zlist 0.1.2 · OCaml Package

Lazily-realized lists.

A lazy structure allows arbitrary transformations to be executed without forcing each intermediate representation in memory. When the final result is desired, it can be transformed into a strict structure.

One interesting property of lazy lists is that infinite structures can be constructed without being evaluated.

This implementation is heavily inspired by "Functional Programming in Scala", by Chiusano and Bjarnason (2014).

Some examples

Each of these examples assumes that

open Zlist
open Lazy_list

has been executed.

Generate an infinite sequence of even numbers and sample 10 of them:

let evens = enum_from 0 |> map (fun x -> 2 * x) in
evens |> take 4 ;;

- : int list = [0; 2; 4; 6]

Compute an infinite list of Fibonacci numbers and sample 8 of them:

let fibs = iterate (0, 1) (fun (a, b) -> b, a + b) |> map snd in
fibs |> take 8 |> to_list ;;

- : int list = [1; 1; 2; 3; 5; 8; 13; 21]

A quicksort-like algorithm:

let ( !! ) = Lazy.force ;;
let ( ++ ) = concat ;;

let rec sort = function
  | Nil -> Nil
  | Cons (p, lxs) -> begin
      let smaller = filter ((<) p) !!lxs in
      let greater = filter ((>=) p) !!lxs in
      sort smaller ++ unit p ++ sort greater
    end
in
sort (of_list [10; 2; 8; 5; 1; 0; 20; 3]) |> to_list ;;

- : int list = [20; 10; 8; 5; 3; 2; 1; 0]

Representation

type 'a t =

| Nil
| Cons of 'a Stdlib.Lazy.t * 'a t Stdlib.Lazy.t

Construction

val of_list : 'a list -> 'a t

val of_array : 'a array -> 'a t

val unit : 'a -> 'a t

unit a constructs a lazy list consisting only of the item a.

Generation

These functions are used to generate lazy lists from specifications.

val fill : int -> 'a -> 'a t

fill n a generates a lazy list consisting of n instances of the item a.

val unfold : 's -> ('s -> ('s * 'b) option) -> 'b t

State-based generation.

Starting with an initial state, generate a new state and a value. Termination is indicated by an outcome of None.

val iterate : 'a -> ('a -> 'a) -> 'a t

Generate an infinite lazy list by repeatedly iterating on a value.

val continually : 'a -> 'a t

continually a generates an infinite lazy list consisting of the item a.

val enum_from : int -> int t

enum_from z generates an infinite lazy list consisting of the integers beginning at z and incremented by one at each step.

val enum_from_to : int -> int -> int t

Like enum_from, but the result is a finite lazy list that terminates at the upper bound.

val cycle : 'a t -> 'a t

Generate an infinite lazy list consisting of cycles of the argument.

Manipulation

val head : 'a t -> 'a option

The first item in a lazy list, or None if the list is empty.

val tail : 'a t -> 'a t

Everything but the first item in a lazy list. This is the dual of head.

In the case of an empty lazy list, the result is Nil.

val take : int -> 'a t -> 'a t

take n t is a lazy list consisting of the first n items in t.

val take_while : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t

take_while f t is a lazy list consisting of the first items of t that satisfy the predicate f. The first item in t that does not satisfy the predicate terminates the sequence.

val drop : int -> 'a t -> 'a t

drop n t is the lazy list t without its first n items.

val drop_while : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t

drop_while f t is the lazy list t without the first items that satisfy the predicate f. The first item in t that does not satisfy the predicate terminates the sequence.

val map : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a t -> 'b t

map f t is the lazy list t with the f applied to each of its items.

val flat_map : ('a -> 'b t) -> 'a t -> 'b t

flat_map f t is equivalent to map f t |> flatten.

val filter : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t

filter f t is the lazy list t with only the items that satisfy the predicate f.

val map_filter : ('a -> 'b option) -> 'a t -> 'b t

map_filter f t applies f to each element in t and produces a new lazy list consisting of the non-None values.

val flatten : 'a t t -> 'a t

Flatten a lazy list of lazy lists.

Querying

val exists : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> bool

Check for the existence of an item in the lazy list that satisfies a predicate.

The first item to satisfy the predicate terminates the realization of the list.

val for_all : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> bool

Check that all items in the lazy list satisfy the predicate.

This requires realizing the entirety of the structure.

val find : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a option

Return the first item in the lazy list that satisfies the predicate.

Combining

val concat : 'a t -> 'a t -> 'a t

Combine two lazy lists into a single lazy list, one after the other.

val zip_with : ('a -> 'b -> 'c) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> 'c t

Merge two lazy lists together with a generating function.

val zip : 'a t -> 'b t -> ('a * 'b) t

Merge two lazy lists into a lazy list of pairs.

val zip_all_with : ('a option -> 'b option -> 'c) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> 'c t

Like zip_with, but merge elements from differently sized lazy lists.

val zip_all : 'a t -> 'b t -> ('a option * 'b option) t

Like zip, but merge elements from differently sized lazy lists.

Folding

val to_list : 'a t -> 'a list

Realize a lazy list into a strict list.

val fold_right : 
  'b Stdlib.Lazy.t ->
  ('a -> 'b Stdlib.Lazy.t -> 'b) ->
  'a t ->
  'b

Fold over a lazy list from the right with an accumulation function.

Since the folding function is lazy in the second argument, evaluation of the lazy list can be short-circuited.

val fold_left : 'b -> ('b -> 'a -> 'b) -> 'a t -> 'b

Fold over a lazy list from the left with an accumulation function.

Iterating

val iter : ('a -> unit) -> 'a t -> unit

iter f t applies the function f to each item in the lazy list. This only makes sense when f performs stateful effects.

package zlist