrimitives.FloatWithMeasure<'u> (f (float v))
//this function doesn't take units
let badinc a = a + 1.
//this one does!
let goodinc v = unitize badinc v
goodinc 3.<m>
goodinc 3.<kg>
OLD version:
let unitize (f:float -> float) (v:float<'u>) =
let unit = box 1. :?> float<'u>
unit * (f (v/unit))
Kudos to kvb
Scale/Ratio function builder
Again, trivial, but handy.
//returns a function which will convert from a1-a2 range to b1-b2 range
let scale (a1:float<'u>, a2:float<'u>) (b1:float<'v>,b2:float<'v>) =
let m = (b2 - b1)/(a2 - a1) //gradient of line (evaluated once only..)
(fun a -> b1 + m * (a - a1))
Example:
[<Measure>] type m
[<Measure>] type px
let screenSize = (0.<px>, 300.<px>)
let displayRange = (100.<m>, 200.<m>)
let scaleToScreen = scale displayRange screenSize
scaleToScreen 120.<m> //-> 60.<px>
Transposing a list (seen on Jomo Fisher's blog)
///Given list of 'rows', returns list of 'columns'
let rec transpose lst =
match lst with
| (_::_)::_ -> List.map List.head lst :: transpose (List.map List.tail lst)
| _ -> []
transpose [[1;2;3];[4;5;6];[7;8;9]] // returns [[1;4;7];[2;5;8];[3;6;9]]
And here is a tail-recursive version which (from my sketchy profiling) is mildly slower, but has the advantage of not throwing a stack overflow when the inner lists are longer than 10000 elements (on my machine):
let transposeTR lst =
let rec inner acc lst =
match lst with
| (_::_)::_ -> inner (List.map List.head lst :: acc) (List.map List.tail lst)
| _ -> List.rev acc
inner [] lst
If I was clever, I'd try and parallelise it with async...
F# Map <-> C# Dictionary
(I know, I know, System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary isn't really a 'C#' dictionary)
C# to F#
(dic :> seq<_>) //cast to seq of KeyValuePair
|> Seq.map (|KeyValue|) //convert KeyValuePairs to tuples
|> Map.ofSeq //convert to Map
(From Brian, here, with improvement proposed by Mauricio in comment below. (|KeyValue|) is an active pattern for matching KeyValuePair - from FSharp.Core - equivalent to (fun kvp -> kvp.Key, kvp.Value))
Interesting alternative
To get all of the immutable goodness, but with the O(1) lookup speed of Dictionary, you can use the dict operator, which returns an immutable IDictionary (see this question).
I currently can't see a way to directly convert a Dictionary using this method, other than
(dic :> seq<_>) //cast to seq of KeyValuePair
|> (fun kvp -> kvp.Key, kvp.Value) //convert KeyValuePairs to tuples
|> dict //convert to immutable IDictionary
F# to C#
let dic = Dictionary()
map |> Map.iter (fun k t -> dic.Add(k, t))
dic
What is weird here is that FSI will report the type as (for example):
val it : Dictionary<string,int> = dict [("a",1);("b",2)]
but if you feed dict [("a",1);("b",2)] back in, FSI reports
IDictionary<string,int> = seq[[a,1] {Key = "a"; Value = 1; } ...
Tree-sort / Flatten a tree into a list
I have the following binary tree:
___ 77 _
/ \
______ 47 __ 99
/ \
21 _ 54
\ / \
43 53 74
/
39
/
32
Which is represented as follows:
type 'a tree =
| Node of 'a tree * 'a * 'a tree
| Nil
let myTree =
Node
(Node
(Node (Nil,21,Node (Node (Node (Nil,32,Nil),39,Nil),43,Nil)),47,
Node (Node (Nil,53,Nil),54,Node (Nil,74,Nil))),77,Node (Nil,99,Nil))
A straightforward method to flatten the tree is:
let rec flatten = function
| Nil -> []
| Node(l, a, r) -> flatten l # a::flatten r
This isn't tail-recursive, and I believe the # operator causes it to be O(n log n) or O(n^2) with unbalanced binary trees. With a little tweaking, I came up with this tail-recursive O(n) version:
let flatten2 t =
let rec loop acc c = function
| Nil -> c acc
| Node(l, a, r) ->
loop acc (fun acc' -> loop (a::acc') c l) r
loop [] (fun x -> x) t
Here's the output in fsi:
> flatten2 myTree;;
val it : int list = [21; 32; 39; 43; 47; 53; 54; 74; 77; 99]
LINQ-to-XML helpers
namespace System.Xml.Linq
// hide warning about op_Explicit
#nowarn "77"
[<AutoOpen>]
module XmlUtils =
/// Converts a string to an XName.
