Underscore

Ruby
1

Logan C. wrote:

accessing the passed in function (block) anonymously.
f1 { puts “Does the same thing” }
I see. So that was equivalent to:

let rec nest ?(n=2) x f =
Seq.fold (fun acc -> f acc) x {1 … n}

but what is the meaning of the “_” in the Ruby “|acc, _|”?

2

some people use _ as a temporary meaningless variable, just a
throw-away so to say.
In this case something like

hash = {:a => :b, :c => :d}

and you are not interested in the :b and :d

hash.each do |key, _|
p key
end

I’m not necessarily a friend of this technique, but it seems easy on
the minds of some people.

^ manveru

3

Michael F. wrote:

end

I’m not necessarily a friend of this technique, but it seems easy on
the minds of some people.

Right, this is exactly what I guessed it was doing (it is the same in
SML/OCaml/F#) but what value was being thrown away in the Ruby program
and
where did it come from?

(1…n).inject(x) { |acc, _| yield(acc) }

4

On 5/29/07, Jon H. [email protected] wrote:

p key

–
Dr Jon D Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy
The F#.NET Journal
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/products/fsharp_journal/?usenet

inject takes a block with two parameters. classic example is a sum of an
array:

array.inject(0) {|sum, item| sum + item }

so, in this case, item is not needed, so it is replaced by a variable
with name of “_”
that by convention means “temporary”, “throw away”

it can be anything else:
(1…n).inject(x) { |acc, i_dont_need_this| yield(acc) }

5

On 5/29/07, Robert K. [email protected] wrote:

where did it come from?

happens here is that some value is yielded n times to a block. That
could have been done much more concise like this:

n.times { yield x }

Kind regards

    robert

Actually, If it does what I think it does, the inject is needed
because as we know, inject sets the value returned from the block as
the accumulator for the next round. Therefore:

nest(2) {|x| p x; [22] }
2
[22]
=> [22]

6

On 29.05.2007 13:59, Chris C. wrote:

and you are not interested in the :b and :d
and
of an

Actually, If it does what I think it does, the inject is needed
because as we know, inject sets the value returned from the block as
the accumulator for the next round. Therefore:

nest(2) {|x| p x; [22] }
2
[22]
=> [22]

Stupid me. Of course you are right. I should have taken more time to
digest this - or have more coffee. Thank you for correcting me!

Kind regards

robert

7

On 29.05.2007 13:07, Jano S. wrote:

hash.each do |key, _|

array.inject(0) {|sum, item| sum + item }

so, in this case, item is not needed, so it is replaced by a variable
with name of “_”
that by convention means “temporary”, “throw away”

it can be anything else:
(1…n).inject(x) { |acc, i_dont_need_this| yield(acc) }

Actually, #inject does not really make sense in this case. All that
happens here is that some value is yielded n times to a block. That
could have been done much more concise like this:

n.times { yield x }

Kind regards

robert

8

On 29.05.2007 14:11, Robert K. wrote:

Right, this is exactly what I guessed it was doing (it is the same in
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/products/fsharp_journal/?usenet

=> [22]

Stupid me. Of course you are right. I should have taken more time to
digest this - or have more coffee. Thank you for correcting me!

I was too fast (again). Even though the return value is used, I’d
rather do

n.times { x = yield x }

than using #inject which does more than needed in this case. :slight_smile:

Now, did I look at all aspects…?

Kind regards

robert

9

On Tue, May 29, 2007 at 07:55:05PM +0900, Jon H. wrote:

p key
end

I’m not necessarily a friend of this technique, but it seems easy on
the minds of some people.

Right, this is exactly what I guessed it was doing (it is the same in
SML/OCaml/F#) but what value was being thrown away in the Ruby program and
where did it come from?

(1…n).inject(x) { |acc, _| yield(acc) }

You can read that as

let l = range 1 n in
List.fold_left (fun acc _ -> f acc) (List.hd l) (List.tl l)

f being the function corresponding to the implicit block called by
yield, and
range : int -> int -> int list.

