How to make an auto text suggestion system? - lua

If a user enters an invalid command then it returns the closest string to the user's input.
source = {"foo", "foo1"}
Suggest = function (input, source)
--do stuff
end
Thus when the user enters an undefined command "fo", for example it returns "foo".
Sorry if this is poorly explained, in a hurry.

You can use Levenshtein or Damerau–Levenshtein distance function to find commands closest to input. Here is a C library implementing both of these functions. Here is Levenshtein distance implemented in Lua.
The following function assumes distance is the distance function of choice. It takes optional radius argument to specify maximum distance from input to suggestion(you may not want to provide any suggestion if user entered something very strange, far from any existing commands). It returns an array of suggestions.
function suggest(input, source, radius)
local result = {}
local min_distance = radius or math.huge
for _, command in ipairs(source) do
local current_distance = distance(input, command)
if current_distance < min_distance then
min_distance = current_distance
result = {command}
elseif current_distance == min_distance then
table.insert(result, command)
end
end
return result
end
Note that this search algorithm is quite inefficient. It may or may not be a problem for you depending on number of commands and rate of searches.

Related

Performing an "online" linear interpolation

I have a problem where I need to do a linear interpolation on some data as it is acquired from a sensor (it's technically position data, but the nature of the data doesn't really matter). I'm doing this now in matlab, but since I will eventually migrate this code to other languages, I want to keep the code as simple as possible and not use any complicated matlab-specific/built-in functions.
My implementation initially seems OK, but when checking my work against matlab's built-in interp1 function, it seems my implementation isn't perfect, and I have no idea why. Below is the code I'm using on a dataset already fully collected, but as I loop through the data, I act as if I only have the current sample and the previous sample, which mirrors the problem I will eventually face.
%make some dummy data
np = 109; %number of data points for x and y
x_data = linspace(3,98,np) + (normrnd(0.4,0.2,[1,np]));
y_data = normrnd(2.5, 1.5, [1,np]);
%define the query points the data will be interpolated over
qp = [1:100];
kk=2; %indexes through the data
cc = 1; %indexes through the query points
qpi = qp(cc); %qpi is the current query point in the loop
y_interp = qp*nan; %this will hold our solution
while kk<=length(x_data)
kk = kk+1; %update the data counter
%perform online interpolation
if cc<length(qp)-1
if qpi>=y_data(kk-1) %the query point, of course, has to be in-between the current value and the next value of x_data
y_interp(cc) = myInterp(x_data(kk-1), x_data(kk), y_data(kk-1), y_data(kk), qpi);
end
if qpi>x_data(kk), %if the current query point is already larger than the current sample, update the sample
kk = kk+1;
else %otherwise, update the query point to ensure its in between the samples for the next iteration
cc = cc + 1;
qpi = qp(cc);
%It is possible that if the change in x_data is greater than the resolution of the query
%points, an update like the above wont work. In this case, we must lag the data
if qpi<x_data(kk),
kk=kk-1;
end
end
end
end
%get the correct interpolation
y_interp_correct = interp1(x_data, y_data, qp);
%plot both solutions to show the difference
figure;
plot(y_interp,'displayname','manual-solution'); hold on;
plot(y_interp_correct,'k--','displayname','matlab solution');
leg1 = legend('show');
set(leg1,'Location','Best');
ylabel('interpolated points');
xlabel('query points');
Note that the "myInterp" function is as follows:
function yi = myInterp(x1, x2, y1, y2, qp)
%linearly interpolate the function value y(x) over the query point qp
yi = y1 + (qp-x1) * ( (y2-y1)/(x2-x1) );
end
And here is the plot showing that my implementation isn't correct :-(
Can anyone help me find where the mistake is? And why? I suspect it has something to do with ensuring that the query point is in-between the previous and current x-samples, but I'm not sure.
The problem in your code is that you at times call myInterp with a value of qpi that is outside of the bounds x_data(kk-1) and x_data(kk). This leads to invalid extrapolation results.
Your logic of looping over kk rather than cc is very confusing to me. I would write a simple for loop over cc, which are the points at which you want to interpolate. For each of these points, advance kk, if necessary, such that qp(cc) is in between x_data(kk) and x_data(kk+1) (you can use kk-1 and kk instead if you prefer, just initialize kk=2 to ensure that kk-1 exists, I just find starting at kk=1 more intuitive).
To simplify the logic here, I'm limiting the values in qp to be inside the limits of x_data, so that we don't need to test to ensure that x_data(kk+1) exists, nor that x_data(1)<pq(cc). You can add those tests in if you wish.
Here's my code:
qp = [ceil(x_data(1)+0.1):floor(x_data(end)-0.1)];
y_interp = qp*nan; % this will hold our solution
kk=1; % indexes through the data
for cc=1:numel(qp)
% advance kk to where we can interpolate
% (this loop is guaranteed to not index out of bounds because x_data(end)>qp(end),
% but needs to be adjusted if this is not ensured prior to the loop)
while x_data(kk+1) < qp(cc)
kk = kk + 1;
end
% perform online interpolation
y_interp(cc) = myInterp(x_data(kk), x_data(kk+1), y_data(kk), y_data(kk+1), qp(cc));
end
As you can see, the logic is a lot simpler this way. The result is identical to y_interp_correct. The inner while x_data... loop serves the same purpose as your outer while loop, and would be the place where you read your data from wherever it's coming from.