let xn = XName.op_Implicit
/// Converts a string to an XNamespace.
let xmlns = XNamespace.op_Implicit
/// Gets the string value of any XObject subclass that has a Value property.
let inline xstr (x : ^a when ^a :> XObject) =
(^a : (member get_Value : unit -> string) x)
/// Gets a strongly-typed value from any XObject subclass, provided that
/// an explicit conversion to the output type has been defined.
/// (Many explicit conversions are defined on XElement and XAttribute)
/// Example: let value:int = xval foo
let inline xval (x : ^a when ^a :> XObject) : ^b =
((^a or ^b) : (static member op_Explicit : ^a -> ^b) x)
/// Dynamic lookup operator for getting an attribute value from an XElement.
/// Returns a string option, set to None if the attribute was not present.
/// Example: let value = foo?href
/// Example with default: let value = defaultArg foo?Name "<Unknown>"
let (?) (el:XElement) (name:string) =
match el.Attribute(xn name) with
| null -> None
| att -> Some(att.Value)
/// Dynamic operator for setting an attribute on an XElement.
/// Example: foo?href <- "http://www.foo.com/"
let (?<-) (el:XElement) (name:string) (value:obj) =
el.SetAttributeValue(xn name, value)
OK, this has nothing to do with snippets, but I keep forgetting this:
If you are in the interactive window, you hit F7 to jump back to the code window (without deselecting the code which you just ran...)
Going from code window to F# window (and also to open the F# window) is Ctrl Alt F
(unless CodeRush has stolen your bindings...)
Weighted sum of arrays
Calculating a weighted [n-array] sum of a [k-array of n-arrays] of numbers, based on a [k-array] of weights
(Copied from this question, and kvb's answer)
Given these arrays
let weights = [|0.6;0.3;0.1|]
let arrs = [| [|0.0453;0.065345;0.07566;1.562;356.6|] ;
[|0.0873;0.075565;0.07666;1.562222;3.66|] ;
[|0.06753;0.075675;0.04566;1.452;3.4556|] |]
We want a weighted sum (by column), given that both dimensions of the arrays can be variable.
Array.map2 (fun w -> Array.map ((*) w)) weights arrs
|> Array.reduce (Array.map2 (+))
First line: Partial application of the first Array.map2 function to weights yields a new function (Array.map ((*) weight) which is applied (for each weight) to each array in arr.
Second line: Array.reduce is like fold, except it starts on the second value and uses the first as the initial 'state'. In this case each value is a 'line' of our array of arrays. So applying an Array.map2 (+) on the first two lines means that we sum the first two arrays, which leaves us with a new array, which we then (Array.reduce) sum again onto the next (in this case last) array.
