Converting strings in F# - f#

I am attempting to convert a file name like the following:
ten_of_clubs.png
to
10_of_clubs.png
However, I do not like my implementation:
let getFile (card: Card Option) =
let fileName =
match card with
| Some card -> (getUnionTypeName card.Face + "_of_" + getUnionTypeName card.Suit + ".png").ToLower()
| None -> ""
let delimitedName = fileName.Split '_'
let currentFace = delimitedName.[0]
let updatedFace =
match currentFace with
| "two" -> "2"
| "three" -> "3"
| "four" -> "4"
| "five" -> "5"
| "six" -> "6"
| "seven" -> "7"
| "eight" -> "8"
| "nine" -> "9"
| "ten" -> "10"
| _ -> currentFace
updatedFace + "_" + delimitedName.[1] + "_" + delimitedName.[2]
In F#, how can I just change the first element of a string without referencing all elements?
Example:
updatedFace + "_" + delimitedName.[1] + "_" + delimitedName.[2]
to
updatedFace + "_" + delimitedName.[1..]

There's no reason to first construct a formatted string, then split it, and finally create a new formatted string.
Assuming that your intent is to return the empty string in the None case, you can do something like this:
let getFile card =
let digitize candidate =
match candidate with
| "Two" -> "2"
| "Three" -> "3"
| "Four" -> "4"
| "Five" -> "5"
| "Six" -> "6"
| "Seven" -> "7"
| "Eight" -> "8"
| "Nine" -> "9"
| "Ten" -> "10"
| _ -> candidate
match card with
| Some c ->
let face = c.Face |> string |> digitize
let suit = c.Suit |> string
sprintf "%s_of_%s.png" face suit
| None -> ""
Here, I've assumed that the Face and Suit types override ToString instead of relying on a function called getUnionTypeName that I don't know of. This enables you to use the built-in function string (which simply calls ToString ()).
Ad hoc tests:
> Some { Face = Ten; Suit = Clubs } |> getFile;;
val it : string = "10_of_Clubs.png"
> Some { Face = Jack; Suit = Clubs } |> getFile;;
val it : string = "Jack_of_Clubs.png"
> None |> getFile;;
val it : string = ""
That digitize function looks like a candidate for a general-purpose function, and I wonder if the BCL doesn't already have something like that lying around in its Globalization namespace... Otherwise, I'm sure there are hundreds of NuGet packages out there that implement such functionality...
It turns out that there aren't hundreds of NuGet packages that already do this, so I created one, called Numsense. With it, you can simplify the getFile function to this:
open Ploeh.Numsense
let getFile card =
let digitize candidate =
match Numeral.tryParseEnglish candidate with
| Some i -> string i
| None -> candidate
match card with
| Some c ->
let face = c.Face |> string |> digitize
let suit = c.Suit |> string
sprintf "%s_of_%s.png" face suit
| None -> ""

After splitting your string by _ you get an array of parts. Array is mutable Collection. You can change First by your function and then concatenate by _ again.
let parts = myString.Split [|'_'|]
parts.[0] <- toNumber parts.[0]
String.concat "_" parts

Related

How to construct a match expression

I am allowing a command-line parameter like this --10GB, where -- and GB are constant, but a number like 1, 10, or 100 could be substituted in between the constant values, like --5GB.
I could easily parse the start and end of the string with substr or written a command line parser, but wanted to use match instead. I am just not sure how to structure the match expression.
let GB1 = cvt_bytes_to_gb(int64(DiskFreeLevels.GB1))
let arg = argv.[0]
let match_head = "--"
let match_tail = "GB"
let parse_min_gb_arg arg =
match arg with
| match_head & match_tail -> cvt_gb_arg_to_int arg
| _ -> volLib.GB1
I get a warning saying _ This rule will never be matched. How should the what is an AND expression be constructed?
You can't match on strings, except matching on the whole value, e.g. match s with | "1" -> 1 | "2" -> 2 ...
Parsing beginning and end would be the most efficient way to do this, there is no need to get clever (this, by the way, is a universally true statement).
But if you really want to use pattern matching, it is definitely possible to do, but you'll have to make yourself some custom matchers (also known as "active patterns").
First, make a custom matcher that would parse out the "middle" part of the string surrounded by prefix and suffix:
let (|StrBetween|_|) starts ends (str: string) =
if str.StartsWith starts && str.EndsWith ends then
Some (str.Substring(starts.Length, str.Length - ends.Length - starts.Length))
else
None
Usage:
let x = match "abcd" with
| StrBetween "a" "d" s -> s
| _ -> "nope"
// x = "bc"
Then make a custom matcher that would parse out an integer:
let (|Int|_|) (s: string) =
match System.Int32.TryParse s with
| true, i -> Some i
| _ -> None
Usage:
let x = match "15" with
| Int i -> i
| _ -> 0
// x = 15
Now, combine the two:
let x = match "--10GB" with
| StrBetween "--" "GB" (Int i) -> i
| _ -> volLib.GB1
// x = 10
This ability of patterns to combine and nest is their primary power: you get to build a complicated pattern out of small, easily understandable pieces, and have the compiler match it to the input. That's basically why it's called "pattern matching". :-)
The best I can come up with is using a partial active pattern:
let (|GbFormat|_|) (x:string) =
let prefix = "--"
let suffix = "GB"
if x.StartsWith(prefix) && x.EndsWith(suffix) then
let len = x.Length - prefix.Length - suffix.Length
Some(x.Substring(prefix.Length, len))
else
None
let parse_min_gb_arg arg =
match arg with
| GbFormat gb -> gb
| _ -> volLib.GB1
parse_min_gb_arg "--42GB"

