Re: [boost] Interest in a list comprehension library?

Subject: Re: [boost] Interest in a list comprehension library?
From: Dave Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-12-19 15:09:53

At Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:40:42 -0500,
Brent Spillner wrote:
> 
> I uploaded sample code to the Vault (in the "Miscellaneous/"
> directory) that provides a concise notation for list comprehensions.
> The comprehensions are evaluated lazily and can be used to populate a
> std::list, vector, or deque, appended to the same, inserted after a
> given iterator, or interpreted as a boost::range, including
> compatibility with BOOST_FOREACH.  Containers, iterator-defined
> ranges, or nullary function objects can be used as generators, and
> arbitrary function objects can be used to specify filter conditions.

I love it!!

> For example, the Pythagorean Triples example from
> http://rosettacode.org/wiki/List_comprehensions can be coded as
> 
> std::vector< boost::tuple<int,int,int> > triples =_(x, y, z)[x <<=
> range(1, n), y <<= range(x, n), z <<= range(y, n), x*x + y*y == z*z];
> 
> , and the (toy) prime number generator at
> http://www.secnetix.de/olli/Python/list_comprehensions.hawk can be
> implemented as
> 
>   std::vector<int> nonprimes = _(j)[i <<= range(2, sqrt_max), j <<=
> range(2 * i, sqrt_max * sqrt_max, i)];
> 
>   boost::function<std::vector<int>::const_iterator ()> is_composite
>        = bind(std::find<std::vector<int>::const_iterator, int>,
> nonprimes.begin(), nonprimes.end(), ref(p));

Not sure the above is portable, FWIW.  Last I recall you can't take the
address of standard library functions (because of the possibility of
overloads causing ambiguity).

>   BOOST_FOREACH(int x, (_(p)[p <<= range(2, sqrt_max * sqrt_max),
> call(is_composite) == nonprimes.end()])) { std::cout << x <<
> std::endl; }

I'm usually interested in comprehensions like (in Python):

    [ x, foo(x) for x in some_other_sequence ]

and your consistent use of range() above obscures whether "for x in
some_other_sequence" can be modeled in general.  Can I substitute any
sequence for range(...) in the above examples?

Anyway, very promising.  Keep up the great work!
-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com