Result:
[|0.060123; 0.069444; 0.07296; 1.5510666; 215.40356|]
Performance testing
(Found here and updated for latest release of F#)
open System
open System.Diagnostics
module PerformanceTesting =
let Time func =
let stopwatch = new Stopwatch()
stopwatch.Start()
func()
stopwatch.Stop()
stopwatch.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds
let GetAverageTime timesToRun func =
Seq.initInfinite (fun _ -> (Time func))
|> Seq.take timesToRun
|> Seq.average
let TimeOperation timesToRun =
GC.Collect()
GetAverageTime timesToRun
let TimeOperations funcsWithName =
let randomizer = new Random(int DateTime.Now.Ticks)
funcsWithName
|> Seq.sortBy (fun _ -> randomizer.Next())
|> Seq.map (fun (name, func) -> name, (TimeOperation 100000 func))
let TimeOperationsAFewTimes funcsWithName =
Seq.initInfinite (fun _ -> (TimeOperations funcsWithName))
|> Seq.take 50
|> Seq.concat
|> Seq.groupBy fst
|> Seq.map (fun (name, individualResults) -> name, (individualResults |> Seq.map snd |> Seq.average))
DataSetExtensions for F#, DataReaders
System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll adds the ability to treat a DataTable as an IEnumerable<DataRow> as well as unboxing the values of individual cells in a way that gracefully handles DBNull by supporting System.Nullable. For example, in C# we can get the value of an integer column that contains nulls, and specify that DBNull should default to zero with a very concise syntax:
var total = myDataTable.AsEnumerable()
.Select(row => row.Field<int?>("MyColumn") ?? 0)
.Sum();
There are two areas where DataSetExtensions are lacking, however. First, it doesn't support IDataReader and second, it doesn't support the F# option type. The following code does both - it allows an IDataReader to be treated as a seq<IDataRecord>, and it can unbox values from either a reader or a dataset, with support for F# options or System.Nullable. Combined with the option-coalescing operator in another answer, this allows for code such as the following when working with a DataReader:
let total =
myReader.AsSeq
|> Seq.map (fun row -> row.Field<int option>("MyColumn") |? 0)
|> Seq.sum
Perhaps a more idiomatic F# way of ignoring database nulls would be...
let total =
myReader.AsSeq
|> Seq.choose (fun row -> row.Field<int option>("MyColumn"))
|> Seq.sum
Further, the extension methods defined below are usable from both F# and from C#/VB.
open System
open System.Data
open System.Reflection
open System.Runtime.CompilerServices
open Microsoft.FSharp.Collections
/// Ported from System.Data.DatasetExtensions.dll to add support for the Option type.
[<AbstractClass; Sealed>]
type private UnboxT<'a> private () =
// This class generates a converter function based on the desired output type,
// and then re-uses the converter function forever. Because the class itself is generic,
// different output types get different cached converter functions.
static let referenceField (value:obj) =
if value = null || DBNull.Value.Equals(value) then
Unchecked.defaultof<'a>
else
unbox value
static let valueField (value:obj) =
if value = null || DBNull.Value.Equals(value) then
raise <| InvalidCastException("Null cannot be converted to " + typeof<'a>.Name)
else
unbox value
static let makeConverter (target:Type) methodName =
Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof<Converter<obj,'a>>,
typeof<UnboxT<'a>>
.GetMethod(methodName, BindingFlags.NonPublic ||| BindingFlags.Static)
.MakeGenericMethod([| target.GetGenericArguments().[0] |]))
|> unbox<Converter<obj,'a>>
|> FSharpFunc.FromConverter
static let unboxFn =
let theType = typeof<'a>
if theType.IsGenericType && not theType.IsGenericTypeDefinition then
let genericType = theType.GetGenericTypeDefinition()
if typedefof<Nullable<_>> = genericType then
makeConverter theType "NullableField"
elif typedefof<option<_>> = genericType then
makeConverter theType "OptionField"
else
invalidOp "The only generic types supported are Option<T> and Nullable<T>."
elif theType.IsValueType then
valueField
else
referenceField
static member private NullableField<'b when 'b : struct and 'b :> ValueType and 'b:(new:unit -> 'b)> (value:obj) =
if value = null || DBNull.Value.Equals(value) then
Nullable<_>()
else
Nullable<_>(unbox<'b> value)
static member private OptionField<'b> (value:obj) =
if value = null || DBNull.Value.Equals(value) then
None
else
Some(unbox<'b> value)
static member inline Unbox =
unboxFn
/// F# data-related extension methods.
