How can I implement functions that take an optional flag in Perl6? For example, say that I want to invoke my function like this:
format 'a b c';
or like this:
format :pretty 'a b c';
How can I do this? Thanks
It's just a named argument, in case of flags a boolean one. This all works out because :pretty is syntactic sugar for the pair :pretty(True) aka pretty => True.
You can either use the boolean value
sub format($arg, Bool :$pretty = False) {
if $pretty { ... }
else { ... }
}
or use its presence for multi-dispatch
multi format($arg) { ... }
multi format($arg, Bool :$pretty!) { ... }
In the first example, we provided a default value (which isn't really necessary as the undefined value boolifies to False, but it's arguably the 'right thing to do' semantically), in the second one we made it a required parameter by adding the !.
Also note that named arguments still have to be separated by commas, ie you'd use it as
format :pretty, 'a b c';
If you really want that odd syntax, you can use an operator and some subsignature magic. The Bool method is optional and the class Pretty can be empty. It's just there to provide something for the MMD-dispatcher to hold onto.
class Pretty { method Bool {True} };
sub prefix:<:pretty>(|c){ Pretty.new, c };
multi sub format((Pretty:D $pretty, |a)){ dd $pretty.Bool, a };
multi sub format(|c){ dd c };
format :pretty 'a b c'; format 'a b c';
# OUTPUT«Bool::True\(\("a b c"))\("a b c")»
Related
Identifier terms are defined in the documentation alongside constants, with pretty much the same use case, although terms compute their value in run time while constants get it in compile time. Potentially, that could make terms use global variables, but that's action at a distance and ugly, so I guess that's not their use case.
OTOH, they could be simply routines with null signature:
sub term:<þor> { "Is mighty" }
sub Þor { "Is mighty" }
say þor, Þor;
But you can already define routines with null signature. You can sabe, however, the error when you write:
say Þor ~ Þor;
Which would produce a many positionals passed; expected 0 arguments but got 1, unlike the term. That seems however a bit farfetched and you can save the trouble by just adding () at the end.
Another possible use case is defying the rules of normal identifiers
sub term:<✔> { True }
say ✔; # True
Are there any other use cases I have missed?
Making zero-argument subs work as terms will break the possibility to post-declare subs, since finding a sub after having parsed usages of it would require re-parsing of earlier code (which the perl 6 language refuses to do, "one-pass parsing" and all that) if the sub takes no arguments.
Terms are useful in combination with the ternary operator:
$ perl6 -e 'sub a() { "foo" }; say 42 ?? a !! 666'
===SORRY!=== Error while compiling -e
Your !! was gobbled by the expression in the middle; please parenthesize
$ perl6 -e 'sub term:<a> { "foo" }; say 42 ?? a !! 666'
foo
Constants are basically terms. So of course they are grouped together.
constant foo = 12;
say foo;
constant term:<bar> = 36;
say bar;
There is a slight difference because term:<…> works by modifying the parser. So it takes precedence.
constant fubar = 38;
constant term:<fubar> = 45;
say fubar; # 45
The above will print 45 regardless of which constant definition comes first.
Since term:<…> takes precedence the only way to get at the other value is to use ::<fubar> to directly access the symbol table.
say ::<fubar>; # 38
say ::<term:<fubar>>; # 45
There are two main use-cases for term:<…>.
One is to get a subroutine to be parsed similarly to a constant or sigilless variable.
sub fubar () { 'fubar'.comb.roll }
# say( fubar( prefix:<~>( 4 ) ) );
say fubar ~ 4; # ERROR
sub term:<fubar> () { 'fubar'.comb.roll }
# say( infix:<~>( fubar, 4 ) );
say fubar ~ 4;
The other is to have a constant or sigiless variable be something other than an a normal identifier.
my \✔ = True; # ERROR: Malformed my
my \term:<✔> = True;
say ✔;
Of course both use-cases can be combined.
sub term:<✔> () { True }
Perl 5 allows subroutines to have an empty prototype (different than a signature) which will alter how it gets parsed. The main purpose of prototypes in Perl 5 is to alter how the code gets parsed.
