Is there a way to set restrictions on arc4random()'s results? - objective-c

I'm making three random choices between two classes, A and B. I need to avoid getting B all three times.
Is there a way to stop arc4random() from giving me that result?

One approach is: If your random routine gives you an unacceptable answer, run it again until it gives you an acceptable answer.
For example, in a solitaire game app of mine, I shuffle a deck and deal some of it into a layout which must be solvable. But what if it isn't solvable? I repeat that: I shuffle the deck again and deal it again. I keep doing that until the layout I've dealt is solvable. All of that happens before the user sees anything, so the user doesn't know what I've been up to behind the scenes to guarantee that the layout makes sense.
In your case, where the possibilities are so limited, another obvious alternative would be this: use a simple combinatorial algorithm to generate beforehand all acceptable combinations of three nodes. Now use arc4random to pick one of those combinations. So, for example:
var list = [[String]]()
let possibilities = ["A","B"]
for x in possibilities {
for y in possibilities {
for z in possibilities {
list.append([x,y,z])
}
}
}
list.removeLast()
Now list is an array of all possible triples of "A" or "B", but without ["B","B","B"]. So now pick an element at random and for each of its letters, if it is "A", use class A, and if it is "B", use class B. (Of course I suppose we could have done this with actual classes or instances, but it seems simplest to encode it as letters.)

BOOLs and loops to the rescue...
BOOL classA = false;
BOOL classB = false;
for (int i=0; i<3; i++) {
int r = arc4random() % 2;
if(i < 2) {
if(r == 0) {
NSLog(#"Class A");
classA = true;
} else {
NSLog(#"Class B");
classB = true;
}
} else {
if(classA == false)
NSLog(#"Class A");
if(classB == false)
NSLog(#"Class B");
}
}
The 2 BOOLs guarantee that each class has at least one member for each 3 cycle run.

Related

Sage: Iterate over increasing sequences

I have a problem that I am unwilling to believe hasn't been solved before in Sage.
Given a pair of integers (d,n) as input, I'd like to receive a list (or set, or whatever) of all nondecreasing sequences of length d all of whose entries are no greater than n.
Similarly, I'd like another function which returns all strictly increasing sequences of length d whose entries are no greater than n.
For example, for d = 2 n=3, I'd receive the output:
[[1,2], [1,3], [2,3]]
or
[[1,1], [1,2], [1,3], [2,2], [2,3], [3,3]]
depending on whether I'm using increasing or nondecreasing.
Does anyone know of such a function?
Edit Of course, if there is such a method for nonincreasing or decreasing sequences, I can modify that to fit my purposes. Just something to iterate over sequences
I needed this algorithm too and I finally managed to write one today. I will share the code here, but I only started to learn coding last week, so it is not pretty.
Idea Input=(r,d). Step 1) Create a class "ListAndPosition" that has a list L of arrays Integer[r+1]'s, and an integer q between 0 and r. Step 2) Create a method that receives a ListAndPosition (L,q) and screens sequentially the arrays in L checking if the integer at position q is less than the one at position q+1, if so, it adds a new array at the bottom of the list with that entry ++. When done, the Method calls itself again with the new list and q-1 as input.
The code for Step 1)
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class ListAndPosition {
public static Integer r=5;
public final ArrayList<Integer[]> L;
public int q;
public ListAndPosition(ArrayList<Integer[]> L, int q) {
this.L = L;
this.q = q;
}
public ArrayList<Integer[]> getList(){
return L;
}
public int getPosition() {
return q;
}
public void decreasePosition() {
q--;
}
public void showList() {
for(int i=0;i<L.size();i++){
for(int j=0; j<r+1 ; j++){
System.out.print(""+L.get(i)[j]);
}
System.out.println("");
}
}
}
The code for Step 2)
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class NonDecreasingSeqs {
public static Integer r=5;
public static Integer d=3;
public static void main(String[] args) {
//Creating the first array
Integer[] firstArray;
firstArray = new Integer[r+1];
for(int i=0;i<r;i++){
firstArray[i] = 0;
}
firstArray[r] = d;
//Creating the starting listAndDim
ArrayList<Integer[]> L = new ArrayList<Integer[]>();
L.add(firstArray);
ListAndPosition Lq = new ListAndPosition(L,r-1);
System.out.println(""+nonDecSeqs(Lq).size());
}
public static ArrayList<Integer[]> nonDecSeqs(ListAndPosition Lq){
int iterations = r-1-Lq.getPosition();
System.out.println("How many arrays in the list after "+iterations+" iterations? "+Lq.getList().size());
System.out.print("Should we stop the iteration?");
if(0<Lq.getPosition()){
System.out.println(" No, position = "+Lq.getPosition());
for(int i=0;i<Lq.getList().size();i++){
//Showing particular array
System.out.println("Array of L #"+i+":");
for(int j=0;j<r+1;j++){
System.out.print(""+Lq.getList().get(i)[j]);
}
System.out.print("\nCan it be modified at position "+Lq.getPosition()+"?");
if(Lq.getList().get(i)[Lq.getPosition()]<Lq.getList().get(i)[Lq.getPosition()+1]){
System.out.println(" Yes, "+Lq.getList().get(i)[Lq.getPosition()]+"<"+Lq.getList().get(i)[Lq.getPosition()+1]);
{
Integer[] tempArray = new Integer[r+1];
for(int j=0;j<r+1;j++){
if(j==Lq.getPosition()){
tempArray[j] = new Integer(Lq.getList().get(i)[j])+1;
}
else{
tempArray[j] = new Integer(Lq.getList().get(i)[j]);
}
}
Lq.getList().add(tempArray);
}
System.out.println("New list");Lq.showList();
}
else{
System.out.println(" No, "+Lq.getList().get(i)[Lq.getPosition()]+"="+Lq.getList().get(i)[Lq.getPosition()+1]);
}
}
System.out.print("Old position = "+Lq.getPosition());
Lq.decreasePosition();
System.out.println(", new position = "+Lq.getPosition());
nonDecSeqs(Lq);
}
else{
System.out.println(" Yes, position = "+Lq.getPosition());
}
return Lq.getList();
}
}
Remark: I needed my sequences to start at 0 and end at d.
This is probably not a very good answer to your question. But you could, in principle, use Partitions and the max_slope=-1 argument. Messing around with filtering lists of IntegerVectors sounds equally inefficient and depressing for other reasons.
If this has a canonical name, it might be in the list of sage-combinat functionality, and there is even a base class you could perhaps use for integer lists, which is basically what you are asking about. Maybe you could actually get what you want using IntegerListsLex? Hope this proves helpful.
This question can be solved by using the class "UnorderedTuples" described here:
http://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/reference/combinat/sage/combinat/tuple.html
To return all all nondecreasing sequences with entries between 0 and n-1 of length d, you may type:
UnorderedTuples(range(n),d)
This returns the nondecreasing sequence as a list. I needed an immutable object (because the sequences would become keys of a dictionary). So I used the "tuple" method to turn the lists into tuples:
immutables = []
for s in UnorderedTuples(range(n),d):
immutables.append(tuple(s))
return immutables
And I also wrote a method which picks out only the increasing sequences:
def isIncreasing(list):
for i in range(len(list) - 1):
if list[i] >= list[i+1]:
return false
return true
The method that returns only strictly increasing sequences would look like
immutables = []
for s in UnorderedTuples(range(n),d):
if isIncreasing(s):
immutables.append(tuple(s))
return immutables

