[Scala MOOC II] Lec2: Lazy Evaluation

Lecture 2.1 - Structural Induction on Trees (optional)

Generalize the structural induction on list to general structures like trees.

To prove a property P(t) for all trees t:
* show for any leave l, P(l) holds
* for each internal node t with subtrees s1...sn, show P(s1)&...&P(sn) holds

Example: Prove correctness for IntSets

recall the IntSet def: empty set or non-empty set organized in a binary (search) tree structure.

abstract class IntSet{ 
    def incl(x: Int): IntSet 
    def contains(x: Int): Boolean 
} 
object Empty extends IntSet{ 
    def contains(x: Int): Boolean = false 
    def incl(x: Int): IntSet = NonEmpty(x, Empty, Empty) 
} 
class NonEmpty(elem: Int, left: IntSet, right: IntSet) extends IntSet{ 
    // NonEmpty is just a BST 
    def contains(x: Int): Boolean =  
        if (x<elem) left contains x 
        else if (x>elem) right contains x 
        else true 
    def incl(x: Int): IntSet =  
        if (x<elem) NonEmpty(elem, left incl x, right) 
        else if (x>elem) NonEmpty(elem, left, right incl x) 
        else this 
} 

Prove the correctness of this implementation: show that it respects certain laws:

prop1: Empty contains x = false

pf: easy...

prop2: (s incl x) contains x = true

pf: proof by structual induction on s

  • base case: s = Empty,

    (Empty incl x) = NonEmpty(x, Empty, Empty) 
    NonEmpty(x, Empty, Empty) contains x = true
    
  • induction step: s=NonEmpty(z,l,r)

    • first case, z=x s incl x = NonEmpty(x,l,r) incl x = NonEmpty(x,l,r)

    so NonEmpty(x, l, r) contains x = true - second case, z<x s incl x = NonEmpty(z,l,r) incl x = NonEmpty(z,l,r incl x) so:

    (s incl x) contains x  
    = NonEmpty(z,l,r incl x) contains x  
    = (r incl x) contains x = ture // by induction hypothesis
    
    • third case, z>x: symmetric ...

prop3: if x!=y, (s incl x) contains y = s contains y

pf: by structual induction

  • base case: s = Empty
  • induction step: s=NonEmpty(z,l,r) 5 cases to consider...
    • z=x
    • z=y
    • z<y<x
    • y<z<x
    • y<x<z

Lecture 2.2 - Streams

motivation: 2nd prime number between 1000 and 10000:

elegant, but not efficient solution:
( (1000 to 10000) filter isPrime) (1)

→ ALL prime numbers are constructed in the code, only use the first 2 elements...

⇒ *avoid computing the tail of a seq until necessary *

→ new data structure: Streams, like lists, but tail is eval only on demand

Stream class

constructor Streams defined from either constant Stream.empty and constructor Stream.cons ex: val xs = Stream.cons(1, Stram.cons(2, Stream.empty))

(Stream.empty~=Nil, Stream.cons~=::)

or by using the Stream object as a factory (like other collections): val xs = Stream(1,2,3)

toStream() toStream on a collection will turn the collection into a stream.

    scala> (1 to 1000).toStream 
    res1: scala.collection.immutable.Stream[Int] = Stream(1, ?) // the tail is (?) -- not evaled 

The tail is not evaled!

let's write a function to return a range as Stream ( returns (lo until hi).toStream) ):

def streamRange(lo: Int, hi: Int): Stream[Int] =  
    if (lo>hi) stream.empty) 
    else Stream.cons(lo, stramRange(lo+1, hi)) 

other methods Stream supports almost all method of a List

((1000 to 10000).toStream filter isPrime)(1)

Exception: concat operator :: will always return a list instead of a stream. → alternative: #:: returns a stream x#::xs == Stream.cons(x,xs)

Implementation of Streams

similar to the implementation of lists.

