What does this lambda function do? - python

I'm still struggling with lambdas. This code was submitted as an answer to Python: closest coordinate?. A lot of it confused me, but I've sorted through most of it. The float method's use of self is still a little tricky for me (I get self.x and self.y, but not really sure what self is in that context). Only mentioning that as it is likely involved in the main part I don't understand, which is the lambda function in the closest method. I see it's going to return the minimum item generated, and that it unpacks the points as args. Then I get a little lost. Are __sub__ and __pow__ redefining - and ** respectively, or are they just distinct methods?
class Point:
def __init__(self,x,y):
self.x = x
self.y = y
def closest(self,*points):
return min(points,key=lambda x:float(x-self))
def __sub__(self,other):
return Point((self.x-other.x) , (self.y - other.y))
def __pow__(self,powTo):
return Point(self.x**powTo,self.y**powTo)
def __iter__(self):
yield self.x
yield self.y
def __float__(self):
return sum(self**2)**0.5
def __str__(self):
return "(%s,%s)"%(self.x,self.y)
pt0 = Point(9,2)
print pt0.closest(Point(0,0),Point(10,0),Point(10,10))

lambda args: expr is not a special magic feature, it's just nice shorthand for
def someFunc(args):
return expr
which is mainly useful when you need a small function with a simple expression for its body and you don't care about the name. If we used familiar syntax, the closest() method would be:
def closest(self,*points):
def keyFunc(x):
return float(x-self)
return min(points,key=keyFunc)
that is, it creates a small, one off function which does a little bit of calculation depending on self and its argument x, and passes that into the min() builtin function. As Ostrea explains, min(seq, key=f) returns the item x in seq which minimizes f(x)

def __sub__ is one of the magic methods you can define on an object.
It will be called when you substract the two points. In the example, self will be pt0.

Yes, __sub__ and __pow__ redefines - and ** respectively. In this example you just pass anonymous function to optional argument for min(). Here is what this optional argument does, as said in docs:
The optional keyword-only key argument specifies a one-argument ordering function like that used for list.sort().
In this anonymous function you just subtract point, on which closest was called from points, which was passed as arguments and then convert it to float (this conversion is overridden, see __float__)

Related

How to subclass "float" without implementing its method?

I want to subclass from float but don't want it to init soon. I also don't want to explicitly call float() for my object.
For example, I don't want to calculate anything before it is required. I want only to do an object that behaves like float. Here is how I want to create class:
class MassiveAverage(float):
def __init__(self, floats: list[float]):
self.floats = floats
def __float__(self) -> float:
return sum(self.floats) / len(self.floats)
And this is how I want to use it:
massive_average = MassiveAverage([1.1, 2.2]) # no any calculations
massive_sum = massive_average * 2 # this is were it calculates its float value
For the answer to this question I am going to assume you are already familiar with python's "magic methods". #gftea's answer has a link to the documentation for some of the magic methods if you are not familiar.
You are going to have to manually define each "magic function" __mul__, __add__, __sub__, etc.
class MassiveAverage:
def __init__(self, floats):
self._avg = sum(floats)/len(floats)
def __mul__(self, other):
return self._avg * other
def __sub__(self, other):
return self._avg - other
def __add__(self, other):
return self._avg + other
...
But, this doesn't handle your lazy evaluation use case. Instead, we could maintain an internal cache, and on the first time one of these magic methods are evaluated, we could run the average function.
class MassiveAverage:
def __init__(self, floats):
self._floats = floats
self._avg = None
#property
def avg(self):
if self._avg is None:
self._avg = sum(self._floats) / len(self._floats)
return self._avg
Then, we can replace our magic functions and use self.avg.
def __mul__(self, other):
return self.avg * other
def __add__(self, other):
return self.avg + other
def __sub__(self, other):
return self.avg - other
...
Unfortunately, you cannot subclass float in the manner you want. Because you are specifying lazy evaluation, you are fundamentally changing how the methods in the float class work (since they don't need lazy evaluation). You would still have to manually change each magic method.
you should overwrite the operator, for example, to overwrite *, you can overwrite the __mul__ method
def __mul__(self, float): ...
see below for methods can be defined to emulate numeric objects
https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html?highlight=rmul#emulating-numeric-types
__float__ is used for exactly one purpose: to define the behavior of float(x) as x.__float__(). There is no implicit conversion in an expression like massive_average * 2. This could mean any number of things:
massive_average.__int__() * 2
massive_average.__float__() * 2
massive_average.__complex__() * 2
massive_avarge.__str__() * 2
so Python refuses to guess. It will try massive_average.__mul__(2), and failing that, (2).__rmul__(massive_average), before giving up.
Each of the type-specific "conversion" methods are used only by the corresponding type itself. print, for example, does not call __str__ (directly); it only is defined to call str on each of its arguments, and str takes care of calling __str__.

