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lib/list.ex

defmodule A.List do
@moduledoc ~S"""
Some extra helper functions for working with lists,
that are not in the core `List` module.
"""
@compile {:inline, prepend: 2, repeatedly: 2, do_repeatedly: 3}
@doc """
Prepends an element to a list, equivalent of `[elem | list]` that can be used in a pipe.
## Examples
iex> [2, 3, 5, 8] |> A.List.prepend(1)
[1, 2, 3, 5, 8]
"""
def prepend(list, elem) do
[elem | list]
end
@doc """
Populates a list of size `n` by calling `generator_fun` repeatedly.
## Examples
# Although not necessary, let's seed the random algorithm
iex> :rand.seed(:exsplus, {1, 2, 3})
iex> A.List.repeatedly(&:rand.uniform/0, 3)
[0.40502929729990744, 0.45336720247823126, 0.04094511692041057]
# It is basically just syntactic sugar for the following:
iex> Stream.repeatedly(&:rand.uniform/0) |> Enum.take(3)
## Rationale
- It has a consistent API with `Stream.repeatedly/1` and `List.duplicate/2`
- It provides a less verbose way of writing one of the most common uses of `Stream.repeatedly/1`
- It removes the temptation to write the following, which is more concise but is technically incorrect:
iex> incorrect = fn n -> for _i <- 1..n, do: :rand.uniform() end
iex> incorrect.(0) |> length()
2
iex> Enum.to_list(1..0) # <- because of this
[1, 0]
This is the same problem that `A.ExRange` is addressing.
"""
def repeatedly(generator_fun, n)
when is_function(generator_fun, 0) and is_integer(n) and n >= 0 do
do_repeatedly(generator_fun, n, [])
end
defp do_repeatedly(_generator_fun, 0, acc), do: :lists.reverse(acc)
defp do_repeatedly(generator_fun, n, acc) do
new_acc = [generator_fun.() | acc]
do_repeatedly(generator_fun, n - 1, new_acc)
end
end