mirror of
https://github.com/Brandon-Rozek/website.git
synced 2024-11-29 09:07:02 -05:00
63 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
63 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: "Fold Not Only Reduces"
|
|
date: 2022-11-09T15:15:10-05:00
|
|
draft: false
|
|
tags: ["Functional Programming", "Scala", "Haskell"]
|
|
math: false
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
One misconception when first learning about fold is that it takes a list of elements of a certain type (`List[T]`) and "reduces" it to a single item of type `T`.
|
|
|
|
This misconception is aided by one of the most common fold examples: summing a list.
|
|
|
|
Scala Example:
|
|
|
|
```scala
|
|
List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).foldLeft(0)((c, n) => c + n)
|
|
// Returns 15
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Haskell Example:
|
|
|
|
```haskell
|
|
foldl (+) 0 [1,2,3,4,5]
|
|
-- Returns 15
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
However, let us look more closely at the type signature of `foldLeft` on a list of type `X`.
|
|
|
|
Haskell:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
(B -> X -> B) -> B -> [X] -> B
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Scala:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
(id: B)(op: (B, X) => B): B
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
There are a few things we can note here:
|
|
|
|
- The return type is not influenced by the list type `X` at all.
|
|
- The return type must match the type of the id of the fold.
|
|
- The operation takes two arguments, with the first type matching the id/start (`B`) and the second type matching the type within the list (`X`)
|
|
|
|
To show an example of how we don't need to "reduce", let's return the elements of a list that's greater than 5.
|
|
|
|
Scala Example:
|
|
|
|
```scala
|
|
List(5, 7, 1, 8, 9, 3).foldLeft(List.empty[Int])((c, n) => if n > 5 then c :+ n else c)
|
|
// Returns List(7, 8, 9)
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Haskell Example:
|
|
|
|
```haskell
|
|
l5 c n if n > 5 then c ++ [n] else c
|
|
foldl l5 [] [5, 7, 1, 8, 9, 3]
|
|
-- Returns [7,8,9]
|
|
```
|
|
|