How to create a function that applies a function to the inputs of another function in Python?

I'm looking for a nice functional way to do the following:
def add(x, y):
return x + y
def neg(x):
return -x
def c(x, y):
# Apply neg to inputs for add
_x = neg(x)
_y = neg(y)
return add(_x, _y)
neg_sum = c(2, 2) # -4
It seems related to currying, but all of the examples I can find use functions that only have one input variable. I would like something that looks like this:
def add(x, y):
return x + y
def neg(x):
return -x
c = apply(neg, add)
neg_sum = c(2, 2) # -4
This is a fairly direct way to do it:
def add(x, y):
return x + y
def neg(x):
return -x
def apply(g, f):
# h is a function that returns
# f(g(arg1), g(arg2), ...)
def h(*args):
return f(*map(g, args))
return h
# or this:
# def apply(g, f):
# return lambda *args: f(*map(g, args))
c = apply(neg, add)
neg_sum = c(2, 2) # -4
Note that when you use *myvar as an argument in a function definition, myvar becomes a list of all non-keyword arguments that are received. And if you call a function with *expression as an argument, then all the items in expression are unpacked and sent as separate arguments to the function. I use these two behaviors to make h accept an unknown list of arguments, then apply function g to each one (with map), then pass all of them as arguments to f.
A different approach, depending on how extensible you need this to be, is to create an object which implements your operator methods, which each return the same object, allowing you to chain operators together in arbitrary orders.
If you can cope with it always returning a list, you might be able to make it work.
class mathifier:
def __init__(self,values):
self.values = values
def neg(self):
self.values = [-value for value in self.values]
return self
def add(self):
self.values = [sum(self.values)]
return self
print (mathifier([2,3]).neg().add().values)
And you can still get your named function for any set of chained functions:
neg_add = lambda x : mathifier(x).neg().add()
print(neg_add([2,3]).values)
From Matthias Fripp's answer, I asked myself : I'd like to compose add and neg both ways : add_neg(*args) and neg_add(*args). This requires hacking Matthias suggestion a bit. The idea is to get some hint on the arity (number of args) of the functions to compose. This information is obtained with a bit of introspection, thanks to inspect module. With this in mind, we adapt the way args are passed through the chain of funcs. The main assumption here is that we deal with real functions, in the mathematical sense, i.e. functions returning ONE float, and taking at least one argument.
from functools import reduce
from inspect import getfullargspec
def arity_one(func):
spec = getfullargspec(func)
return len(spec[0])==1 and spec[1] is None
def add(*args):
return reduce(lambda x,y:x+y, args, 0)
def neg(x):
return -x
def compose(fun1,fun2):
def comp(*args):
if arity_one(fun2): return fun1(*(map( fun2, args)))
else: return fun1(fun2(*args))
return comp
neg_add = compose(neg, add)
add_neg = compose(add, neg)
print(f"-2+(-3) = {add_neg(2, 3)}")
print(f"-(2+3) = {neg_add(2, 3)}")
The solution is still very adhoc...

How to define toString method?

I have just almost finished my assignment and now the only thing I have left is to define the tostring method shown here.
import math
class RegularPolygon:
def __init__(self, n = 1, l = 1):
self.__n = n
self.__l = l
def set_n(self, n):
self.__n = n
def get_n(self):
return self.__n
def addSides(self, x):
self.__n = self.__n + x
def setLength(self, l ):
self.__l = l
def getLength(self):
return self.__l
def setPerimeter(self):
return (self.__n * self.__l )
def getArea(self):
return (self.__l ** 2 / 4 * math.tan(math.radians(180/self.__n)))
def toString(self):
return
x = 3
demo_object = RegularPolygon (3, 1)
print(demo_object.get_n() , demo_object.getLength())
demo_object.addSides(x)
print(demo_object.get_n(), demo_object.getLength())
print(demo_object.getArea())
print(demo_object.setPerimeter())
Basically the tostring on what it does is return a string that has the values of the internal variables included in it. I also need help on the getArea portion too.
Assignment instructions
The assignment says
... printing a string representation of a RegularPolygon object.
So I would expect you get to choose a suitable "representation". You could go for something like this:
return f'{self.__n+2} sided regular polygon of side length {self.__l}'
or as suggested by #Roy Cohen
return f'{self.__class__.__name__}({self.__n}, {self.__l})'
However, as #Klaus D. wrote in the comments, Python is not Java, and as such has its own standards and magic methods to use instead.
I would recommend reading this answer for an explanation between the differences between the two built-in string representation magic-methods: __repr__ and __str__. By implementing these methods, they will automatically be called whenever using print() or something similar, instead of you calling .toString() every time.
Now to address the getters and setters. Typically in Python you avoid these and prefer using properties instead. See this answer for more information, but to summarise you either directly use an objects properties, or use the #property decorator to turn a method into a property.
Edit
Your area formula is likely an error with order-of-operations. Make sure you are explicit with which operation you're performing first:
return self.__l ** 2 / (4 * math.tan(math.radians(180/self.__n)) )
This may be correct :)

Professor used "The binary version of a function". Does that even exist?

