View Category
Lists
Declaration

Define an empty list

Assign the variable "list" to a list with no elements
ruby
list = []
list = Array.new
clojure
(list)
'()

Define a static list

Define the list [One, Two, Three, Four, Five]
ruby
list = ['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four', 'Five']
list = %w(One Two Three Four Five)
clojure
(def a '[One Two Three Four Five])
Output

Join the elements of a list, separated by commas

Given the list [Apple, Banana, Carrot] produce "Apple, Banana, Carrot"
ruby
string = fruit.join(', ')
clojure
(apply str (interpose ", " '("Apple" "Banana" "Carrot")))

Join the elements of a list, in correct english

Create a function join that takes a List and produces a string containing an english language concatenation of the list. It should work with the following examples:
join([Apple, Banana, Carrot]) = "Apple, Banana, and Carrot"
join([One, Two]) = "One and Two"
join([Lonely]) = "Lonely"
join([]) = ""
ruby
def join(arr)
return '' if not arr
case arr.size
when 0 then ''
when 1 then arr[0]
when 2 then arr.join(' and ')
else arr[0..-2].join(', ') + ', and ' + arr[-1]
end
end
clojure
(defn join [lst]
(cond
(= (count lst) 0) ""
(= (count lst) 1) (first lst)
(= (count lst) 2) (str (first lst) " and " (second lst))
(> (count lst) 2) (loop [lst lst sb (StringBuilder.)]
(if (empty? lst)
(.toString sb)
(recur (rest lst) (.append sb (cond
(> (count lst) 2) (str (first lst) ", ")
(> (count lst) 1) (str (first lst) ", and ")
(= (count lst) 1) (str (first lst)))))))))
(defn join
([lst]
(join lst false))
([lst is-long]
(condp = (count lst)
0 ""
1 (first lst)
2 (str (first lst) (if is-long ",") " and " (second lst))
(str (first lst) ", " (join (rest lst) true)))))

Produce the combinations from two lists

Given two lists, produce the list of tuples formed by taking the combinations from the individual lists. E.g. given the letters ["a", "b", "c"] and the numbers [4, 5], produce the list: [["a", 4], ["b", 4], ["c", 4], ["a", 5], ["b", 5], ["c", 5]]
ruby
common = [] ; [4, 5].each {|n| ['a', 'b', 'c'].each {|l| common << [l, n]}}
clojure
(defn combine [lst1 lst2]
(mapcat (fn [x] (map #(list % x) lst1)) lst2))
(mapcat (fn [x] (map #(list % x) ["a", "b", "c"])) [4, 5])

From a List Produce a List of Duplicate Entries

Taking a list:
["andrew", "bob", "chris", "bob"]

Write the code to produce a list of duplicates in the list:
["bob"]
ruby
foo = ['andrew', 'bob', 'chris', 'bob']
foo.inject({}) {|h,v| h[v]=h[v].to_i+1; h}.reject{|k,v| v==1}.keys
clojure
(->> '("andrew" "bob" "chris" "bob")
(group-by identity)
(filter #(> (count (second %)) 1))
(map first))
Access

Fetch an element of a list by index

Given the list [One, Two, Three, Four, Five], fetch the third element ('Three')
ruby
list = ['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four', 'Five']
list[2]
['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four', 'Five'].fetch(2)
list = ['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four', 'Five']
list.at(2)
['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four', 'Five'][2] # <= note the [2] at end of array
clojure
(nth '[One Two Three Four Five] 2)

Fetch the last element of a list

Given the list [Red, Green, Blue], access the last element ('Blue')
ruby
['Red', 'Green', 'Blue'][-1]
['Red', 'Green', 'Blue'].at(-1)
['Red', 'Green', 'Blue'].last
['Red', 'Green', 'Blue'].fetch(-1)
clojure
(last '[One Two Three Four Five])

Find the common items in two lists

Given two lists, find the common items. E.g. given beans = ['broad', 'mung', 'black', 'red', 'white'] and colors = ['black', 'red', 'blue', 'green'], what are the bean varieties that are also color names?
ruby
common = (beans.intersection(colors)).to_a
clojure
(use 'clojure.set)

(let [beans '[broad mung black red white]
colors '[black red blue green]]
(intersection (set beans) (set colors)))

Display the unique items in a list

Display the unique items in a list, e.g. given ages = [18, 16, 17, 18, 16, 19, 14, 17, 19, 18], display the unique elements, i.e. with duplicates removed.
ruby
ages = [18, 16, 17, 18, 16, 19, 14, 17, 19, 18]
p ages.uniq
ages = [18, 16, 17, 18, 16, 19, 14, 17, 19, 18]
ages.uniq!
p ages
ages = (Set.new [18, 16, 17, 18, 16, 19, 14, 17, 19, 18]).to_a
p ages
clojure
;; returns a set
(set [18, 16, 17, 18, 16, 19, 14, 17, 19, 18])
;;#{14 16 17 18 19}

;; returns a lazy sequence of the unique elements
(distinct [18, 16, 17, 18, 16, 19, 14, 17, 19, 18])
;;(18 16 17 19 14)


Modification

Remove an element from a list by index

Given the list [Apple, Banana, Carrot], remove the first element to produce the list [Banana, Carrot]
ruby
['Apple', 'Banana', 'Carrot'].shift
fruit.delete_at(0)
clojure
(let [fruit ["Apple" "Banana" "Carrot"]
index 0]
(concat
(take index fruit)
(drop (+ index 1) fruit)))