Pattern matching numeric strings

I have a function that pattern matches its argument, which is a string:
let processLexime lexime
match lexime with
| "abc" -> ...
| "bar" -> ...
| "cat" -> ...
| _ -> ...
This works as expected. However, I'm now trying to extend this by expressing "match a string containing only the following characters". In my specific example, I want anything containing only digits to be matched.
My question is, how can I express this in F#? I'd prefer to do this without any libraries such as FParsec, since I'm mainly doing this for learning purposes.
You can use active patterns: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd233248.aspx
let (|Integer|_|) (str: string) =
let mutable intvalue = 0
if System.Int32.TryParse(str, &intvalue) then Some(intvalue)
else None
let parseNumeric str =
match str with
| Integer i -> printfn "%d : Integer" i
| _ -> printfn "%s : Not matched." str
One way would be an active pattern
let (|Digits|_|) (s:string) =
s.ToCharArray() |> Array.forall (fun c -> System.Char.IsDigit(c)) |> function |true -> Some(s) |false -> None
then you can do
match "1" with
|Digits(t) -> printf "matched"
I would use regular expressions combined with active patterns. With regular expressions you can easily match digits with \d and active patterns makes the syntax nice inside your match.
open System.Text.RegularExpressions
let (|ParseRegex|_|) regex str =
let m = Regex("^"+regex+"$").Match(str)
if (m.Success) then Some true else None
let Printmatch s =
match s with
| ParseRegex "w+" d -> printfn "only w"
| ParseRegex "(w+|s+)+" d -> printfn "only w and s"
| ParseRegex "\d+" d -> printfn "only digis"
|_ -> printfn "wrong"
[<EntryPoint>]
let main argv =
Printmatch "www"
Printmatch "ssswwswwws"
Printmatch "134554"
Printmatch "1dwd3ddwwd"
0
which prints
only w
only w and s
only digis
wrong

How can I remove a character from a string while doing character by character processing?

I'm fairly new to F# but I'm struggling to find how to properly represent the null character in the language. Can anyone tell me how to represent the null character in F#?
More to the point, what started me down the path is I'm trying to do some string processing with String.mapi, but I can't figure out how to remove a character in the below function:
let GetTargetFrameworkFolder version =
let versionMapper i c =
match c with
| 'v' -> if i = 0 then char(0x000) else c
| '.' -> char(0x000)
| _ -> c
match version with
| "v3.5" -> "net35"
| "v4.0" -> "net40"
| "v4.5" -> "net45"
| vers -> vers |> String.mapi versionMapper
GetTargetFrameworkFolder "v4.5.1" |> Dump
How can I remove a character from a string while doing character by character processing, as in the case with String.map and String.mapi?
You cannot remove a character using String.mapi, as this function maps exactly one character from the input to one character from the output. The null character is not the same thing as removing a character; it's just another character that happens to have the code 0.
In your case, if I understand correctly you want to remove the initial 'v' (if any) and remove dots. I would do it like this:
let GetTargetFrameworkFolder version =
match version with
| "v3.5" -> "net35"
| "v4.0" -> "net40"
| "v4.5" -> "net45"
| vers ->
let vers = if vers.[0] = 'v' then vers.[1..] else vers
vers.Replace(".", "")
Another way of doing this if you wanted to keep your original approach would be to write your own choose function for strings:
module String =
let choosei predicate str =
let sb = System.Text.StringBuilder()
let choose i (c:char) =
match predicate i c with
| Some(x) -> sb.Append(c) |> ignore
| None -> ()
str |> String.iteri choose
sb.ToString()
Then use it as follows:
let GetTargetFrameworkFolder version =
let versionMapper i = function
| 'v' when i = 0 -> None
| '.' -> None
| c -> Some(c)
match version with
| "v3.5" -> "net35"
| "v4.0" -> "net40"
| "v4.5" -> "net45"
| vers -> vers |> String.choosei versionMapper
GetTargetFrameworkFolder "v4.5.1" |> Dump
You can achieve this by using an array comprehension:
let GetTargetFrameworkFolder version =
match version with
| "v3.5" -> "net35"
| "v4.0" -> "net40"
| "v4.5" -> "net45"
| vers -> new String([|
for i in 0 .. vers.Length - 1 do
match i, vers.[i] with
| 0, 'v' | _, '.' -> () // skip 'v' at [0] and all '.'s
| _, c -> yield c // let everything else through
|])
By character processing while removing a character is filtering (string is a sequence of char):
let version (s: String) =
s
|> Seq.filter (fun ch -> ch <> '.' && ch <> 'v')
|> String.Concat
UPDATE:
To skip first 'v':
let version (s: String) =
s
|> Seq.skip (if s.StartsWith "v" then 1 else 0)
|> Seq.filter ((<>) '.')
|> String.Concat