use v5;
sub fubar () { ord [split('','fubar')]->[rand 5] }
# say( fubar() + 4 );
say fubar + 4; # infix +
use v5;
sub fubar { ord [split('','fubar')]->[rand 5] }
# say( fubar( +4 ) );
say fubar + 4; # prefix +
Perl 6 doesn't use signatures the way Perl 5 uses prototypes. The main way to alter how Perl 6 parses code is by using the namespace.
use v6;
sub fubar ( $_ ) { .comb.roll }
sub term:<fubar> () { 'fubar'.comb.roll }
say fubar( 'zoo' ); # `z` or `o` (`o` is twice as likely)
say fubar; # `f` or `u` or `b` or `a` or `r`
sub prefix:<✔> ( $_ ) { "checked $_" }
say ✔ 'under the bed'; # checked under the bed
Note that Perl 5 doesn't really have constants, they are just subroutines with an empty prototype.
use v5;
use constant foo => 12;
use v5;
sub foo () { 12 } # ditto
(This became less true after 5.16)
As far as I know all of the other uses of prototypes have been superseded by design decisions in Perl 6.
use v5;
sub foo (&$) { $_[0]->($_[1]) }
say foo { 100 + $_[0] } 5; # 105;
That block is seen as a sub lambda because of the prototype of the foo subroutine.
use v6;
# sub foo ( &f, $v ) { f $v }
sub foo { #_[0].( #_[1] ) }
say foo { 100 + #_[0] }, 5; # 105
In Perl 6 a block is seen as a lambda if a term is expected. So there is no need to alter the parser with a feature like a prototype.
You are asking for exactly one use of prototypes to be brought back even though there is already a feature that covers that use-case.
Doing so would be a special-case. Part of the design ethos of Perl 6 is to limit the number of special-cases.
Other versions of Perl had a wide variety of special-cases, and it isn't always easy to remember them all.
Don't get me wrong; the special-cases in Perl 5 are useful, but Perl 6 has for the most part made them general-cases.
I have some classes (and will need quite a few more) that look like this:
use Unit;
class Unit::Units::Ampere is Unit
{
method TWEAK { with self {
.si = True;
# m· kg· s· A ·K· mol· cd
.si-signature = [ 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0 ];
.singular-name = "ampere";
.plural-name = "ampere";
.symbol = "A";
}}
sub postfix:<A> ($value) returns Unit::Units::Ampere is looser(&prefix:<->) is export(:short) {
return Unit::Units::Ampere.new( :$value );
};
sub postfix:<ampere> ($value) returns Unit::Units::Ampere is looser(&prefix:<->) is export(:long) {
$value\A;
};
}
I would like to be able to construct and export the custom operators dynamically at runtime. I know how to work with EXPORT, but how do I create a postfix operator on the fly?
I ended up basically doing this:
sub EXPORT
{
return %(
"postfix:<A>" => sub is looser(&prefix:<->) {
#do something
}
);
}
which is disturbingly simple.
For the first question, you can create dynamic subs by returning a sub from another. To accept only an Ampere parameter (where "Ampere" is chosen programmatically), use a type capture in the function signature:
sub make-combiner(Any:U ::Type $, &combine-logic) {
return sub (Type $a, Type $b) {
return combine-logic($a, $b);
}
}
my &int-adder = make-combiner Int, {$^a + $^b};
say int-adder(1, 2);
my &list-adder = make-combiner List, {(|$^a, |$^b)};
say list-adder(<a b>, <c d>);
say list-adder(1, <c d>); # Constraint type check fails
Note that when I defined the inner sub, I had to put a space after the sub keyword, lest the compiler think I'm calling a function named "sub". (See the end of my answer for another way to do this.)
Now, on to the hard part: how to export one of these generated functions? The documentation for what is export really does is here: https://docs.perl6.org/language/modules.html#is_export
Half way down the page, they have an example of adding a function to the symbol table without being able to write is export at compile time. To get the above working, it needs to be in a separate file. To see an example of a programmatically determined name and programmatically determined logic, create the following MyModule.pm6:
unit module MyModule;
sub make-combiner(Any:U ::Type $, &combine-logic) {
anon sub combiner(Type $a, Type $b) {
return combine-logic($a, $b);
}
}
my Str $name = 'int';
my $type = Int;
my package EXPORT::DEFAULT {
OUR::{"&{$name}-eater"} := make-combiner $type, {$^a + $^b};
}
Invoke Perl 6:
perl6 -I. -MMyModule -e "say int-eater(4, 3);"
As hoped, the output is 7. Note that in this version, I used anon sub, which lets you name the "anonymous" generated function. I understand this is mainly useful for generating better stack traces.