Multiple Messages & Issues Searching Lua Tables

I am attempting to make a Lua script for an online community I am a part of, I am having a problem when I attempt to search through a table array I believe. It doesn't detect the results I want.
The way it is supposed to work is that when someone types /gps [streetname] it will search the table at the top, detect the matching streetname & the coordinates and then set a waypoint to that relevant position.
At the moment it works when there is just one entry in the table, but when I put more, it will provide the error message for any non-matching streets & then the waypoint set message for the matching streets. I've Googled and don't appear to be able to find anything to help.
Any help would be appreciated.
waypoint = {
{404.08, -920.23, 'sinnerstreet', 'Sinner Street'},
{360.85, -956.46, 'atleestreet', 'Atlee Street'},
{500.48, -956.80, 'littlebighornavenue', 'Little Bighorn Avenue'},
}
RegisterCommand('gps', function(source, args, rawCommand)
for k,v in pairs(waypoint) do
x, y, streetname, displayname = table.unpack(v)
results = ""
if args[1] == nil then
if IsWaypointActive() then
SetWaypointOff()
TriggerEvent('chatMessage', '^1^*GPS Navigation: ^r^7Your GPS system has been reset.')
return end
elseif args[2] == nil and args[3] == nil then
results = args[1]
elseif args[2] ~= nil and args[3] == nil then
results = args[1] .. args[2]
else
results = args[1] .. args[2] .. args[3]
end
results = string.lower(results) -- This convertes the args into lower case
end
-- This locates the streetname and sets a waypoint to it for the player
if string.find(streetname, results) then
SetNewWaypoint(x, y)
TriggerEvent('chatMessage', '^1^*GPS Navigation: ^r^7Your waypoint to ^1' .. displayname .. '^r^7 has been set.')
else
TriggerEvent('chatMessage', '^1^*GPS Navigation: ^r^7There has been an error with your street name, please try again.')
end
end)
TriggerEvent('chat:addSuggestion', '/gps', 'This creates a waypoint to your designated street. ^*USE: /gps [streetname]')
To be honest, your code makes little to no sense, and it's probably because you're not using all the nice stuff Lua has to offer.
{404.08, -920.23, 'sinnerstreet', 'Sinner Street'},
You're storing redundant data there. The third value is really just the fourth one with spaces removed and all lowercase.
'sinnerstreet' == ('Sinner Street'):gsub("[^%l]", ""):lower()
In english: take "Sinner Street", globally (meaning in the entire string) substitute everything that is not a lowercase (%l) letter with nothing (""), then make the result of that lowercase. What you get is "sinnerstreet".
x, y, streetname, displayname = table.unpack(v)
Using globals there, that's not good. Globals are the devil. Don't use them.
Then, a few lines further down:
SetNewWaypoint(x, y)
Think about it for a moment. You set x and y in each iteration of your for loop. After the loop is done, they always contain the coordinates of the last waypoint you iterated over. I doubt that's what you want. Use local; it forces you to think what you want the scope of your variables to be, which will help you spot this kind of problem.
elseif args[2] ~= nil and args[3] == nil then
results = args[1] .. args[2]
Unless you specifically want to limit it to 3 arguments, which I doubt, you can also use table.concat to concatenate all the values in a sequence (read: array)
results = string.lower( table.concat(args) )
The thing that puzzles me is why you do this in a loop. For every waypoint, you set result to the same value, which is all the arguments concatenated and converted to lower case.
now what though? You check if result (what the user searched for) contains streetname, which, as we have previously found out, contains the name of the last waypoint in the list.
Using tables for searching
Lua has tables, one of if not the most powerful general-purpose data structure in programming.
local map = {}
for _,waypoint in ipairs(waypoints) do
map[waypoint[3]:lower()] = waypoint
end
This will get you something that looks about like this:
local map = {
sinnerstreet = {404.08, -920.23, 'sinnerstreet', 'Sinner Street'},
atleestreet = {360.85, -956.46, 'atleestreet', 'Atlee Street'},
littlebighornavenue ={500.48, -956.80, 'littlebighornavenue', 'Little Bighorn Avenue'},
}
and if you want to know if a street exists, you can just do this:
if map['atleestreet'] then
print(map.atleestreet[4])
end
if treats everything that isn't false or nil as truthy, so you can just write `map['atleestreet'] in the condition
my_table['text'] can be written as my_table.text
Looking up string indices in a table is pretty fast because of how it's implemented.
Conclusion
Try thinking your code through. If necessary, go through it line by line, writing down what values the variables hold in each moment. If you've been at it for a while, get some rest first or do something else for a while.
Then set your variables to local wherever possible (read: everywhere), figure out what needs to be inside and outside the loop and try again.
Remarks
Instead of if something == nil you can just write if not something, and if something ~= nil just if something
Apologies
Sorry for the long wall of text and using spaces inside brackets, but I wanted things to be specially easy to understand.