Actually, in Ruby 1…n is a Range object which responds to the #inject
message
without creating an intermediate array, and the #inject method is
implemented
elsewhere, so the above works a bit like this:

let val_of = function
Some x -> x
| None -> failwith “val_of”

(* In Ruby, Enumerable is a module that can be included (“mixin”) into

  • classes that define an #each method. It provides many useful methods
    like
  • #map, #find, #find_all, #reject, #max, #min, #sort, #sort_by,
    #partition,
  • #each_with_index, #include?.. built atop #each.)
    class virtual ['value] enumerable =
    object(self: 'b)
    method virtual each : ('value -> unit) -> 'b (     returning self allows
    to
    * chain method calls *)

method inject :
(* Ruby behaves like
* 'acc. ?first_value:'acc -> ('acc -> 'value -> 'acc) -> 'acc =
* but this doesn’t type in ocaml since we’ll pass the first
* value (:'value) to f if no first_value is given, forcing
* 'acc = 'value.
)
?first_value:'value -> ('value -> 'value -> 'value) -> 'value =
fun ?first_value f ->
let acc = ref first_value in
( written this way to mimic Ruby’s implementation,
* which uses an accumulator initialized to Qundef *)
ignore (self#each (fun x ->
match !acc with
None -> acc := Some x
| Some v -> acc := Some (f v x)));
val_of !acc
end

class ['value] range (first : 'value) (last : 'value) succ inclusive =
object(self)
inherit ['value] enumerable
(* this gives us lots of methods implemented using #each *)

val upper_bound : 'value = if inclusive then succ last else last

method each f =
let rec loop v =
if v < upper_bound then (f v; loop (succ v))
in
loop first;
self
end

let _ =
(* r = 1…10 )
let r = new range 1 10 succ true in
( r = 1…10 would be new range 1 10 succ false )
Printf.printf “%d %d\n”
( r.inject{|s,| s * 2} )
(r#inject (fun s _ -> s * 2))
( r.inject(10){|s,| s * 2} *)
(r#inject ~first_value:10 (fun s _ -> s * 2))

Of course, being dynamically typed, Ruby doesn’t have/need parameterized
classes, and instead of using a succ function, Range#each repeatedly
calls the
#succ method of the lower bound.

One last note: while things like #inject are as powerful as their OCaml
counterparts (and more convenient thanks to dynamic typing, but you know
there’s a price for that…), they are often slower than simpler
iteration
methods:

require ‘benchmark’

Benchmark.bm(10) do |bm|
a = (0…10000).to_a # create an array with values 0 to 10000

bm.report("each") do
  100.times { sum = 0; a.each{|x| sum += x}; sum }
end

bm.report("inject") { 100.times { a.inject{|s,x| s + x} } }

end

>> user system total real

>> each 0.610000 0.000000 0.610000 ( 0.618960)

>> inject 1.800000 0.020000 1.820000 ( 1.850604)

(yes, it really is that slow)

Also, Ruby doesn’t optimize tail calls, so you cannot write the sort of
recursive functions OCaml excels at. OTOH, the core classes provide much
more
functionality, and more often than not the existing higher-order
functions
will fit the bill.

10

Mauricio F. wrote:

You can read that as

let l = range 1 n in
List.fold_left (fun acc _ -> f acc) (List.hd l) (List.tl l)

Oh, of course! The ignored argument is the number 1 … n.

Actually, in Ruby 1…n is a Range object which responds to the #inject
message without creating an intermediate array,

Laziness, yep.

…
class …

You wouldn’t use objects to do this in OCaml though. If you wanted to
fold
over a data structure you’d just write:

let nest n f x = fold (fun x _ -> f x) x {1 … n}

Of course, being dynamically typed, Ruby doesn’t have/need parameterized
classes, and instead of using a succ function, Range#each repeatedly calls
the #succ method of the lower bound.

I don’t think parameterized classes are needed here.

If you want it more dynamic (generic over kind of data structure, for
example), you might write:

let nest n f x = {1 … n}#fold (fun x _ -> f x) x

but I’ve never used this style in practice (you always know what data
structure you’re dealing with).

