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E
Appendix E: Chapter 5 Exercise & Challenge Solutions Written by Massimo Carli

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Exercise 5.1

Kotlin provides you with first, which returns the first element of Iterable<T> for which a predicate you provide as an input evaluates to true. Remember that Iterable<T> is the abstraction of all the collections providing an Iterator<T> implementation.

public interface Iterable<out T> {
  public operator fun iterator(): Iterator<T>
}

Iterator<T> allows you to iterate over all the elements of a collection in a way that doesn’t depend on the collection implementation itself:

public interface Iterator<out T> {

  public operator fun next(): T

  public operator fun hasNext(): Boolean
}

The current first signature is:

public inline fun <T> Iterable<T>.first(predicate: (T) -> Boolean): T

Kotlin doesn’t allow you to override the current extension function on Iterable<T>. So, how would you implement first on Array<T>?

The current implementation of first throws an exception if the collection is empty, so there’s no first T. How would you implement the function firstOrNull on Array<T> returning null in such a case?

Exercise 5.1 solution

As mentioned, Kotlin doesn’t allow you to override the extension function on Iterable<T> so, for this exercise, you need to implement first on Array<T>. A possible solution is:

public inline fun <T> Array<T>.first(
  predicate: (T) -> Boolean
): T { // 1
  for (item in this) { // 2
    if (predicate(item)) { // 3
      return item // 4
    }
  }
  throw NoSuchElementException("Array contains no element matching the predicate.") // 5
}

fun main() {
  val input = arrayOf(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  println(input.first {
    it > 3  // 1
  })
  println(input.first {
    it > 10 // 2
  })
}

4
Exception in thread "main" java.util.NoSuchElementException: Array contains no element matching the predicate.

public inline fun <T> Array<T>.firstOrNull(
  predicate: (T) -> Boolean
): T? { // 1
  for (item in this) {
    if (predicate(item)) {
      return item
    }
  }
  return null // 2
}

fun main() {
  val input = arrayOf(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  println(input.first {
    it > 3
  })
  println(input.firstOrNull { // HERE
    it > 10
  })
}

4
null

Exercise 5.2

The command pattern is another important design pattern that defines abstractions like Command and CommandExecutor. Command abstracts every possible operation that CommandExecutor can run. In other words, a Command represents a task and you can pass a Command to a CommandExecutor to run it. How would you represent them in a functional way?

Exercise 5.2 solution

Command is basically a way to abstract the concept of a task. To represent it in a functional way, write:

typealias Command = () -> Unit

typealias CommandExecutor = (Command) -> Unit

class MyCommandExecutor : CommandExecutor { // 1

  val commandHistory = mutableListOf<Command>() // 2

  override fun invoke(command: Command) { // 3
    command.run {
      commandHistory.add(this)
      this()
    }
  }

  fun redo() { // 4
    commandHistory.lastOrNull()?.let {
      it()
    }
  }
}

Exercise 5.3

Can you implement the following Reader interface as a functional interface? How would you test it?

interface Reader {
  fun readChar(): Char?
  fun readString(): String {
    TODO("Call readChar() until it returns null")
  }
}

Exercise 5.3 solution

The TODO in the problem description’s code gives you a hint about a possible solution. One option is the following:

fun interface Reader {
  fun readChar(): Char?
  fun readString(): String {
    val result = StringBuilder()
    do {
      val nextChar = readChar()
      if (nextChar != null) {
        result.append(nextChar)
      }
    } while (nextChar != null)
    return result.toString()
  }
}

class MyReader(val str: String) : Reader { // 1
  var pos = 0 // 2
  override fun readChar(): Char? =
    if (pos < str.length) str[pos++] else null // 3
}

fun main() {
  val input = MyReader("This is a String!")
  println(input.readString())
}

This is a String!