All that said, I'm having trouble dynamically setting a postfix operator's precedence. I think you need to modify the Precedence role of the operator, or create it yourself instead of letting the compiler create it for you. This isn't documented.
The Perl 6 Web site on functions says
Coercion types can help you to have a specific type inside a routine, but accept wider input. When the routine is called, the argument is automatically converted to the narrower type.
sub double(Int(Cool) $x) {
2 * $x
}
say double '21'; # 42
say double Any; # Type check failed in binding $x; expected 'Cool' but got 'Any'
Here the Int is the target type to which the argument will be coerced, and Cool is the type that the routine accepts as input.
But what is the point for the sub? Isn't $x just an Int? Why would you restrict the caller to implement Cool for the argument?
I'm doubly confused by the example because Int already is Cool. So I did an example where the types don't share a hierarchy:
class Foo { method foomethod { say 'foomethod' } }
class Bar {}
class Quux is Foo {
# class Quux { # compile error
method Bar { Bar.new }
}
sub foo(Bar(Foo) $c) {
say $c.WHAT; # (Bar)
# $c.foomethod # fails if uncommented: Method 'foomethod' not found for invocant of class 'Bar'
}
foo(Quux.new)
Here the invocant of foo is restricted to provide a Foo that can be converted to a Bar but foo cannot even call a method of Foo on $c because its type is Bar. So why would foo care that the to-be-coerced type is a Foo in the first place?
Could someone shed some light on this? Links to appropriate documentation and parts of the spec are appreciated as well. I couldn't find anything useful there.
Update Having reviewed this answer today I've concluded I had completely misunderstood what #musiKk was getting at. This was revealed most clearly in #darch's question and #musiKk's response:
#darch: Or is your question why one might prefer Int(Cool) over Int(Any)? If that's the case, that would be the question to ask.
#musiKk: That is exactly my question. :)
Reviewing the many other answers I see none have addressed it the way I now think it warrants addressing.
I might be wrong of course so what I've decided to do is leave the original question as is, in particular leaving the title as is, and leave this answer as it was, and instead write a new answer addressing #darch's reformulation.
Specify parameter type, with no coercion: Int $x
We could declare:
sub double (Int $x) { ... } # Accept only Int. (No coercion.)
Then this would work:
double(42);
But unfortunately typing 42 in response to this:
double(prompt('')); # `prompt` returns the string the user types
causes the double call to fail with Type check failed in binding $x; expected Int but got Str ("42") because 42, while looking like a number, is technically a string of type Str, and we've asked for no coercion.
Specify parameter type, with blanket coercion: Int() $x
We can introduce blanket coercion of Any value in the sub's signature:
sub double (Int(Any) $x) { ... } # Take Any value. Coerce to an Int.
Or:
sub double (Int() $x) { ... } # Same -- `Int()` coerces from Any.
Now, if you type 42 when prompted by the double(prompt('')); statement, the run-time type-check failure no longer applies and instead the run-time attempts to coerce the string to an Int. If the user types a well-formed number the code just works. If they type 123abc the coercion will fail at run-time with a nice error message:
Cannot convert string to number: trailing characters after number in '123⏏abc'
One problem with blanket coercion of Any value is that code like this:
class City { ... } # City has no Int coercion
my City $city;
double($city);
fails at run-time with the message: "Method 'Int' not found for invocant of class 'City'".
Specify parameter type, with coercion from Cool values: Int(Cool) $x
We can choose a point of balance between no coercion and blanket coercion of Any value.
The best class to coerce from is often the Cool class, because Cool values are guaranteed to either coerce nicely to other basic types or generate a nice error message:
# Accept argument of type Cool or a subclass and coerce to Int:
sub double (Int(Cool) $x) { ... }
With this definition, the following:
double(42);
double(prompt(''));
works as nicely as it can, and:
double($city);
fails with "Type check failed in binding $x; expected Cool but got City (City)" which is arguably a little better diagnostically for the programmer than "Method 'Int' not found for invocant of class 'City'".
why would foo care that the to-be-coerced type is a Foo in the first place?