One last note: while things like #inject are as powerful as their OCaml
counterparts (and more convenient thanks to dynamic typing, but you know
there’s a price for that…), they are often slower than simpler iteration
methods:

There is a similar overhead in OCaml (for polymorphic HOFs).

>> user system total real

>> each 0.610000 0.000000 0.610000 ( 0.618960)

>> inject 1.800000 0.020000 1.820000 ( 1.850604)

(yes, it really is that slow)

Also, Ruby doesn’t optimize tail calls, so you cannot write the sort of
recursive functions OCaml excels at. OTOH, the core classes provide much
more functionality, and more often than not the existing higher-order
functions will fit the bill.

I think this is equivalent:

let time f x =

let t = Sys.time() in
let f_x = f x in
Printf.printf "Time: %f\n%!" (Sys.time() -. t);
f_x;;

val time : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b =

let rec loop n f x = if n>0 then (ignore(f x); loop (n-1) f x);;

val loop : int -> ('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> unit =

let a = Array.init 10000 (fun i -> i);;

…

time (loop 100 (fun a -> Array.fold_left (+) 0 a)) a;;

Time: 0.203969

  • : unit = ()

So the interpreted OCaml bytecode is ~6x faster and compiled OCaml is
~260x
faster.

Thanks for all the help!

11

On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 07:50:05AM +0900, Logan C. wrote:

Now, did I look at all aspects…?

Almost.
you’d actually need
n.times { x = yield x }
x

Almost almost :slight_smile:

x = nil
n.times { x = yield x }
x

12

On 5/29/07, Robert K. [email protected] wrote:

I was too fast (again). Even though the return value is used, I’d rather
do

n.times { x = yield x }

than using #inject which does more than needed in this case. :slight_smile:

Now, did I look at all aspects…?

Almost.
you’d actually need
n.times { x = yield x }
x

Kind regards

13

On 5/30/07, Brian C. [email protected] wrote:

x = nil
n.times { x = yield x }
x

Robert was very quick indeed, he did not repeat the context of the
expression which was

def forgot_the_name(x,…)
n.times{ x = yield x }
end

Now it works :wink:
I still fail to see what the array was used for :wink:

Robert

14

On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 11:10:21AM +0900, Jon H. wrote:

over a data structure you’d just write:

let nest n f x = fold (fun x _ -> f x) x {1 … n}

Indeed; I was just illustrating a part of Ruby’s object model (mixins)
with
OCaml code.

BTW, is {1… n} a F# range comprehension or have you written some camlp4
extension that looks like that (or is it only pseudocode)?

I think this is equivalent:
[…]

time (loop 100 (fun a -> Array.fold_left (+) 0 a)) a;;

Time: 0.203969

  • : unit = ()

So the interpreted OCaml bytecode is ~6x faster and compiled OCaml is ~260x
faster.

On a rather old box, ocaml runs that in 0.28s (vs. Ruby’s 0.61s with
#each,
#1.8s with inject), and an imperative expansion (with for and a ref) in
0.17s,
so the ratios are
fold_left/inject 6.4X
imperative 3.6X
HOFs in Ruby are often more expensive than they would be in OCaml
because
method and especially block (anonymous function) calls are quite slow.

However, on Ruby 1.9, still under development and expected to be
released by
xmas 2007:

$ ruby19 -v bm.rb
ruby 1.9.0 (2007-02-07 patchlevel 0) [i686-linux]
user system total real
each 0.230000 0.000000 0.230000 ( 0.228493)
inject 0.310000 0.000000 0.310000 ( 0.313735)

making it comparable to OCaml’s bytecode, which is hardly surprising
since
they are both stack machines with threaded code/computed gotos.

15

Mauricio F. wrote:

Indeed; I was just illustrating a part of Ruby’s object model (mixins)
with OCaml code.

Right.

BTW, is {1… n} a F# range comprehension or have you written some camlp4
extension that looks like that (or is it only pseudocode)?