Create Discriminated Union Case from String

I'm trying to create DU cases from strings. The only way I can see doing this is by enumerating over the DU cases via Microsoft.FSharp.Reflection.FSharpType.GetUnionCases and then picking the UnionCase that matches the string (by using .Name) and then making the actual DU case out of that by using FSharpValue.MakeUnion.
Isn't there an easier/more elegant way of doing this? In my scenario I have a DU with a couple of hundred cases for keywords. I have to read the strings (keywords) from a file and make the types out of them. I did some "optimization" by putting the cases into a Map but I was hoping there'd be a better way of doing this.
I have the following, for example:
type Keyword =
| FOO
| BAR
| BAZ
| BLAH
let mkKeywords (file: string) =
use sr = new StreamReader(file)
let caseMap =
FSharpType.GetUnionCases(typeof<Keyword>)
|> Array.map (fun c -> (c.Name, FSharpValue.MakeUnion(c, [||]) :?> Keyword))
|> Map.ofArray
[
while not sr.EndOfStream do
let l = sr.ReadLine().Trim()
match caseMap.TryFind l with
| Some c -> yield c
| None -> failwith <| "Could not find keyword: " + l
]
I found this handy code snippet...
open Microsoft.FSharp.Reflection
let toString (x:'a) =
let (case, _ ) = FSharpValue.GetUnionFields(x, typeof<'a>)
case.Name
let fromString<'a> (s:string) =
match FSharpType.GetUnionCases typeof<'a> |> Array.filter (fun case -> case.Name = s) with
|[|case|] -> Some(FSharpValue.MakeUnion(case,[||]) :?> 'a)
|_ -> None
... which makes it easy to tack on two lines of code to any DU...
type A = X|Y|Z with
override this.ToString() = FSharpUtils.toString this
static member fromString s = FSharpUtils.fromString<A> s
I would use pattern matching like this:
type Keyword =
| FOO
| BAR
| BAZ
| BLAH
let matchKeyword (word:string) : Keyword option =
match word with
| "FOO" -> Some FOO
| "BAR" -> Some BAR
| "BAZ" -> Some BAZ
| "BLAH" -> Some BLAH
| _ -> None
And maybe auto generate the match statement first time using regex in my editor, but only because you have hundreds of cases. But i am not sure if its a better solution then yours.
As the cases have no value, another option is to use enums:
type Keyword =
| FOO = 0
| BAR = 1
| BAZ = 2
| BLAH = 3
let strings = ["FOO";"BAR"]
let keywords =
[for s in strings -> s, Keyword.Parse(typeof<Keyword>, s)]
|> Map.ofList
Then you can simply use Enum.Parse.

Literal Attribute not working

After reading Chris' answer to F# - public literal and the blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chrsmith/archive/2008/10/03/f-zen-the-literal-attribute.aspx I don't get why the following is not working:
[<Literal>]
let one = 1
[<Literal>]
let two = 2
let trymatch x =
match x with
| one -> printfn "%A" one
| two -> printfn "%A" two
| _ -> printfn "none"
trymatch 3
This keeps printing "3", although I think it shouldn't. What is it that I don't see here?
I think that literals need to be Uppercase. The following works fine:
[<Literal>]
let One = 1
[<Literal>]
let Two = 2
let trymatch x =
match x with
| One -> printfn "%A" One
| Two -> printfn "%A" Two
| _ -> printfn "none"
trymatch 3
In addition, if you want a nice general solution for this without using literals, you can define a parameterized active pattern like this:
let (|Equals|_|) expected actual =
if actual = expected then Some() else None
And then just write
let one = 1
let two = 2
let trymatch x =
match x with
| Equals one -> printfn "%A" one
| Equals two -> printfn "%A" two
| _ -> printfn "none"
The other answers are right - you must start your identifier with an uppercase letter. See section 7.1.2 of the spec (Named Patterns), which states that:
If long-ident is a single identifier that does not begin with an uppercase character then it is always interpreted as a variable-binding pattern and represents a variable that is bound by the pattern
Also if you don't want to have Uppercase literals you can put them in a module (here named Const):
module Const =
[<Literal>]
let one = 1
[<Literal>]
let two = 2
let trymatch x =
match x with
| Const.one -> printfn "%A" Const.one
| Const.two -> printfn "%A" Const.two
| _ -> printfn "none"
trymatch 3
Don't ask me why, but it works when you write your literals uppercase:
[<Literal>]
let One = 1
[<Literal>]
let Two = 2
let trymatch (x:int) =
match x with
| One -> printfn "%A" One
| Two -> printfn "%A" Two
| _ -> printfn "none"
trymatch 3

Resources