pertsevds

pertsevds

When i use List.flatten() it would flatten a deep list with every nested .

iex> list = [[],["ant",["hello","hi",[[[]]]], "bat"], ["cat", "dog"]]
[[], ["ant", ["hello", "hi", [[[]]]], "bat"], ["cat", "dog"]]
iex> List.flatten(list)
["ant", "hello", "hi", "bat", "cat", "dog"]

As expected.

But when i do Stream.flat_map()

iex(6)> list = [[],["ant",["hello","hi",[[[]]]], "bat"], ["cat", "dog"]]
[[], ["ant", ["hello", "hi", [[[]]]], "bat"], ["cat", "dog"]]
iex(7)> list
[[], ["ant", ["hello", "hi", [[[]]]], "bat"], ["cat", "dog"]]
iex(8)> |> Stream.flat_map(& &1)
#Function<60.124013645/2 in Stream.transform/3>
iex(9)> |> Enum.to_list()
["ant", ["hello", "hi", [[[]]]], "bat", "cat", "dog"]

It flattens only the first level of the list. It’s a flatten() with depth == 1.

And that was not what i expected.
I needed a deep_flatten() for Stream, so i’ve made it like this:

defmodule ExTelnet.StreamDeepFlatten do
  def deep_flatten(enumerables) do
    deep_flat_map(enumerables, & &1)
  end

  def deep_flatten(first, second) do
    deep_flat_map([first, second], & &1)
  end

  def deep_flat_map(enum, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 1) do
    Stream.transform(enum, nil, fn val, nil ->
      case val do
        val when is_list(val) -> {deep_flat_map(val, mapper), nil}
        val -> {[mapper.(val)], nil}
      end
    end)
  end
end

Works as expected for me:

iex(2)> list = [[],["ant",["hello","hi",[[[]]]], "bat"], ["cat", "dog"]]
iex(3)> list
iex(4)> |> Stream.map(&IO.inspect(&1))
iex(5)> |> ExTelnet.StreamDeepFlatten.deep_flatten()
iex(6)> |> Stream.map(&IO.inspect(&1))
iex(7)> |> Stream.map(&("seen " <> &1))
iex(8)> |> Stream.map(&IO.inspect(&1))
iex(9)> |> Enum.to_list()
[]
["ant", ["hello", "hi", [[[]]]], "bat"]
"ant"
"seen ant"
"hello"
"seen hello"
"hi"
"seen hi"
"bat"
"seen bat"
["cat", "dog"]
"cat"
"seen cat"
"dog"
"seen dog"
["seen ant", "seen hello", "seen hi", "seen bat", "seen cat", "seen dog"]

So what i’m questioning myself now is: “Am I reinvening the wheel? Maybe there is some better simpler method and I just don’t see it?”

Showing Posts 1 to 10

LostKobrakai

LostKobrakai

There might be simpler way to do this, but I’m wondering what the background to this is. Can you show a practical usecase for this, where the inputs are not lists, but actual (nested) enumerables/streams?

pertsevds

pertsevds OP

Sometimes you have functions that parse some portion of text and returns . If they are included in one another we can have something like [[]] at the output.

Sebb

Sebb

behaves like Enum.flat_map/2 not like List.flatten/1

pertsevds

pertsevds OP

Well, i know. But why?

lucaong

lucaong

One reason: flat_map flattening a single level, and flatten flattening multiple levels, produces a more versatile behavior: if one needs to flatten only a single level (maybe the nested items are collections themselves and should be treated as individual items) one can use flat_map. If multiple levels should be flattened, one can call flatten inside the function called by flat_map.

pertsevds

pertsevds OP

I don’t see it as that. flatten for lists - flattens multiple levels. So what is the word “flat” in flat_map? It’s flatten. What does flatten do here? It’s flattening a single level. Why? It’s inconsistent with flatten for lists.

I think it should be named concat_map because of what it does. Not flattening, concatenating. And by the way, in the docs we have exactly that:

conceptually, this is similar to a combination of map/2 and concat/1.

Link: Enum — Elixir v1.14.2

lucaong

lucaong

Another aspect is that List.flatten is more specialized, it only flattens lists, while it leaves other collections unchanged:

> List.flatten([%{"x" => :foo, "y" => :bar}])
[%{"x" => :foo, "y" => :bar}]

This makes it clear what to flatten and what not. Instead, flat_map flattens every enumerable:

> Enum.flat_map([%{"x" => :foo, "y" => :bar}], fn x -> x end)
[{"x", :foo}, {"y", :bar}]

The fact that flat_map flattens all enumerable would make it more confusing if it were to flatten all levels: if each element is a list of maps, should the map be flattened too, or not? Flattening only one level leaves the choice to the developer.

lucaong

lucaong

Finally, and possibly more importantly, flattening a single level on flat_map is a common choice on many programming languages, making it the expected behavior for many developers.

Examples are JavaScript:

> [[[123]]].flatMap(x => x)
[[123]]

Ruby:

> [[[123]]].flat_map { |x| x }
=> [[123]]
Sebb

Sebb

that’s why its called differently.

flat_map is very handy when you map over something and you get results that you just want to omit.

> Enum.flat_map([1,2,3,4,5], fn n -> if rem(n,2)==0, do: [n], else: [] end)
[2, 4]
josevalim

josevalim

Creator of Elixir

Hi everyone, I believe @davaeron understands the differences between them. The question is about naming.

Correct. This is common nomenclature in all functional languages. Also add Scala and Erlang to your list.

You should read it as a “flat map operation”, i.e. as a map operation that joins its consecutive results, not as a “map plus flatten”.

Where Next? Top

Trending in Discussions Top

AstonJ
As the title says, please share what you’ve been up to with Elixir. Whether that’s been learning it, looking into it, making stuff with i...
2977 92995 915
New
AstonJ
The obligatory hello world thread! Who are you and where are you from? :stuck_out_tongue:
4616 55835 594
New
caslu
I want to open this thread for you all to discuss and help those who really like Ash but are still hesitant to use it in a real project. ...
New
arcanemachine
I was working on an Ecto migration and I needed a timestamp. So, for the nth time, I looked up the different data types for timestamps, a...
New
alexslade
Fly’s CEO posted this recently - Turn And Face The Strange · The Fly Blog It says that Fly is going all-in on sprites, which is a worry ...
New
Herve37
We’re evaluating API mocking tools for OpenAPI-based projects and would love to hear what other teams are using. We’re particularly inte...
New
matt-savvy
Is there a word for the ~> symbol used in Version strings? Do you also just call it a Squiggle Arrow™ ?!
New

Other Trending Topics Top

garrison
Hobbes is a low-level distributed database for the Elixir programming language. Hobbes provides a simple, safe, and scalable storage lay...
New
mcass19
ExRatatui lets you cook up rich terminal UIs in Elixir, powered by Rust’s ratatui via Rustler NIFs. Build interactive terminal applicatio...
New
Damirados
Hello everyone. After busy few months I am happy to announce v0.1.0 of Emerge &amp; Solve. They are GUI (Emerge) and State management (S...
New
netoum
Corex is an accessible, unstyled UI component library for Phoenix that integrates Zag.js state machines using Vanilla JavaScript and Live...
New
wintermeyer
There are three potential reasons for members of this forum to have a look at https://vutuv.de You are tired or annoyed of LinkedIn. Yo...
New
aseigo
ICal is a library for interacting with iCalendar data. It parses iCalendars into typed Elixir structs via ICal.from_ics, and can prepare ...
New

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement

Options

Thread Display Mode




Thread Preview

Skip Thread Previews