scala trait Stream[+A] extends Seq[A]{ def isEmpty: Boolean def head: A def tail: Stream [A] }

concrete implementations are in the Stream companion object:

object Stream{ 
    def cons[T](hd:T, tl: => Stream[T]) = // **`=>`: tl is by name, will be evaled later!  
        new Stream[T]{ 
            def isEmpty = false 
            def head = hd 
            def tail = tl 
        } 
    val empty = new Stream[Nothing]{ 
        def isEmpty = true 
        def head = throw new NoSuchElementException("empty.head") 
        def tail = throw new NoSuchElementException("empty.tail") 
    } 
}

all other methods are implemented similar to list counterparts...
ex:

class Stream[+T]{ 
//... 
  def filter(p: T=>Boolean): Stream[T] =  
    if (isEmpty) this
    else if (p(head)) cons(head, tail.filter(p))// tail.filter(p) will be evaled on demande
    else tail.filter(p)
    //... 
} 

Lecture 2.3 - Lazy Evaluation

pb with the last implementation of Streams: if tail is called several times, the corresponding stram will be re-computed each time.

→ can store the 1st result of the eval and use it later. (As in FP, the eval result never change)

⇒ this scheme is called lazy evaluation, as opposed to both by-name evaluation (def x) and strict-evaluation (val x). avoids both unnessary and repeated eval.

lazy val x = expr

exercice:

→ this will print: "xzyz"

adapt the lazy scheme for Stream implementation:

def cons[T](hd: T, tl: => Stream[T]) =  
new Stream[T]{ 
    def head = hd 
    lazy val tail = tl // **lazy instead of `def`** 
    //... 
    } 

Lecture 2.4 - Computing with Infinite Sequences

with lazyness, can deal with inf seqs. ⇒ infinite Streams

example: the stream of all integers starting from a given number:

def from(n: Int): Stream[Int] =  
n #:: from(n+1) // non-terminating recursive call here

all natural numbers:
val nats = from(0) all multiples of 4:
nats map (_ * 4)

scala> def from(n:Int):Stream[Int] = n #:: from(n+1); 
from: (n: Int)Stream[Int] 

scala> val nats = from(0) 
nats: Stream[Int] = Stream(0, ?) 

scala> val m4s = nats map (_ * 4) 
m4s: scala.collection.immutable.Stream[Int] = Stream(0, ?) 

scala> (m4s take 10).toList 
res2: List[Int] = List(0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36) 
 ```

example1: Sieve of Eratosthenes 
------------------------------- 

![](../images/progfun2_lec2_lazyeval/pasted_image001.png) 

written in scala:  

```scala 
def sieve(s:Stream[Int]): Stream[Int] = // param s is the prime numbers for sieve 
s.head #:: sieve(s.tail filter (_ % s.head!=0)) 

scala> val primes = sieve(from(2)) 
primes: Stream[Int] = Stream(2, ?) 

scala> primes.take(100).toList 
res0: List[Int] = List(2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167, 173, 179, 181, 191, 193, 197, 199, 211, 223, 227, 229, 233, 239, 241, 251, 257, 263, 269, 271, 277, 281, 283, 293, 307, 311, 313, 317, 331, 337, 347, 349, 353, 359, 367, 373, 379, 383, 389, 397, 401, 409, 419, 421, 431, 433, 439, 443, 449, 457, 461, 463, 467, 479, 487, 491, 499, 503, 509, 521, 523, 541) 

example2: square root

previous implementation: use isGoodEnough test termination. now: express the converging seq without having to worry about when to terminate:

def sqrtStream(x: Double): Stream[Double] = { 
    def improve(guess: Double) = (guess + x/guess) / 2 
    lazy val guesses: Stream[Double] = 1 #:: (guesses map improve) //**this will not explod!** 
    guesses 
} 
def isGoodEnough(guess: Double, x: Double) = 
    math.abs((guess * guess - x) / x) < 0.0001 
(sqrtStream(4) filter (isGoodEnough(_, 4)) ) (1) // get the 1st guess that is good enough 

Lecture 2.5 - Case Study: the Water Pouring Problem

task: "water pouring problem" given: source, sink, glasses of different sizes, target size...
goal: fill/empty/move water from 1 glass to another

Model Glass: Int State: Vector[Int] one entry per glass Moves:
Empty(glass), Fill(glass), Pour(from, to)

question: how to find the correct sequence of moves ?
⇒ BFS, generate all possible paths (from initial state where all glasses are empty) of length=1,2,3,...