fun main() {
  val inputString = "This is a String!"
  var pos = 0
  val input = Reader {
    if (pos < inputString.length) inputString[pos++] else null
  }
  println(input.readString())
}

fun main() {
  val inputString = "This is a String!"
  var pos = 0
  val input = Reader {
    if (pos < inputString.length) inputString[pos++] else null
  }
  val input2 = Reader {
    if (pos < inputString.length) inputString[pos++] else null
  }
  println(input.readString())
  println(input2.readString())
}

fun main() {
  val inputString = "This is a String!"
  var pos = 0
  var pos2 = 0
  val input = Reader {
    if (pos < inputString.length) inputString[pos++] else null
  }
  val input2 = Reader {
    if (pos2 < inputString.length) inputString[pos2++] else null
  }
  println(input.readString())
  println(input2.readString())
}

fun consumeReader(reader: Reader) {
  println(reader.readString())
}

fun main() {
  var pos = 0
  val inputString = "This is a String!"
  consumeReader({
    if (pos < inputString.length) inputString[pos++] else null
  })
}

fun interface SinglePredicate<T> {
  fun accept(value: T): Boolean
}

Exercise 5.4

Implement an extension function isEqualsPredicate on the generic type T that returns a predicate that tests if a given value is equal to the same T. The signature should be the following:

 fun <T> T.isEqualsPredicate(): (T) -> Boolean //

fun interface SinglePredicate<T> {
  fun accept(other: T): Boolean  
}

Exercise 5.4 solution

A possible solution to the initial problem is the following:

fun <T> T.isEqualsPredicate(): (T) -> Boolean =
  { value -> this == value }

fun main() {
  listOf(1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8)
    .filter(4.isEqualsPredicate())
    .forEach(::println)
}

4
4

fun <T> T.isEqualsIPredicate(): SinglePredicate<T> =
  SinglePredicate<T> { value -> this == value }

Exercise 5.5

Can you implement the same logic for implementing the example in the Imperative vs. declarative approach section using the definitions of Predicate1<T> and filterWithPredicate? Given a list of email addresses, you need to:

Exercise 5.5 solution

Using the definitions of Predicate1<T> and filterWithPredicate you have in Predicates.kt and what’s in Imperative.kt and Declarative.kt, you can write:

val isValidEmail: Predicate1<String> = // 1
  Predicate1 { value -> EMAIL_REG_EX.matches(value) }

fun isLongerThan(length: Int): Predicate1<String> = // 2
  Predicate1 { value -> value.length > length }

fun main() {
  emails
    .filterWithPredicate(isValidEmail and isLongerThan(10)) // 3
    .take(5) // 4
    .forEach(::println) // 5
}

email@emmmaail.com
mike@mcarli.it
first.second@ggg.com
test@test.co.uk
fp_is_great@funprog.com

Challenge 5.1: Mapping is important

In the chapter, you learned how to implement different types of higher-order functions, and in the next chapter, you’ll see many more. A very important one is called map. This is a function that applies a given function fn of type (A) -> B to all the elements of a collection of items of type A, getting a collection of items of type B.

fun <A, B> Array<A>.map(fn: (A) -> B): Array<B>

fun main() {
  val square = { a: Int -> a * a }
  val toString = { a: Int -> "This is $a" }
  arrayOf(1, 2, 3)
    .map(square)
    .forEach(::println)
  arrayOf(1, 2, 3)
    .map(toString)
    .forEach(::println)
}

1
4
9
This is 1
This is 2
This is 3

Challenge 5.1 solution

A possible implementation of map for Array<A> is the following:

inline fun <A, reified B> Array<A>.map(fn: (A) -> B): Array<B> =
  Array(this.size) { fn(this[it]) }

1
4
9
This is 1
This is 2
This is 3

Challenge 5.2: Prime number filtering

Write a higher-order function all returning a new array containing all the values in an Array<T> for which a given Predicate1<T> is true. You can find the Predicate1<T> definition in Predicates.kt.

fun <T> Array<T>.all(predicate: Predicate1<T>) : Array<T>

Challenge 5.2 solution

You can implement all in many different ways. One of them is:

inline fun <reified T> Array<T>.all(
  predicate: Predicate1<T>
): Array<T> = filter { predicate.accept(it) }.toTypedArray()

val isPrime = Predicate1<Int> { value ->
  if (value <= 3) value > 1
  else if (value % 2 == 0 || value % 3 == 0) false
  else {
    var i = 5
    while (i * i <= value) {
      if (value % i == 0 || value % (i + 2) == 0)
        return@Predicate1 false
      i += 6
    }
    true
  }
}

fun main() {
  arrayOf(1, 45, 67, 78, 34, 56, 89, 121, 2, 11, 12, 13)
    .all(isPrime)
    .forEach(::println)
}

89
2
11
13
F. Appendix F: Chapter 6 Exercise & Challenge Solutions D. Appendix D: Chapter 4 Exercise & Challenge Solutions

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