How to execute the quoted expression of an anonymous function?

Questions / Help
,
1

I have a Plug with many functions that return a parameterized anonymous function, for example:


def scaling(vmin,vmax) do
  fn value ->
    cond do
      not is_number(value)   -> 0
      value <= vmin ->  vmin
      value > vmax ->  vmax
      true -> value
    end
  end
end

The code of the Plug

defmodule Plug.RouterDataProcessor do

  def init(opts), do: opts  
    def call(conn, opts) do
    case conn.private[:process] do
      nil -> conn
      tasks -> process(conn,tasks, opts[:on_error])
    end
  end

  def process(conn,tasks,on_error) do
    Enum.map(tasks,do_task(Map.get(conn.body_params,"items")  ))    
  end

  def do_task(data) do
    fn task ->
      Enum.map(data,fn value ->fd.(value) end)
    end
  end


def scaling(vmin,vmax) do
  fn value ->
    cond do
      not is_number(value)   -> 0
      value <= vmin ->  vmin
      value > vmax ->  vmax
      true -> value
    end
  end
end
end

end

The function is already declared inside the plug.

The function will be passed from the route to the plug,

So in the Route:


defmodule UsersRouter do
  use RouterHelpers
  use Plug.ErrorHandler

import Plug.RouterDataProcessor

plug :match
plug Plug.RouterDataProcessor, on_error: &UsersRouter.on_error_fn/2
plug :dispatch
import Plug.RouterDataProcessor


tasks=[scaling(0,100),group(1),sum(1),sort(2)] # Many function can be grouped in a list

post "/receive/", private: %{process: tasks} do
        # do something with data
	# then send response
	send_json(conn,  %{status: "success"})
end

end

But when compile get the error:
== Compilation error in file lib/routes/data_router.ex ==
** (ArgumentError) cannot escape #Function<1.72916727/1 in DataProcessor.scaling/2>. The supported values are: lists, tuples, maps, atoms, numbers, bitstrings

Then try to capture, but is a incorrect point because I need to capture the returned anonymous function.

My second attemp is use quote/unquote


def scaling(vmin,vmax) do
  quote do
     fn value ->
    cond do
      not is_number(value)   -> 0
      value <= unquote(vmin) -> unquote(vmin)
      value >  unquote(vmax) ->  unquote(vmax)
      true -> value
    end
  end
  end
end

But I can’t find how to execute the quoted expression


 def do_task(data) do
    fn task ->
      IO.inspect task # print the representation {:fn, [], ....
      # try to execute
      Enum.map(data,fn value ->task.(value) end)       
    end
  end

Give me:

** (Plug.Conn.WrapperError) ** (BadFunctionError) expected a function, got:{:fn, [], …

I does not know why have this problem because if I run all inside the “post”,
the code run ok.

post "/datapro/" do 
    send_json(conn,  %{ t:  process(conn,[scaling(5,25)],&UsersRouter.on_error_fn/2)})
end

I am newbie, so is good to resolve with the quoted aproach, or there is any better way ?
Is there any performance drawback when use AST representation ?

How can resolve it ?

1 Like
2

quote returns the AST representation of the code put inside of it, but running that code would mean compiling it first. This is not the way.

The arguments passed to plug and related machinery are calculated at compile-time, but used at runtime. To do that, they need to be stored in the generated BEAM file (as one of the supported types).

There are a few other places in the ecosystem where this kind of restriction happens, and the typical approach is to use MFA tuples - a tuple like {UserRouterHelpers, :scaling, [10, 42]} of a module, a function name, and a list of arguments. Your process function might be written as:

def process(conn, tasks) do
  items = Map.get(conn.body_params, "items")

  Enum.map(tasks, fn {m, f, a} ->
    apply(m, f, [items | a])
  end)
end

Given a tuple {UserRouterHelpers, :scaling, [10, 42]} this will call UserRouterHelpers.scaling(items, 10, 42).

If you are writing a lot of these, some helper functions could get a result that looks just like what you started with:

# in RouterMFAHelpers
def scaling(vmin, vmax) do
  {WhateverModule, :scaling, [vmin, vmax]}
end

# in the router
import RouterMFAHelpers

tasks=[scaling(0,100),group(1),sum(1),sort(2)] # Many function can be grouped in a list

post "/receive/", private: %{process: tasks} do
  # do something with data
  # then send response
  send_json(conn,  %{status: "success"})
end
2 Likes
3

Thanks. apply(MFA) is pretty similar to C language function pointers.

I resolve


def process(conn,tasks) do
  items = Map.get(conn.body_params, "items")
  Enum.map(tasks,do_task(items)  )

 end



def do_task(items) do
  fn {f,arg} ->
    IO.inspect(f, label: "f")
    IO.inspect(arg, label: "arg")
    Enum.map(items,fn value -> apply( __MODULE__,f,arg).(value) end)
  end
end

kernel.apply( __ MODULE __,f,arg) give me the anonymous function then evaluate it with dot(value)

Greetings

4

On an almost unrelated note, you can replace the conds with clauses. More info here.