Hopefully it's now obvious that the only reason it's worth limiting the coerce-from-type to Foo is because that's a type expected to successfully coerce to a Bar value (or, perhaps, fail with a friendly message).
Could someone shed some light on this? Links to appropriate documentation and parts of the spec are appreciated as well. I couldn't find anything useful there.
The document you originally quoted is pretty much all there is for enduser doc. Hopefully it makes sense now and you're all set. If not please comment and we'll go from there.
What this does is accept a value that is a subtype of Cool, and tries to transform it into an Int. At that point it is an Int no matter what it was before.
So
sub double ( Int(Cool) $n ) { $n * 2 }
can really be thought of as ( I think this is how it was actually implemented in Rakudo )
# Int is a subtype of Cool otherwise it would be Any or Mu
proto sub double ( Cool $n ) {*}
# this has the interior parts that you write
multi sub double ( Int $n ) { $n * 2 }
# this is what the compiler writes for you
multi sub double ( Cool $n ) {
# calls the other multi since it is now an Int
samewith Int($n);
}
So this accepts any of Int, Str, Rat, FatRat, Num, Array, Hash, etc. and tries to convert it into an Int before calling &infix:<*> with it, and 2.
say double ' 5 '; # 25
say double 2.5; # 4
say double [0,0,0]; # 6
say double { a => 0, b => 0 }; # 4
You might restrict it to a Cool instead of Any as all Cool values are essentially required to provide a coercion to Int.
( :( Int(Any) $ ) can be shortened to just :( Int() $ ) )
The reason you might do this is that you need it to be an Int inside the sub because you are calling other code that does different things with different types.
sub example ( Int(Cool) $n ) returns Int {
other-multi( $n ) * $n;
}
multi sub other-multi ( Int $ ) { 10 }
multi sub other-multi ( Any $ ) { 1 }
say example 5; # 50
say example 4.5; # 40
In this particular case you could have written it as one of these
sub example ( Cool $n ) returns Int {
other-multi( Int($n) ) * Int($n);
}
sub example ( Cool $n ) returns Int {
my $temp = Int($n);
other-multi( $temp ) * $temp;
}
sub example ( Cool $n is copy ) returns Int {
$n = Int($n);
other-multi( $n ) * $n;
}
None of them are as clear as the one that uses the signature to coerce it for you.
Normally for such a simple function you can use one of these and it will probably do what you want.
my &double = * * 2; # WhateverCode
my &double = * × 2; # ditto
my &double = { $_ * 2 }; # bare block
my &double = { $^n * 2 }; # block with positional placeholder
my &double = -> $n { $n * 2 }; # pointy block
my &double = sub ( $n ) { $n * 2 } # anon sub
my &double = anon sub double ( $n ) { $n * 2 } # anon sub with name
my &double = &infix:<*>.assuming(*,2); # curried
my &double = &infix:<*>.assuming(2);
sub double ( $n ) { $n * 2 } # same as :( Any $n )
Am I missing something? I'm not a Perl 6 expert, but it appears the syntax allows one to specify independently both what input types are permissible and how the input will be presented to the function.
Restricting the allowable input is useful because it means the code will result in an error, rather than a silent (useless) type conversion when the function is called with a nonsensical parameter.
I don't think an example where the two types are not in a hierarchical relationship makes sense.
Per comments on the original question, a better version of #musiKk's question "What is the point of coercions like Int(Cool)?" turned out to be:
Why might one prefer Int(Cool) over Int(Any)?
A corollary, which I'll also address in this answer, is:
Why might one prefer Int(Any) over Int(Cool)?
First, a list of various related options:
sub _Int_strong (Int $) {} # Argument must be Int
sub _Int_cool (Int(Cool) $) {} # Argument must be Cool; Int invoked
sub _Int_weak (Int(Any) $) {} # Argument must be Any; Int invoked
sub _Int_weak2 (Int() $) {} # same
sub _Any (Any $) {} # Argument must be Any
sub _Any2 ( $) {} # same
sub _Mu (Mu $) {} # Weakest typing - just memory safe (Mu)
_Int_strong val; # Fails to bind if val is not an Int
_Int_cool val; # Fails to bind if val is not Cool. Int invoked.
_Int_weak val; # Fails to bind if val is not Any. Int invoked.
