On Jun 19, 2006, at 11:24 AM, C Rodrigues wrote:
Here's a puzzle I haven't been able to solve. Is it possible to write the initlast function?
There are functions "init" and "last" that take constant stack space and traverse the list at most once. You can think of traversing the list as deconstructing all the (:) [] constructors in list.
init (x:xs) = init' x xs where init' x (y:ys) = x:init' y ys init' _ [] = []
last (x:xs) = last' x xs where last' _ (y:ys) = last' y ys last' x [] = x
Now, is there a way to write initlast :: [a] -> ([a], a) that returns the result of init and the result of last, takes constant stack space, and traverses the list only once?
After Robert Dockins, Jon Fairbarn and Duncan Coutts, one more, nothing original...: initlast (x:xs) = inl x xs where inl x (a:as) = (x:q,y) where (q,y) = inl a as inl x [] = ([],x) Such tricks become your second nature, when you take the solution (lazy) of the "repmin" problem by Richard Bird, you put it under your pillow, and sleep for one week with your head close to it. Jerzy Karczmarczuk