[<AutoOpen>]
module FsDataEx =
type System.Data.IDataReader with
/// Exposes a reader's current result set as seq<IDataRecord>.
/// Reader is closed when sequence is fully enumerated.
member this.AsSeq =
seq { use reader = this
while reader.Read() do yield reader :> IDataRecord }
/// Exposes all result sets in a reader as seq<seq<IDataRecord>>.
/// Reader is closed when sequence is fully enumerated.
member this.AsMultiSeq =
let rowSeq (reader:IDataReader) =
seq { while reader.Read() do yield reader :> IDataRecord }
seq {
use reader = this
yield rowSeq reader
while reader.NextResult() do
yield rowSeq reader
}
/// Populates a new DataSet with the contents of the reader. Closes the reader after completion.
member this.ToDataSet () =
use reader = this
let dataSet = new DataSet(RemotingFormat=SerializationFormat.Binary, EnforceConstraints=false)
dataSet.Load(reader, LoadOption.OverwriteChanges, [| "" |])
dataSet
type System.Data.IDataRecord with
/// Gets a value from the record by name.
/// DBNull and null are returned as the default value for the type.
/// Supports both nullable and option types.
member this.Field<'a> (fieldName:string) =
this.[fieldName] |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
/// Gets a value from the record by column index.
/// DBNull and null are returned as the default value for the type.
/// Supports both nullable and option types.
member this.Field<'a> (ordinal:int) =
this.GetValue(ordinal) |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
type System.Data.DataRow with
/// Identical to the Field method from DatasetExtensions, but supports the F# Option type.
member this.Field2<'a> (columnName:string) =
this.[columnName] |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
/// Identical to the Field method from DatasetExtensions, but supports the F# Option type.
member this.Field2<'a> (columnIndex:int) =
this.[columnIndex] |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
/// Identical to the Field method from DatasetExtensions, but supports the F# Option type.
member this.Field2<'a> (column:DataColumn) =
this.[column] |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
/// Identical to the Field method from DatasetExtensions, but supports the F# Option type.
member this.Field2<'a> (columnName:string, version:DataRowVersion) =
this.[columnName, version] |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
/// Identical to the Field method from DatasetExtensions, but supports the F# Option type.
member this.Field2<'a> (columnIndex:int, version:DataRowVersion) =
this.[columnIndex, version] |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
/// Identical to the Field method from DatasetExtensions, but supports the F# Option type.
member this.Field2<'a> (column:DataColumn, version:DataRowVersion) =
this.[column, version] |> UnboxT<'a>.Unbox
/// C# data-related extension methods.
[<Extension; AbstractClass; Sealed>]
type CsDataEx private () =
/// Populates a new DataSet with the contents of the reader. Closes the reader after completion.
[<Extension>]
static member ToDataSet(this:IDataReader) =
this.ToDataSet()
/// Exposes a reader's current result set as IEnumerable{IDataRecord}.
/// Reader is closed when sequence is fully enumerated.
[<Extension>]
static member AsEnumerable(this:IDataReader) =
this.AsSeq
/// Exposes all result sets in a reader as IEnumerable{IEnumerable{IDataRecord}}.
/// Reader is closed when sequence is fully enumerated.
[<Extension>]
static member AsMultipleEnumerable(this:IDataReader) =
this.AsMultiSeq
/// Gets a value from the record by name.
/// DBNull and null are returned as the default value for the type.
/// Supports both nullable and option types.
[<Extension>]
static member Field<'T> (this:IDataRecord, fieldName:string) =
this.Field<'T>(fieldName)
/// Gets a value from the record by column index.
/// DBNull and null are returned as the default value for the type.
/// Supports both nullable and option types.