Implementation

first: define Move classes, they have a change method, take one state as param and return a state:

class Pouring(capacity:Vector[Int]) { 
  type State = Vector[Int] 
  val initialState = capacity map ( x => 0 ) 

  trait Move{ 
    def change(state:State):State 
  } 
  case class Empty(glass:Int) extends Move{ 
    def change(state: State) = state.updated(glass,0) 
  } 
  case class Fill(glass:Int) extends Move{ 
    def change(state: State) = state.updated(glass,capacity(glass)) 
  } 
  case class Pour(from:Int, to:Int) extends Move{ 
    def change(state: State) ={ 
      val amount = state(from) min (capacity(to)-state(to)) //the amount to move 
      state updated (from, state(from)-amount) updated (to, state(to)+amount) 
    } 
  } 
  ... 
} 

generate all possible moves:

val glasses = capacity.indices // equal to `0 until capacity.length` 

val moves =  // all possible moves 
( for(g<-glasses) yield Empty(g) ) ++ 
  ( for(g<-glasses) yield Fill(g) ) ++ 
  ( for(gfrom<-glasses; gto<-glasses; if gfrom!=gto) yield Pour(gfrom, gto) ) 

Then define a Path class:

  class Path(history: List[Move]){// history: moves in reversed order
    def endState:State = // given a path (list ot moves), return the final state by following the path
      (history foldRight(initialState)) ( (mv:Move, stt:State) => mv change stt) // as in the list are reversed order of moves, use foldright

    def extend(move: Move) = new Path(move::history)

    override def toString =
      ( history.reverse mkString " " ) + "-->" + endState
  }

  val initialPath = new Path(Nil)

Then define a Stream of path sets: given current (set of) paths, extend one move and generate (a set of) paths of longer length:

  def from(paths: Set[Path]): Stream[Set[Path]] ={
    if(paths.isEmpty) Stream.empty
    else {
      val more = for{
        path<-paths
        next <- moves map path.extend
      }yield next
      paths #:: from(more)
    }
  }
  val pathSets = from(Set(initialPath))

finally, solve the problem: for each path, track its end state, and if the target value is in the end state, return the path.

  def solutions(target:Int):Stream[Path] =
    for{
      pathsets <- pathSets
      path <- pathsets
      if path.endState contains target
    } yield path

pb: too slow for some case → we generate ALL paths of a certain length in the stream, but in the paths, we should avoid returning to a preivous state !
→ re-define the from function: add a param of explored set of states.

  def from(paths: Set[Path], explored:Set[State]): Stream[Set[Path]] ={
    if(paths.isEmpty) Stream.empty
    else {
      val more = for{
        path<-paths
        nextpath <- moves map path.extend
        if (explored contains nextpath.endState)==false
      }yield nextpath
      val newstates = more map (_.endState)
      paths #:: from(more, explored.union(newstates))
    }
  }
  val pathSets = from(Set(initialPath), Set(initialState))

→ more improvement: avoid computing endState(a foldRight) over and over again — add to class param.

class Path(history: List[Move], val endState:State){// history: moves in reversed order
  def extend(move: Move) = new Path(move::history, move change endState)

  override def toString =
    ( history.reverse mkString " " ) + "-->" + endState 
}

Programming Assignment: Bloxorz

https://github.com/X-Wei/Coursera-progfun2/tree/master/hw2-stream-bloxorz/streams

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