_Any val; # Fails to bind if val is Mu
_Mu val; # Will always bind. If val is a native value, boxes it.
Why might one prefer Int(Cool) over Int(Any)?
Because Int(Cool) is slightly stronger typing. The argument must be of type Cool rather than the broader Any and:
Static analysis will reject binding code written to pass an argument that isn't Cool to a routine whose corresponding parameter has the type constraint Int(Cool). If static analysis shows there is no other routine candidate able to accept the call then the compiler will reject it at compile time. This is one of the meanings of "strong typing" explained in the last section of this answer.
If a value is Cool then it is guaranteed to have a well behaved .Int conversion method. So it will not yield a Method not found error at run-time and can be relied on to provide a good error message if it fails to produce a converted to integer value.
Why might one prefer Int(Any) over Int(Cool)?
Because Int(Any) is slightly weaker typing in that the argument can be of any regular type and P6 will just try and make it work:
.Int will be called on an argument that's passed to a routine whose corresponding parameter has the type constraint Int(...) no matter what the ... is. Provided the passed argument has an .Int method the call and subsequent conversion has a chance of succeeding.
If the .Int fails then the error message will be whatever the .Int method produces. If the argument is actually Cool then the .Int method will produce a good error message if it fails to convert to an Int. Otherwise the .Int method is presumably not a built in one and the result will be pot luck.
Why Foo(Bar) in the first place?
And what's all this about weak and strong typing?
An Int(...) constraint on a function parameter is going to result in either:
A failure to type check; or
An.Int conversion of the corresponding argument that forces it to its integer value -- or fails, leaving the corresponding parameter containing a Failure.
Using Wikipedia definitions as they were at the time of writing this answer (2019) this type checking and attempted conversion will be:
strong typing in the sense that a type constraint like Int(...) is "use of programming language types in order to both capture invariants of the code, and ensure its correctness, and definitely exclude certain classes of programming errors";
Currently weak typing in Rakudo in the sense that Rakudo does not check the ... in Int(...) at compile time even though in theory it could. That is, sub double (Int $x) {}; double Date; yields a compile time error (Calling double(Date) will never work) whereas sub double (Int(Cool) $x) {}; double Date; yields a run time error (Type check failed in binding).
type conversion;
weak typing in the sense that it's implicit type conversion in the sense that the compiler will handle the .Int coercion as part of carrying out the call;
explicit type conversion in the sense that the Int(...) constraint is explicitly directing the compiler to do the conversion as part of binding a call;
checked explicit type conversion -- P6 only does type safe conversions/coercions.
I believe the answer is as simple as you may not want to restrict the argument to Int even though you will be treating it as Int within the sub. say for some reason you want to be able to multiply an Array by a Hash, but fail if the args can't be treated as Int (i.e. is not Cool).
my #a = 1,2,3;
my %h = 'a' => 1, 'b' => 2;
say #a.Int; # 3 (List types coerced to the equivalent of .elems when treated as Int)
say %h.Int; # 2
sub m1(Int $x, Int $y) {return $x * $y}
say m1(3,2); # 6
say m1(#a,%h); # does not match
sub m2(Int(Cool) $x, Int(Cool) $y) {return $x * $y}
say m2('3',2); # 6
say m2(#a,%h); # 6
say m2('foo',2); # does not match
of course, you could also do this without the signature because the math operation will coerce the type automatically:
sub m3($x,$y) {return $x * $y}
say m3(#a,%h); # 6
however, this defers your type check to the inside of the sub, which kind of defeats the purpose of a signature and prevents you from making the sub a multi
All subtypes of Cool will be (as Cool requires them to) coerced to an Int. So if an operator or routine internal to your sub only works with Int arguments, you don't have to add an extra statement/expression converting to an Int nor does that operator/routine's code need to account for other subtypes of Cool. It enforces that the argument will be an Int inside of your sub wherever you use it.
Your example is backwards:
class Foo { method foomethod { say 'foomethod' } }
class Bar {}
class Quux is Bar {
method Foo { Foo.new }
}
sub foo(Foo(Bar) $c) {
#= converts $c of type Bar to type Foo
#= returns result of foomethod
say $c.WHAT; #-> (Foo)
$c.foomethod #-> foomethod
}
foo(Quux.new)
I am using a C library in my Objective C project. The C library offers the following function
void processData(...);
which can be used with 1, 2 or 3 parameters, where the first parameter is mandatory and can have different types int, double, long, float and the other two arguments are optional and have int and long values and can be in whatever order.
