From: "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: 'length' function for lists and cons cells?
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 13:19:34 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <877gkypauh.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: mailman.22632.1363946271.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> writes:
> So if both, true lists and cons cells, are processed in a 'dolist' or
proper-lists, not true lists.
They all are true lists, ie. cons cells or nil.
> 'mapc', how do you get that second string element without writing
> something like
>
> ,----------------------------------
> | (defun tj/act-conditional (lst)
> | (if (cdr (last lst))
> | (cdr lst)
> | (cadr lst)))
> |
> | (tj/act-conditional '("a" . "1"))
> | "1"
> |
> | (tj/act-conditional '("a" "1"))
> | "1"
> `----------------------------------
This is like asking how do you get the second digit of 123 and "123"
without writing something like:
(defun second-digit (thing)
(etypecase thing
(integer (mod (truncate thing (expt 10 (truncate (1- (log thing 10))))) 10))
(string (- (aref thing 1) ?0))))
(second-digit 12345) --> 2
(second-digit "1234") --> 2
The point is that lisp is a typed programming language.
If a function expects data of type proper-list, then you don't pass it
circular lists or dotted lists or strings or numbers, or whatever else.
If you want to write a function that takes a or type argument, then you
have to do the type casing yourself, or use other functions that take
the same or type.
(defun second-element (thing)
(check-type thing (or null cons))
(typecase thing
(null nil)
(cons (typecase (cdr thing)
(cons (cadr thing))
(t (cdr thing))))))
(second-element '()) --> nil
(second-element '(1)) --> nil
(second-element '(1 2)) --> 2
(second-element '(1 2 3)) --> 2
(second-element '(1 2 . 3)) --> 2
(second-element '(1 . 2)) --> 2
(second-element "123") error: (wrong-type-argument (or null cons) "123" thing)
It is up to you to define what type of data you want to work with.
--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-03-23 12:19 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <mailman.22586.1363890109.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-21 20:49 ` 'length' function for lists and cons cells? Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-22 2:38 ` Thorsten Jolitz
2013-03-22 7:27 ` Mark Skilbeck
2013-03-22 9:57 ` Thorsten Jolitz
[not found] ` <mailman.22632.1363946271.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-23 12:19 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon [this message]
2013-03-23 15:35 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.22706.1364052941.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-23 15:52 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-24 5:20 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.22618.1363919920.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-22 7:45 ` Barry Margolin
2013-03-23 11:31 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-21 18:21 Thorsten Jolitz
2013-03-21 20:02 ` Stephen Berman
2013-03-21 21:58 ` Thorsten Jolitz
2013-03-21 22:05 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.22591.1363903134.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-23 11:24 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-21 20:10 ` Drew Adams
2013-03-21 22:09 ` Thorsten Jolitz
[not found] ` <mailman.22588.1363896620.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-25 15:24 ` duthen.cnv
2013-03-25 20:02 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
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