Both. Native to F# and I think someone implemented it as a camlp4 macro
for
OCaml. However, containers are not derived from sequences in OCaml as
they
are in F#. You’d have to wrap them in objects yourself and people aren’t
likely to do that. For one thing, lists are slower in F# as a
consequence.

However, on Ruby 1.9, still under development and expected to be released
by xmas 2007:

$ ruby19 -v bm.rb
ruby 1.9.0 (2007-02-07 patchlevel 0) [i686-linux]
user system total real
each 0.230000 0.000000 0.230000 ( 0.228493)
inject 0.310000 0.000000 0.310000 ( 0.313735)

making it comparable to OCaml’s bytecode, which is hardly surprising since
they are both stack machines with threaded code/computed gotos.

Yes. Is there a native-code compiler for Ruby in the works? Does the
.NET
implementation give much better performance?

16

On 5/30/07, Robert D. [email protected] wrote:

n.times { x = yield x }

def forgot_the_name(x,…)
n.times{ x = yield x }

  Still need x here

end

Now it works :wink:

No it doesn’t :wink: n.times { … } returns n.

I still fail to see what the array was used for :wink:

17

On 5/30/07, Logan C. [email protected] wrote:

x

No it doesn’t :wink: n.times { … } returns n.
Obviously I am too stupid to test, sorry, I did test it, who knows how
:wink:
Seriously I do know now, n just was the expected result of the block :frowning:

def anyhow(count, x)
count.times{x=yield x}
x
end

Maybe we can still agree that this is better than inspect :wink:
And yes thanks for the Ruby classes I got.

Cheers
Robert

18

On 5/31/07, Robert K. [email protected] wrote:

rather

you’d actually need
Robert was very quick indeed, he did not repeat the context of the
Now it works :wink:

=> nil
irb(main):003:0> rep(5,“x”) {|s| puts s; s<<“.”}
x
x.
x…
x…
x…
=> “x…”

Hmm…
As we are fooling around :wink:

class Integer
alias_method :good_old_times, :times
def times
r = nil
good_old_times do
|n|
r = Proc.new.call n
end
r
end

def rep init = nil
times do
init = Proc.new.call init
end
end
end

puts 5.times{ |x| 2*x }
puts 5.rep(12){ |x| x+1 }
BTW what is this good for anyway :wink: for loops???

Cheers
Robert

19

On 30.05.2007 22:36, Robert D. wrote:

do
n.times { x = yield x }
expression which was

Maybe we can still agree that this is better than inspect :wink:
And yes thanks for the Ruby classes I got.

Hm… Thinking a bit more about this I am not sure I’d stick with my
proposal. I think I’d probably do

irb(main):001:0> require ‘enumerator’
=> true
irb(main):002:0> def rep(n,init=nil) n.to_enum(:times).inject(init)
{|x,| yield x} end
=> nil
irb(main):003:0> rep(5,“x”) {|s| puts s; s<<"."}
x
x.
x…
x…
x…
=> “x…”

Hmm…

Kind regards

robert

20

On 31.05.2007 11:51, Robert D. wrote:

I was too fast (again). Even though the return value is

x

def anyhow(count, x)
irb(main):001:0> require ‘enumerator’
=> “x…”
r = Proc.new.call n
end
r
end

You are aware that this does something different, especially will it
return the last block value only.

Also, why do you use Proc.new.call instead of yield?

BTW what is this good for anyway :wink: for loops???
Probably. I tend to believe that usually #inject is better for
calculations that involve repetition and want to process the result of
the last calculation. Usually I don’t think that the iteration value is
ignored in such cases. Maybe the OP had a specific example in mind.

The initial question was what does the underscore do in

def nest(x, n = 2)
(1…n).inject(x) { |acc, _| yield(acc) }
end

Basically it’s completely superfluous, you can do this instead:

def nest(x, n = 2)
(1…n).inject(x) { |acc,| yield acc }
end

Btw, I’d rather change the argument handling because n=2 is a pretty
arbitrary default.

def nest(n, x = nil)
(1…n).inject(x) { |acc,| yield acc }
end

Kind regards

robert