Can someone please explain this 'my_if' code in the Metaprogramming Elixir book?

Questions / Help
1

I just finished “Programming Elixir” and now I am reading “Metaprogramming Elixir”. I can’t say I comprehend everything. I try to understand but I mostly pretend I understand and keep reading. While the previous examples were somehow manageable to follow I am stuck in recreating the if macro. Here is the code.

defmodule ControlFlow do
  defmacro my_if(expr, do: if_block) do
     if(expr, do: if_block, else: nil)
  end

  defmacro my_if(expr, do: if_block, else: else_block) do
    quote do
      case unquote(expr) do
        result when result in [false, nil] -> unquote(else_block)
        _ -> unquote(if_block)
      end
    end
  end
end

Can someone please be patient and explain with simple words what is happening in this code?

I understand what quote and unquote do. I don’t understand why the two defmacro definitions.

Now that I write the question I realize the first defmacro is just for the case we have a simple if without else. The second defmacro handles the if/else case. But still I can’t understand how they work.

1 Like
2

If you understand that code like this:

if something do
  x
else 
  y
end

is simply syntactic sugar for this:

if something, do: x, else: y

and that is simply syntactic sugar for this:

if(something, [do: x, else: y])

and THAT is simply syntactic sugar for this:

if(something, [{:do, x}, {:else, y}])

then it might be a bit clearer. Remember that Elixir allows you to drop the List [] if you’re passing in a keyword list.

Some more detail: your first my_if function takes two arguments, one of which is an explicit keyword list of do:. Since else isn’t specified, it just passes nil in for the else. That will run when you call code like this:

my_if x == 2 do
  x
end

# or
my_if(x == 2, do: x)

# which, without the sugar, is actually this:
my_if(x == 2, [{:do, x}])

Your second my_if function does a case statement on the expression (something in my example). Inside of the case statement, it checks to see if the result evaluation is one of false or nil, and then returns the else_block. Otherwise, it returns the if_block.

my_if x == 2 do
  x
else
  y
end

# or 
my_if(x == 2, do: x, else: y)

# which, without the sugar, is actually this:
my_if(x == 2, [{:do, x}, {:else, y}])

# and this is, conceptually, what your my_if function does
case x == 2 do 
  false -> y
  nil -> y
  _ -> x
end

You might check the “Keywords and maps” section of the documentation for further reference: http://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/keywords-and-maps.html

Hope that helps!

7 Likes
3

Thanks. It did help a lot. Also I had to research more how “case” works in Elixir.

But I still have another problem with this code. I even copy pasted the from the book to my editor but still get the same result.

Here is the original code for the first my_if macro from the book

defmacro my_if(expr, do: if_block), do: if(expr, do: if_block, else: nil)

here is the result I get in iex

iex(25)> c "if_recreated.exs"                                        
warning: redefining module ControlFlow (current version loaded from Elixir.ControlFlow.beam)
  if_recreated.exs:1
[ControlFlow]
iex(26)> require ControlFlow                                         
ControlFlow
iex(27)> ControlFlow.my_if 2 == 1, do: "correct"                     
"correct"
iex(28)> ControlFlow.my_if 2 == 1, do: "correct"
"correct"
iex(29)> ControlFlow.my_if 2 == 1, do: "correct", else: "not correct"
"not correct"
iex(30)>

In lines 27 and 28 shouldn’t the if statement return nil?

4

No, because you forgot something very important in your first definition. :slight_smile:

If you do an IO.inspect in that first my_if, what is the value of expr? It’s not what you think!

When you figure that out, think about how you “transform” values so they’re usable by macros, and then look at your first my_if again and see what you’re missing.

2 Likes
5

Wow thanks. I already tried to use unquote but I got errors because I didn’t wrap it first in “quote do”. The correct code is this

defmacro my_if(expr, do: if_block) do
  quote do
    if unquote(expr), do: unquote(if_block), else: nil
  end
end

Thank you very much for your help.

1 Like
6

I faced the same issue will working through Metaprogramming Elixir. my_if returns true irrespective of the condition when invoked without the else block. I think it’s an errata, I supposed the line should be:

defmacro my_if(expr, do: block) do
    quote do
      if unquote(expr), do: unquote(block), else: nil
    end
  end

Below is the full snippet from the book on page 22, maybe @chrismccord can clarify, I could be wrong with my assumption.

defmodule ControlFlow do
   defmacro my_if(expr, do: if_block), do: if(expr, do: if_block, else: nil)
   defmacro my_if(expr, do: if_block, else: else_block) do
     quote do
      case unquote(expr) do
       result when result in [false, nil] -> unquote(else_block)
       _ -> unquote(if_block)
     end
   end
  end
end
1 Like
7

Using the provided snippet from the book:

iex(7)> ControlFlow.my_if false, do: :here
nil
iex(8)> ControlFlow.my_if true, do: :here 
:here

Are you sure your code is correct wherever you are running it?

1 Like
8

Hi, kindly find below - elixir v1.13.3

iex(92)> ControlFlow.my_if false, do: :here  
nil
iex(93)> ControlFlow.my_if true, do: :here 
:here
iex(94)> ControlFlow.my_if 1 > 2, do: :here
:here
iex(95)> ControlFlow.my_if 1 == 2, do: :here
:here
2 Likes
9

Shouldn’t the first macro body delegate to my_if, not if?

1 Like
10

I tried that and had an error cannot invoke macro my_if/2 before its definition

1 Like
11

Bah, yes it is indeed erratta. You’re the first to catch this in like 8 years! :slight_smile:

If you give in a non AST literal, it’s always true because we are passing the ast to if in the first clause, not the expanded expression. So for example, 1 > 2 will be the ast tuple, instead of the boolean, which is always truthy. The code should have quoted the first clause. As @LostKobrakai said tho, a better example wouldn’t proxy to Elixir’s if in the first place:

iex(2)>    
nil
iex(3)> defmodule ControlFlow do
...(3)>   defmacro my_if(expr, [{:do, if_block} | _] = opts) do
...(3)>     quote do
...(3)>       case unquote(expr) do
...(3)>       result when result in [false, nil] -> unquote(opts[:else])
...(3)>       _ -> unquote(if_block) end
...(3)>     end
...(3)>   end
...(3)> end
{:module, ControlFlow,
 <<70, 79, 82, 49, 0, 0, 6, 208, 66, 69, 65, 77, 65, 116, 85, 56, 0, 0, 0, 183,
   0, 0, 0, 20, 18, 69, 108, 105, 120, 105, 114, 46, 67, 111, 110, 116, 114, 
   111, 108, 70, 108, 111, 119, 8, 95, 95, 105, ...>>, {:my_if, 2}}
iex(4)> require ControlFlow
ControlFlow
iex(5)> ControlFlow.my_if 1 > 2, do: :here
nil
iex(6)> ControlFlow.my_if 3 > 2, do: :here
:here
iex(7)>
9 Likes
12

Not the first one to catch it for sure, just maybe the first to report it.

When I read the book some while ago I found errata in several chapters, but just decided to go on since the subject was interesting and also found my way around the errors.

Thanks for writing about metaprogramming!