View Category
Maps
Declaration

Define an empty map

ruby
map = {}
clojure
(def m {})

Define an unmodifiable empty map

ruby
map = {}.freeze
clojure
; Clojure maps are immutable
(def m {})

Define an initial map

Define the map {circle:1, triangle:3, square:4}
ruby
shapes = {'circle'=>1, 'triangle'=>3, 'square'=>4}
shapes = Hash['circle', 1, 'triangle', 3, 'square', 4]
shapes = { :circle => 1, :triangle => 3, :square => 4 }
clojure
(def m '{circle 1 triangle 1 square 4})
Access

Check if a key exists in a map

Given a map pets {joe:cat,mary:turtle,bill:canary} print "ok" if an pet exists for "mary"
ruby
puts "ok" if map.has_key?('mary')
puts "ok" if map['mary'] # Only works if map entry can't be nil or false
clojure
(if (contains? '{joe cat mary turtle bill canary} 'mary)
(println "ok"))

Retrieve a value from a map

Given a map pets {joe:cat,mary:turtle,bill:canary} print the pet for "joe" ("cat")
ruby
puts map['joe']
clojure
(def pets '{joe cat mary turtle bill canary})

(println (get pets 'joe))

Add an entry to a map

Given an empty pets map, add the mapping from "rob" to "dog"
ruby
pets['rob']='dog'
clojure
(assoc {} 'rob 'dog)

Remove an entry from a map

Given a map pets {joe:cat,mary:turtle,bill:canary} remove the mapping for "bill" and print "canary"
ruby
puts map.delete :bill
clojure
; Maps are immutable
; The following expression will return a new map without the 'bill key
(let [pets '{joe cat mary turtle bill canary}]
(println (get pets 'bill))
(dissoc pets 'bill))
Algorithms

Create a histogram map from a list

Given the list [a,b,a,c,b,b], produce a map {a:2, b:3, c:1} which contains the count of each unique item in the list
ruby
histogram = {}
list.each { |item| histogram[item] = (histogram[item] || 0) +1 }
list = %w{a b a c b b}

histogram = list.each_with_object(Hash.new(0)) do |item, hash|
hash[item] += 1
end

p histogram # => {"a"=>2, "b"=>3, "c"=>1}
list.inject(Hash.new(0)) {|h, item| h[item] += 1; h}
clojure
(let [l '[a b a c b b]]
(loop [m {}
d (distinct l)]
(let [item (first d)]
(if (zero? (count d))
m
(recur
(assoc m
item
(count
(filter #(= item %) l)))
(rest d))))))
(->> [:a :b :a :c :b :b]
(group-by identity)
(reduce (fn [m e] (assoc m (first e) (count (second e)))) {}))
(reduce conj {} (for [[x xs] (group-by identity "abacbb")] [x (count xs)]))
(frequencies ["a","b","a","c","b","b"])
(frequencies '[a b a c b b])

Categorise a list

Given the list [one, two, three, four, five] produce a map {3:[one, two], 4:[four, five], 5:[three]} which sorts elements into map entries based on their length
ruby
lengths = {}
list.each do |x|
len = x.size
lengths[len] = (lengths[len] || [])
lengths[len] << x
end
lengths = list.group_by {|x| x.size}
list.inject({}) { |h,x| (h[x.size]||=[]) << x; h }
clojure
(loop [m {}
l ["one" "two" "three" "four" "five"]]
(if (zero? (count l))
m
(let [item (first l)
key (count item)]
(recur
(assoc m key (cons item (get m key [])))
(rest l)))))
(group-by count ["one" "two" "three" "four" "five"])