[<Extension>]
static member Field<'T> (this:IDataRecord, ordinal:int) =
this.Field<'T>(ordinal)
Handling arguments in a command line application:
//We assume that the actual meat is already defined in function
// DoStuff (string -> string -> string -> unit)
let defaultOutOption = "N"
let defaultUsageOption = "Y"
let usage =
"Scans a folder for and outputs results.\n" +
"Usage:\n\t MyApplication.exe FolderPath [IncludeSubfolders (Y/N) : default=" +
defaultUsageOption + "] [OutputToFile (Y/N): default=" + defaultOutOption + "]"
let HandlArgs arr =
match arr with
| [|d;u;o|] -> DoStuff d u o
| [|d;u|] -> DoStuff d u defaultOutOption
| [|d|] -> DoStuff d defaultUsageOption defaultOutOption
| _ ->
printf "%s" usage
Console.ReadLine() |> ignore
[<EntryPoint>]
let main (args : string array) =
args |> HandlArgs
0
(I had a vague memory of this technique being inspired by Robert Pickering, but can't find a reference now)
A handy cache function that keeps up to max (key,reader(key)) in a dictionary and use a SortedList to track the MRU keys
let Cache (reader: 'key -> 'value) max =
let cache = new Dictionary<'key,LinkedListNode<'key * 'value>>()
let keys = new LinkedList<'key * 'value>()
fun (key : 'key) -> (
let found, value = cache.TryGetValue key
match found with
|true ->
keys.Remove value
keys.AddFirst value |> ignore
(snd value.Value)
|false ->
let newValue = key,reader key
let node = keys.AddFirst newValue
cache.[key] <- node
if (keys.Count > max) then
let lastNode = keys.Last
cache.Remove (fst lastNode.Value) |> ignore
keys.RemoveLast() |> ignore
(snd newValue))
Creating XElements
Nothing amazing, but I keep getting caught out by the implicit conversion of XNames:
#r "System.Xml.Linq.dll"
open System.Xml.Linq
//No! ("type string not compatible with XName")
//let el = new XElement("MyElement", "text")
//better
let xn s = XName.op_Implicit s
let el = new XElement(xn "MyElement", "text")
//or even
let xEl s o = new XElement(xn s, o)
let el = xEl "MyElement" "text"
Pairwise and pairs
I always expect Seq.pairwise to give me [(1,2);(3;4)] and not [(1,2);(2,3);(3,4)]. Given that neither exist in List, and that I needed both, here's the code for future reference. I think they're tail recursive.
//converts to 'windowed tuples' ([1;2;3;4;5] -> [(1,2);(2,3);(3,4);(4,5)])
let pairwise lst =
let rec loop prev rem acc =
match rem with
| hd::tl -> loop hd tl ((prev,hd)::acc)
| _ -> List.rev acc
loop (List.head lst) (List.tail lst) []
//converts to 'paged tuples' ([1;2;3;4;5;6] -> [(1,2);(3,4);(5,6)])
let pairs lst =
let rec loop rem acc =
match rem with
| l::r::tl -> loop tl ((l,r)::acc)
| l::[] -> failwith "odd-numbered list"
| _ -> List.rev acc
loop lst []
Naive CSV reader (i.e., won't handle anything nasty)
(Using filereadlines and List.transpose from other answers here)
///Given a file path, returns a List of row lists
let ReadCSV =
filereadlines
>> Array.map ( fun line -> line.Split([|',';';'|]) |> List.ofArray )
>> Array.toList
///takes list of col ids and list of rows,
/// returns array of columns (in requested order)
let GetColumns cols rows =
//Create filter
let pick cols (row:list<'a>) = List.map (fun i -> row.[i]) cols
rows
|> transpose //change list of rows to list of columns
|> pick cols //pick out the columns we want
|> Array.ofList //an array output is easier to index for user
Example
"C:\MySampleCSV"
|> ReadCSV
|> List.tail //skip header line
|> GetColumns [0;3;1] //reorder columns as well, if needs be.