Our professor used this in the assignment. I don't think "The binary version of a function" exist after searching about it in Google. What do you think it means?
Say we have a function add that adds a bunch of numbers. Rather than
writing add(3, 5, 4, 1) we want to use currying to create an adder
function that can be extended using a chain of calls. We would then
have adder(3)(5)(4)(1)(). Let us assume we have the currying function
that can create this adder given the add2 function (the binary version
of add) and a start value. Let us call it curry. Then we have adder =
curry(add2, 0).
I think he means a function that accepts only two arguments, so it just adds two numbers. His example function add(3, 5, 4, 1) would be a function that accepts any number of arguments and adds them all, but add2 would only accept two arguments, so add2(3, 5) would be 8. "The binary version of a function" in this case means a binary function (a function accepting two arguments).
In this case "binary function" refers to an argument that accepts two arguments. In this case your professor is probably referring to something like this:
def add2(x, y):
return x + y
# equivalently: add2 = lambda x,y: x+y
def curry(func, num):
def wrapped(*args):
if len(args) == 0:
return num
elif len(args) > 1:
raise TypeError('{} takes 1 positional argument but '
'{} were given'.format(
func.__name__, len(args)))
arg = args[0]
return curry(func, func(num, arg))
return wrapped
#AdamSmith and #BrenBarn have already pointed out what binary function means. A simple and clear assignment solution can be write by using object instead of decorator.
class curry():
def __init__(self, func, default):
self._f = func
self._default = default
def __call__(self, val=None):
if val is None:
return self._default
return curry(self._f,self._f(self._default,val))
print(curry(lambda x,y:x+y, 0)(3)(5)(4)(1)())
Neat and simple!
IMHO functors should be used only when the increase readability, simplicity or hide tedious work. In that case the object and functor implementations are really the same but the object version is more readable and straight to understand.

Possible to use more than one argument on __getitem__?

I am trying to use
__getitem__(self, x, y):
on my Matrix class, but it seems to me it doesn't work (I still don't know very well to use python).
I'm calling it like this:
print matrix[0,0]
Is it possible at all to use more than one argument? Thanks. Maybe I can use only one argument but pass it as a tuple?
__getitem__ only accepts one argument (other than self), so you get passed a tuple.
You can do this:
class matrix:
def __getitem__(self, pos):
x,y = pos
return "fetching %s, %s" % (x, y)
m = matrix()
print m[1,2]
outputs
fetching 1, 2
See the documentation for object.__getitem__ for more information.
Indeed, when you execute bla[x,y], you're calling type(bla).__getitem__(bla, (x, y)) -- Python automatically forms the tuple for you and passes it on to __getitem__ as the second argument (the first one being its self). There's no good way[1] to express that __getitem__ wants more arguments, but also no need to.
[1] In Python 2.* you can actually give __getitem__ an auto-unpacking signature which will raise ValueError or TypeError when you're indexing with too many or too few indices...:
>>> class X(object):
... def __getitem__(self, (x, y)): return x, y
...
>>> x = X()
>>> x[23, 45]
(23, 45)
Whether that's "a good way" is moot... it's been deprecated in Python 3 so you can infer that Guido didn't consider it good upon long reflection;-). Doing your own unpacking (of a single argument in the signature) is no big deal and lets you provide clearer errors (and uniform ones, rather than ones of different types for the very similar error of indexing such an instance with 1 vs, say, 3 indices;-).
No, __getitem__ just takes one argument (in addition to self). In the case of matrix[0, 0], the argument is the tuple (0, 0).
You can directly call __getitem__ instead of using brackets.
Example:
class Foo():
def __init__(self):
self.a = [5, 7, 9]
def __getitem__(self, i, plus_one=False):
if plus_one:
i += 1
return self.a[I]
foo = Foo()
foo[0] # 5
foo.__getitem__(0) # 5
foo.__getitem__(0, True) # 7
I learned today that you can pass double index to your object that implements getitem, as the following snippet illustrates:
class MyClass:
def __init__(self):
self.data = [[1]]
def __getitem__(self, index):
return self.data[index]
c = MyClass()
print(c[0][0])

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