Counter as variable in for-in-loops

When normally using a for-in-loop, the counter (in this case number) is a constant in each iteration:
for number in 1...10 {
// do something
}
This means I cannot change number in the loop:
for number in 1...10 {
if number == 5 {
++number
}
}
// doesn't compile, since the prefix operator '++' can't be performed on the constant 'number'
Is there a way to declare number as a variable, without declaring it before the loop, or using a normal for-loop (with initialization, condition and increment)?
To understand why i can’t be mutable involves knowing what for…in is shorthand for. for i in 0..<10 is expanded by the compiler to the following:
var g = (0..<10).generate()
while let i = g.next() {
// use i
}
Every time around the loop, i is a freshly declared variable, the value of unwrapping the next result from calling next on the generator.
Now, that while can be written like this:
while var i = g.next() {
// here you _can_ increment i:
if i == 5 { ++i }
}
but of course, it wouldn’t help – g.next() is still going to generate a 5 next time around the loop. The increment in the body was pointless.
Presumably for this reason, for…in doesn’t support the same var syntax for declaring it’s loop counter – it would be very confusing if you didn’t realize how it worked.
(unlike with where, where you can see what is going on – the var functionality is occasionally useful, similarly to how func f(var i) can be).
If what you want is to skip certain iterations of the loop, your better bet (without resorting to C-style for or while) is to use a generator that skips the relevant values:
// iterate over every other integer
for i in 0.stride(to: 10, by: 2) { print(i) }
// skip a specific number
for i in (0..<10).filter({ $0 != 5 }) { print(i) }
let a = ["one","two","three","four"]
// ok so this one’s a bit convoluted...
let everyOther = a.enumerate().filter { $0.0 % 2 == 0 }.map { $0.1 }.lazy
for s in everyOther {
print(s)
}
The answer is "no", and that's a good thing. Otherwise, a grossly confusing behavior like this would be possible:
for number in 1...10 {
if number == 5 {
// This does not work
number = 5000
}
println(number)
}
Imagine the confusion of someone looking at the number 5000 in the output of a loop that is supposedly bound to a range of 1 though 10, inclusive.
Moreover, what would Swift pick as the next value of 5000? Should it stop? Should it continue to the next number in the range before the assignment? Should it throw an exception on out-of-range assignment? All three choices have some validity to them, so there is no clear winner.
To avoid situations like that, Swift designers made loop variables in range loops immutable.
Update Swift 5
for var i in 0...10 {
print(i)
i+=1
}