Date Range
simple but useful list of dates between fromDate and toDate
let getDateRange fromDate toDate =
let rec dates (fromDate:System.DateTime) (toDate:System.DateTime) =
seq {
if fromDate <= toDate then
yield fromDate
yield! dates (fromDate.AddDays(1.0)) toDate
}
dates fromDate toDate
|> List.ofSeq
toggle code to sql
More trivial than most on this list, but handy nonetheless:
I'm always taking sql in and out of code to move it to a sql environment during development. Example:
let sql = "select a,b,c "
+ "from table "
+ "where a = 1"
needs to be 'stripped' to:
select a,b,c
from table
where a = 1
keeping the formatting. It's a pain to strip out the code symbols for the sql editor, then put them back again by hand when I've got the sql worked out. These two functions toggle the sql back and forth from code to stripped:
// reads the file with the code quoted sql, strips code symbols, dumps to FSI
let stripForSql fileName =
File.ReadAllText(fileName)
|> (fun s -> Regex.Replace(s, "\+(\s*)\"", ""))
|> (fun s -> s.Replace("\"", ""))
|> (fun s -> Regex.Replace(s, ";$", "")) // end of line semicolons
|> (fun s -> Regex.Replace(s, "//.+", "")) // get rid of any comments
|> (fun s -> printfn "%s" s)
then when you are ready to put it back into your code source file:
let prepFromSql fileName =
File.ReadAllText(fileName)
|> (fun s -> Regex.Replace(s, #"\r\n", " \"\r\n+\"")) // matches newline
|> (fun s -> Regex.Replace(s, #"\A", " \""))
|> (fun s -> Regex.Replace(s, #"\z", " \""))
|> (fun s -> printfn "%s" s)
I'd love to get rid of the input file but can't even begin to grok how to make that happen. anyone?
edit:
I figured out how to eliminate the requirement of a file for these functions by adding a windows forms dialog input/output. Too much code to show, but for those who would like to do such a thing, that's how I solved it.
Pascal's Triangle (hey, someone might find it useful)
So we want to create a something like this:
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
Easy enough:
let rec next = function
| [] -> []
| x::y::xs -> (x + y)::next (y::xs)
| x::xs -> x::next xs
let pascal n =
seq { 1 .. n }
|> List.scan (fun acc _ -> next (0::acc) ) [1]
The next function returns a new list where each item[i] = item[i] + item[i + 1].
Here's the output in fsi:
> pascal 10 |> Seq.iter (printfn "%A");;
[1]
[1; 1]
[1; 2; 1]
[1; 3; 3; 1]
[1; 4; 6; 4; 1]
[1; 5; 10; 10; 5; 1]
[1; 6; 15; 20; 15; 6; 1]
[1; 7; 21; 35; 35; 21; 7; 1]
[1; 8; 28; 56; 70; 56; 28; 8; 1]
[1; 9; 36; 84; 126; 126; 84; 36; 9; 1]
[1; 10; 45; 120; 210; 252; 210; 120; 45; 10; 1]
For the adventurous, here's a tail-recursive version:
let rec next2 cont = function
| [] -> cont []
| x::y::xs -> next2 (fun l -> cont <| (x + y)::l ) <| y::xs
| x::xs -> next2 (fun l -> cont <| x::l ) <| xs
let pascal2 n =
set { 1 .. n }
|> Seq.scan (fun acc _ -> next2 id <| 0::acc)) [1]
Flatten a List
if you have something like this:
let listList = [[1;2;3;];[4;5;6]]
and want to 'flatten' it down to a singe list so the result is like this:
[1;2;3;4;5;6]
it can be done thusly:
let flatten (l: 'a list list) =
seq {
yield List.head (List.head l)
for a in l do yield! (Seq.skip 1 a)
}
|> List.ofSeq
List comprehensions for float
This [23.0 .. 1.0 .. 40.0] was marked as deprecated a few versions backed.
But apparently, this works:
let dl = 9.5 / 11.
let min = 21.5 + dl
let max = 40.5 - dl
let a = [ for z in min .. dl .. max -> z ]
let b = a.Length
(BTW, there's a floating point gotcha in there. Discovered at fssnip - the other place for F# snippets)
Parallel map
let pmap f s =
seq { for a in s -> async { return f s } }
|> Async.Parallel
|> Async.Run

Resources