Remove the last element of a list

ruby
list = ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Carrot']
list.delete_at(-1)
list = ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Carrot']
list.pop
clojure
(pop ["Apple" "Banana" "Carrot"])

Rotate a list

Given a list ["apple", "orange", "grapes", "bananas"], rotate it by removing the first item and placing it on the end to yield ["orange", "grapes", "bananas", "apple"]
ruby
items = ["apple", "orange", "grapes", "bananas"]
items << first = items.shift

# items is rotated
# first contains the first value in the list
clojure
(let [fruit ["apple" "orange" "grapes" "bananas"]]
(concat (rest fruit) [(first fruit)])
Manipulation

Gather together corresponding elements from multiple lists

Given several lists, gather together the first element from every list, the second element from every list, and so on for all corresponding index values in the lists. E.g. for these three lists, first = ['Bruce', 'Tommy Lee', 'Bruce'], last = ['Willis', 'Jones', 'Lee'], years = [1955, 1946, 1940] the result should produce 3 actors. The middle actor should be Tommy Lee Jones.
ruby
first = ['Bruce', 'Tommy Lee', 'Bruce']; last = ['Willis', 'Jones', 'Lee']; years = [1955, 1946, 1940]

result = first.zip(last, years)
first = ['Bruce', 'Tommy Lee', 'Bruce']; last = ['Willis', 'Jones', 'Lee']; years = [1955, 1946, 1940]

result = [first, last, years].transpose
clojure
(defn gatherer [listOfLists]
(if (empty? (first listOfLists))
() ; the base case for recursion
(cons
(map first listOfLists) ; get the first element of each of the lists
(gatherer (map rest listOfLists)) ; gather all the subsequent ones
)
)
)

(def firstnames '("Bruce" "Tommy Lee" "Bruce"))
(def lastnames '("Willis" "Jones" "Lee"))
(def years '(1955 1946 1940))

(println (gatherer [firstnames lastnames years]))

; -> ((Bruce Willis 1955) (Tommy Lee Jones 1946) (Bruce Lee 1940))
(def firstnames ["Bruce" "Tommy Lee" "Bruce"])
(def lastnames ["Willis" "Jones" "Lee"])
(def years [1955 1946 1940])
(println (map (fn [f l y] [f l y]) firstnames lastnames years))

List Combinations

Given two source lists (or sets), generate a list (or set) of all the pairs derived by combining elements from the individual lists (sets). E.g. given suites = ['H', 'D', 'C', 'S'] and faces = ['2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '10', 'J', 'Q', 'K', 'A'], generate the deck of 52 cards, confirm the deck size and check it contains an expected card, say 'Ace of Hearts'.
ruby
suites.each {|s| faces.each {|f| cards << [s, f]}}
puts "Deck %s \'Ace of Hearts\'" % if cards.include?(['h', 'A']) then "contains" else "does not contain" end
clojure
(def suites ["H" "D" "C" "S"])
(def faces [2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "J" "Q" "K" "A"])
(defn listCards [] (for [s suites f faces] [f s]))
(some (partial = ["A" "H"]) (listCards))
; -> true
(count (listCards))
; -> 52

Perform an operation on every item of a list

Perform an operation on every item of a list, e.g.
for the list ["ox", "cat", "deer", "whale"] calculate
the list of sizes of the strings, e.g. [2, 3, 4, 5]
ruby
["ox", "cat", "deer", "whale"].map{|i| i.length}
clojure
(map count ["ox" "cat" "deer" "whale"])

Split a list of things into numbers and non-numbers

Given a list that might contain e.g. a string, an integer, a float and a date,
split the list into numbers and non-numbers.
ruby
now=Time.now
things=["hello", 25, 3.14, now]

numbers=things.select{|i| i.is_a? Numeric}
others=things-numbers
now=Time.now
things=["hello", 25, 3.14, now]

numbers, others=things.partition{|i| i.is_a? Numeric}
clojure
(def jumble [3 "Bill" 5.7 '("A" "B" "C")]) ; int, string, float, list

(defn numberNonNumberSorter [jumbledList]
(if (empty? jumbledList)
(hash-map :numbers [], :nonnumbers []) ; recursion base case - return two empty lists
(let [head (first jumbledList)] ; let <head> be the first element in the list
(let [tailresult (numberNonNumberSorter (rest jumbledList))] ; tailresult applies recursively to the remainder
(if (number? head) ; is head a number?
(hash-map
:numbers (cons head (tailresult :numbers)) ; add <head> to the numbers
:nonnumbers (tailresult :nonnumbers)) ; leave nonnumbers the same
(hash-map
:numbers (tailresult :numbers) ; leave numbers the same
:nonnumbers (cons head (tailresult :nonnumbers))) ; add <head> to nonnumbers
)
)
)
)
)

(println (numberNonNumberSorter jumble))

; -> {:nonnumbers (Bill (A B C)), :numbers (3 5.7)}
(group-by number? ["hello" 42 3.14 (Date.)])
Testing

Test if a condition holds for all items of a list

Given a list, test if a certain logical condition (i.e. predicate) holds for all items of the list.
ruby
[2, 3, 4].all? { |x| x > 1 }
clojure
(every? #(> % 1) [2 3 4])

Test if a condition holds for any items of a list

Given a list, test if a certain logical condition (i.e. predicate) holds for any items of the list.
ruby
[2, 3, 4].any? { |x| x > 3 }
clojure
; The standard library in Clojure has "not-any?" but (oddly enough) no "any?"
(defn any? [pred coll]
((complement not-any?) pred coll))

(any? #(> % 3) [2 3 4])
(some #(> % 3) [2 3 4])