Objective C: Using a BOOL to return 'YES' if a condition can be applied

Hi there I have some code at the moment that gives me the error ("0") is not equal to ("50") - condition not applied correctly Basically I am currently using a traditional for loop within a BOOL which goes through the list of items and checks whether or not the condition can be applied, if it can be applied to an item then the BOOL will return YES. I cannot see where I am currently going wrong and need guidance. My code is shown below:
-(BOOL)conditionCanBeApplied:(NSArray *)items{
bool itemConditionCanBeApplied = NO;
for (int i = 0; i < items.count; i++)
{
id myItem = [[items valueForKeyPath:#"itemId"]objectAtIndex: i];
if ([self.applicableItems containsObject:myItem]) {
itemConditionCanBeApplied = YES;
}
}
return itemConditionCanBeApplied;
}
First, don't mix BOOL and bool, they might be very similar but they aren't the same data type. Second, always use fast enumeration if you have a choice. I am assuming in the code below that your items collection is something like an NSArray. Also, there is no reason to test with an if statement just to set a BOOL since the test is a boolean statement. (I am doing it in my example to allow for the break) Lastly, short-circuiting your logic with a break keeps the processor from doing unnecessary work once you have at least one match.
Do something like this:
- (BOOL)conditionTest
{
BOOL itemConditionCanBeApplied = NO;
for (id item in items) {
if ([self.applicableItems containsObject:item]) {
itemConditionCanBeApplied = YES;
break;
}
}
return itemConditionCanBeApplied;
}

Is value "in" some other values, in objective-c

Coming from an extremely spoiled family upbringing (turbo pascal, python, ruby) I'm a bit puzzled when it comes to doing all the household chores myself.
Yesterday was one of these days where I just did not find myself a solution. I had to check whether a value matches one of some other values.
x = some_function_return_value();
if x in (1,4,17,29,35):
That's how I used to write it. Now with Objective-C I obviously can't do that. And I searched the old google, but found no answer, and the old manual, and nothing there, so how do you do this in Objective-C, without doing something cranky like the following?
if (x == 1 || x == 4 || x == 17 || x == ...) {
Edited: in this case it is an (int), I know for NSArray and NSString there are methods for this
If it's about integer values, you can use switch:
switch (x) {
case 1:
case 4:
case 17:
case 29:
case 35:
do_something();
break;
}
Do not forget that in C/C++/Objective-C, the cases fall through to the next by default. You need to add break; statements to prevent that.
For non-integer values, you have to do long if statements with a lot of repetition as C doesn't provide syntactic sugar or features that many scripting languages have to abbreviate this.
Another way would be for example to prepare an array and then do:
if ([myArray containsObject:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:x]])
or even better, use an NSSet for that. This will work for most objects, for example it will also work with strings.
There is a fast enumeration syntax in objective C that uses "in" to loop over collections, however given it requires converting your int values to NSNumbers, it's probably easier to use C here
BOOL success = NO;
int size = 5
NSInteger numbers[size] = {1,4,17,29,35};
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
if (yourValue == numbers[i]) {
success = YES;
break;
}
}
if (success) {
/* do your stuff */
}
admittedly not as nice as python...
Here's my silly program of the day:
bool int_exists_in_array(const int n, const int a[], const size_t elementCount) {
return (0 != elementCount) &&
(n == a[0] || int_exists_in_array(n, a + 1, elementCount - 1U));
}
so this:
if x in (1,4,17,29,35):
becomes:
const int a[] = { 1, 4, 17, 29, 35 };
if (int_exists_in_array(x, a, sizeof(a)/sizeof(a[0]))) {
...
}
You can use NSSet in addition with NSValue.

Output the nodes in a cycle existing in a directed graph

While I understand that we can detect cycles with the DFS algorithm by detecting back-edges http://cs.wellesley.edu/~cs231/fall01/dfs.pdf. I am not being able to figure out how to output the nodes in the cycle in an efficient and "clean" manner while following the above said method.
Would be gratfeull for some help
Thanks
This is how i did it in my own implementation. It deviates a little bit in the naming conventions from the one used in your PDF but it should be obvious what it does.
All m_* variables are vectors, except m_topoOrder and m_cycle which are stacks.
The nodes of the cycle will be in m_cycle.
The m_onStack keeps track of nodes which are on the recursive call stack.
For a complete description i suggest the book Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick.
void QxDigraph::dfs(int v)
{
m_marked[v] = true;
m_onStack[v] = true;
foreach(int w, m_adj[v]) {
if(hasCycle()) return;
else if(!m_marked[w])
{
m_edgeTo[w] = v;
dfs(w);
}
else if(m_onStack[w])
{
m_cycle.clear();
for(int x=v; x!=w; x = m_edgeTo[x])
m_cycle.push(x);
m_cycle.push(w);
m_cycle.push(v);
}
}
m_onStack[v] = false;
m_topoOrder.push(v);
}