How to randomly get a value from a table [duplicate]

I am working on programming a Markov chain in Lua, and one element of this requires me to uniformly generate random numbers. Here is a simplified example to illustrate my question:
example = function(x)
local r = math.random(1,10)
print(r)
return x[r]
end
exampleArray = {"a","b","c","d","e","f","g","h","i","j"}
print(example(exampleArray))
My issue is that when I re-run this program multiple times (mash F5) the exact same random number is generated resulting in the example function selecting the exact same array element. However, if I include many calls to the example function within the single program by repeating the print line at the end many times I get suitable random results.
This is not my intention as a proper Markov pseudo-random text generator should be able to run the same program with the same inputs multiple times and output different pseudo-random text every time. I have tried resetting the seed using math.randomseed(os.time()) and this makes it so the random number distribution is no longer uniform. My goal is to be able to re-run the above program and receive a randomly selected number every time.
You need to run math.randomseed() once before using math.random(), like this:
math.randomseed(os.time())
From your comment that you saw the first number is still the same. This is caused by the implementation of random generator in some platforms.
The solution is to pop some random numbers before using them for real:
math.randomseed(os.time())
math.random(); math.random(); math.random()
Note that the standard C library random() is usually not so uniformly random, a better solution is to use a better random generator if your platform provides one.
Reference: Lua Math Library
Standard C random numbers generator used in Lua isn't guananteed to be good for simulation. The words "Markov chain" suggest that you may need a better one. Here's a generator widely used for Monte-Carlo calculations:
local A1, A2 = 727595, 798405 -- 5^17=D20*A1+A2
local D20, D40 = 1048576, 1099511627776 -- 2^20, 2^40
local X1, X2 = 0, 1
function rand()
local U = X2*A2
local V = (X1*A2 + X2*A1) % D20
V = (V*D20 + U) % D40
X1 = math.floor(V/D20)
X2 = V - X1*D20
return V/D40
end
It generates a number between 0 and 1, so r = math.floor(rand()*10) + 1 would go into your example.
(That's multiplicative random number generator with period 2^38, multiplier 5^17 and modulo 2^40, original Pascal code by http://osmf.sscc.ru/~smp/)
math.randomseed(os.clock()*100000000000)
for i=1,3 do
math.random(10000, 65000)
end
Always results in new random numbers. Changing the seed value will ensure randomness. Don't follow os.time() because it is the epoch time and changes after one second but os.clock() won't have the same value at any close instance.
There's the Luaossl library solution: (https://github.com/wahern/luaossl)
local rand = require "openssl.rand"
local randominteger
if rand.ready() then -- rand has been properly seeded
-- Returns a cryptographically strong uniform random integer in the interval [0, n−1].
randominteger = rand.uniform(99) + 1 -- randomizes an integer from range 1 to 100
end
http://25thandclement.com/~william/projects/luaossl.pdf

