Is there a 'clamp' method/sub for ranges/Num etc in Raku (i.e. Perl6)? - raku

Question

Is there a 'clamp' or equivalent method or sub in Perl6?
eg
my $range= (1.0 .. 9.9)
my $val=15.3;
my $clamped=$range.clamp($val);
# $clamped would be 9.9
$val= -1.3;
$clamped=$range.clamp($val);
# $clamped would be 1.0

Answer 1

Another tact you might like to explore is using a Proxy, which allows you to define "hooks" when fetching or storing a value from a container
sub limited-num(Range $range) is rw {
my ($min, $max) = $range.minmax;
my Numeric $store = $min;
Proxy.new(
FETCH => method () { $store },
STORE => method ($new) {
$store = max($min, min($max, $new));
}
)
}
# Note the use of binding operator `:=`
my $ln := limited-num(1.0 .. 9.9);
say $ln; # OUTPUT: 1
$ln += 4.2;
say $ln; # OUTPUT: 5.2
$ln += 100;
say $ln; # OUTPUT: 9.9
$ln -= 50;
say $ln; # OUTPUT: 1
$ln = 0;
say $ln; # OUTPUT: 1
This particular limited-num will initialise with it's min value, but you can also set it at declaration
my $ln1 := limited-num(1.0 .. 9.9) = 5.5;
say $ln1; # OUTPUT 5.5;
my $ln2 := limited-num(1.0 .. 9.9) = 1000;
say $ln2; # OUTPUT 9.9

Answer 2

I don't think so. So, perhaps:
multi clamp ($range, $value) {
given $range {
return .max when (($value cmp .max) === More);
return .min when (($value cmp .min) === Less);
}
return $value
}
my $range = (1.0 .. 9.9);
say $range.&clamp: 15.3; # 9.9
say $range.&clamp: -1.3; # 1
my $range = 'b'..'y';
say $range.&clamp: 'a'; # b
say $range.&clamp: 'z'; # y
The MOP allows direct exploration of the objects available in your P6 system. A particularly handy metamethod is .^methods which works on most built in objects:
say Range.^methods; # (new excludes-min excludes-max infinite is-int ...
By default this includes just the methods defined in the Range class, not the methods it inherits. (To get them all you could use say Range.^methods: :all. That'll net you a much bigger list.)
When I just tried it I found it also included a lot of methods unhelpfully named Method+{is-nodal}.new. So maybe use this instead:
say Range.^methods.grep: * !~~ / 'is-nodal' /;
This netted:
(new excludes-min excludes-max infinite is-int elems iterator
flat reverse first bounds int-bounds fmt ASSIGN-POS roll pick
Capture push append unshift prepend shift pop sum rand in-range
hyper lazy-if lazy item race of is-lazy WHICH Str ACCEPTS perl
Numeric min max BUILDALL)
That's what I used to lead me to my solution above; I sort of know the methods but use .^methods to remind me.
Another way to explore what's available is doc, eg the official doc's Range page. That netted me:
ACCEPTS min excludes-min max excludes-max bounds
infinite is-int int-bounds minmax elems list flat
pick roll sum reverse Capture rand
Comparing these two lists, sorted and bagged, out of curiosity:
say
<ACCEPTS ASSIGN-POS BUILDALL Capture Numeric Str WHICH append
bounds elems excludes-max excludes-min first flat fmt hyper
in-range infinite int-bounds is-int is-lazy item iterator
lazy lazy-if max min new of perl pick pop prepend push
race rand reverse roll shift sum unshift>.Bag
∩
<ACCEPTS Capture bounds elems excludes-max excludes-min flat
infinite int-bounds is-int list max min minmax pick
rand reverse roll sum>.Bag
displays:
Bag(ACCEPTS, Capture, bounds, elems, excludes-max, excludes-min,
flat, infinite, int-bounds, is-int, max, min, pick,
rand, reverse, roll, sum)
So for some reason, list, minmax, and sum are documented as Range methods but are not listed by my .^methods call. Presumably they're called Method+{is-nodal}.new. Hmm.
say Range.^lookup('minmax'); # Method+{is-nodal}.new
say Range.^lookup('minmax').name; # minmax
Yep. Hmm. So I could have written:
say Range.^methods>>.name.sort;
(ACCEPTS ASSIGN-POS AT-POS BUILDALL Bag BagHash Capture EXISTS-POS
Mix MixHash Numeric Set SetHash Str WHICH append bounds elems
excludes-max excludes-min first flat fmt hyper in-range infinite
int-bounds is-int is-lazy item iterator lazy lazy-if list max min
minmax new of perl pick pop prepend push race rand reverse roll
shift sum unshift)
Anyhow, hope that's helpful.

Answer 3

Strange that no one has suggested using augment. Admittedly, it creates global changes, but that might not be an issue.
augment class Range {
method clamp ($value) { ... }
}
You will need to use the pragmause MONKEY-TYPING in the same scope before the augment in order to use it though. But this way, you can simply say $range.clamp(5), for instance. It saves you one character over raiph's answer, but at the (not insignificant) cost of breaking precompilation.