Examples of use of this function are:
int myInt = 2;
double myDouble = 1.23;
int dataQuality = 1;
long dataTimestamp= GET_NOW();
processData(myInt);
processData(myInt, dataQuality);
processData(myDouble, dataQuality, dataTimestamp);
processData(myDouble, dataTimestamp);
I need to make an Objetive C wrapper that uses DataType class to call processDatawith the correct parameters. The Data class has getters that allows to get the data type (first argument), its value and whether the second and third arguments have value and their value.
The problem is how to make this expansion? I think it must be done at compile time, and I think the only mechanism available in C to do so is macros. But I have never used them. The implementation should be something like this (the following is pseudocode, where the arguments list is evaluated at runtime, something that I guess should be replaced by macros in order to evaluate the arguments at compile time):
-(void) objetiveCProcessData: (Data) d {
argumentList = {}
switch (d.getDataType()) {
case INT_TYPE:
append(argumentList, d.getValueAsInt()); // <-- appends a value with type `int`
break;
case DOUBLE_TYPE:
append(argumentList, d.getValueAsDouble()); // <-- appends a value with type `double`
break;
...
}
if (d.hasQuality()) {
append(argumentList, d.getQuality());
}
if (d.hasTimeStamp()) {
append(argumentList, d.getTimestamp());
}
// Call to the C function with correct number and type of arguments
processData(argumentList);
}
I'm working on a password validation routine, and am surprised to find that VB does not consider '*' to be a symbol per the Char.IsSymbol() check.
Here is the output from the QuickWatch:
char.IsSymbol("*") False Boolean
The MS documentation does not specify what characters are matched by IsSymbol, but does imply that standard mathematical symbols are included here.
Does anyone have any good ideas for matching all standard US special characters?
Characters that are symbols in this context: UnicodeCategory.MathSymbol, UnicodeCategory.CurrencySymbol, UnicodeCategory.ModifierSymbol and UnicodeCategory.OtherSymbol from the System.Globalization namespace. These are the Unicode characters designated Sm, Sc, Sk and So, respectively. All other characters return False.
From the .Net source:
internal static bool CheckSymbol(UnicodeCategory uc)
{
switch (uc)
{
case UnicodeCategory.MathSymbol:
case UnicodeCategory.CurrencySymbol:
case UnicodeCategory.ModifierSymbol:
case UnicodeCategory.OtherSymbol:
return true;
default:
return false;
}
}
or converted to VB.Net:
Friend Shared Function CheckSymbol(uc As UnicodeCategory) As Boolean
Select Case uc
Case UnicodeCategory.MathSymbol, UnicodeCategory.CurrencySymbol, UnicodeCategory.ModifierSymbol, UnicodeCategory.OtherSymbol
Return True
Case Else
Return False
End Select
End Function
CheckSymbol is called by IsSymbol with the Unicode category of the given char.
Since the * is in the category OtherPunctuation (you can check this with char.GetUnicodeCategory()), it is not considered a symbol, and the method correctly returns False.
To answer your question: use char.GetUnicodeCategory() to check which category the character falls in, and decide to include it or not in your own logic.
If you simply need to know that character is something else than digit or letter,
use just
!char.IsLetterOrDigit(c)
preferably with
&& !char.IsControl(c)
Maybe you have the compiler option "strict" of, because with
Char.IsSymbol("*")
I get a compiler error
BC30512: Option Strict On disallows implicit conversions from 'String' to 'Char'.
To define a Character literal in VB.NET, you must add a c to the string, like this:
Char.IsSymbol("*"c)
IsPunctuation(x) is what you are looking for.
This worked for me in C#:
string Password = "";
ConsoleKeyInfo key;
do
{
key = Console.ReadKey(true);
// Ignore any key out of range.
if (char.IsPunctuation(key.KeyChar) ||char.IsLetterOrDigit(key.KeyChar) || char.IsSymbol(key.KeyChar))
{
// Append the character to the password.
Password += key.KeyChar;
Console.Write("*");
}
// Exit if Enter key is pressed.
} while (key.Key != ConsoleKey.Enter);