Find all upper/lower/mixed combinations of a string

I need this for a game server using Lua..
I would like to be able to save all combinations of a name
into a string that can then be used with:
if exists (string)
example:
ABC_-123
aBC_-123
AbC_-123
ABc_-123
abC_-123
etc
in the game only numbers, letters and _ - . can be used as names.
(A_B-C, A-B.C, AB_8 ... etc)
I understand the logic I just don't know how to code it:D
0-Lower
1-Upper
then
000
001
etc
You can use recursive generator. The first parameter contains left part of the string generated so far, and the second parameter is the remaining right part of the original string.
function combinations(s1, s2)
if s2:len() > 0 then
local c = s2:sub(1, 1)
local l = c:lower()
local u = c:upper()
if l == u then
combinations(s1 .. c, s2:sub(2))
else
combinations(s1 .. l, s2:sub(2))
combinations(s1 .. u, s2:sub(2))
end
else
print(s1)
end
end
So the function is called in this way.
combinations("", "ABC_-123")
You only have to store intermediate results instead of printing them.
If you are interested only in the exists function then you don't need all combinations.
local stored_string = "ABC_-123"
function exists(tested_string)
return stored_string:lower() == tested_string:lower()
end
You simply compare the stored string and the tested string in case-insensitive way.
It can be easily tested:
assert(exists("abC_-123"))
assert(not exists("abd_-123"))
How to do this?
There's native function in Lua to generate all permutations of a string, but here are a few things that may prove useful.
Substrings
Probably the simplest solution, but also the least flexible. Rather than combinations, you can check if a substring exists within a given string.
if str:find(substr) then
--code
end
If this solves your problem, I highly reccomend it.
Get all permutations
A more expensive, but still a working solution. This accomplishes nearly exactly what you asked.
function GetScrambles(str, tab2)
local tab = {}
for i = 1,#str do
table.insert(tab, str:sub(i, i))
end
local tab2 = tab2 or {}
local scrambles = {}
for i = 0, Count(tab)-1 do
local permutation = ""
local a = Count(tab)
for j = 1, #tab do
tab2[j] = tab[j]
end
for j = #tab, 1, -1 do
a = a / j
b = math.floor((i/a)%j) + 1
permutation = permutation .. tab2[b]
tab2[b] = tab2[j]
end
table.insert(scrambles, permutation)
end
return scrambles
end
What you asked
Basically this would be exactly what you originally asked for. It's the same as the above code, except with every substring of the string.
function GetAllSubstrings(str)
local substrings = {}
for i = 1,#str do
for ii = i,#str do
substrings[#substrings+1]=str:sub(ii)
end
end
return substrings
end
Capitals
You'd basically have to, with every permutation, make every possible combination of capitals with it.
This shouldn't be too difficult, I'm sure you can code it :)
Are you joking?
After this you should probably be wondering. Is all of this really necessary? It seems like a bit much!
The answer to this lies in what you are doing. Do you really need all the combinations of the given characters? I don't think so. You say you need it for case insensitivity in the comments... But did you know you could simply convert it into lower/upper case? It's very simple
local str = "hELlO"
print(str:lower())
print(str:upper())
This is HOW you should store names, otherwise you should leave it case sensitive.
You decide
Now YOU pick what you're going to do. Whichever direction you pick, I wish you the best of luck!

Losing precision in Lua

I have a function in lua, which is given 2 vectors, return the lambda multiplier of first vector to second one, here is my code
function Math.vectorLambda( v1,v2 )
local v1Length,v2Length=math.sqrt(v1.x^2+v1.y^2),math.sqrt(v2.x^2+v2.y^2)
if v1Length==0 then
return nil
else
local dotProduct=v1.x*v2.x+v1.y*v2.y
print(dotProduct,v1Length,v2Length,math.abs(dotProduct)==(v1Length*v2Length))
if math.abs(dotProduct)==(v1Length*v2Length) then
if v1.x~=0 then
return v2.x/v1.x
else
return v2.y/v1.y
end
else
return nil
end
end
end
However, if
--this is what I get from terminal and I believe that it does not display the whole number--
v1={0.51449575542753,-0.85749292571254}
v2={-10,16.666666666667}
the output is
-19.436506316151 1 19.436506316151 false
which is saying the absolute value of dotProduct and v1Length*v2Length are not the same...
What is the reason for above, rather than I am blind? :(
BTW, the function is not stable..with exactly the same vectors, the function might has the same output except math.abs(dotProduct)==(v1Length*v2Length) gives true and hence return correct answer rather than nil, why?
Floats are tricky. You most likely have differences on the smaller decimal places (I don't know for sure, since I get true here). Try printing the numbers with a bigger precision, using a function like:
function prec_print(v, prec)
local format = '%.' .. prec .. 'f'
print(string.format(format, value))
end
In any case, you should almost never use == to compare floating point equality. For floats, it's quite easy to get false for simple things like a+b-b==a. What you should probably do is to check whether de difference of the two values is less than some threshold:
function almost_equal(float1, float2, threshold)
return math.abs(float1 - float2) <= threshold
end
But it's actually trickier than that (if, say, float1 and float2 are too far apart). Anyway, this read is mandatory for anyone working with floats: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html
Cheers!

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