[erlang-questions] analogue of lists:keyfind and other lists:key*** functions for lists which contain maps

[Loïc Hoguin]

I would +1 that. A tuple list and a map list are two different things, 
and it would be very unusual to see one with both.

Also would like to add that as they are operating on different types 
there should be separate functions (mapfind and mapstore are indeed good 
names).

On 11/23/2014 05:04 PM, Sergej Jurecko wrote:
> I just converted a ~5k lines of code project into using maps. I wrote
> myself mapfind(Key,Value,L) and mapstore(Key,Val,L,Map). That was all I
> needed. I did not care about compatibility with other types in list.
>
> Is worrying about mixing tuples/records with maps in a list really
> necessary? In the 6+ years of writing erlang, I don’t think I’ve had a
> list of mixed types more than a couple of times.
>
>
> Sergej
>
> On 23 Nov 2014, at 15:43, Lukas Larsson <lukas@REDACTED
> <mailto:lukas@REDACTED>> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I agree with you that in certain situations they would be very
>> convenient. I've myself already written these functions in a couple of
>> modules.
>>
>> How do you imagine the semantics would work? It is fairly straight
>> forward when the list only contains maps or tuples.
>>
>> lists:keyfind(you, name, [#{ name => me, from => here }, #{ name =>
>> you, from => there}]) returns #{ name => you, from => there}.
>>
>> But if we start to mix them some interesting corner cases pop up:
>>
>> lists:keyfind(2, 1,[#{ 2 => 3 },{2, 4},#{ 1 => 2 } ]) returns {2,4} or
>> #{ 1 => 2 }?
>> lists:keyfind(1, id, [{1,2}, #{ id => 2}, #{ id => 1}) returns #{ id
>> => 1 } or crashes as id is not a valid key for {1,2}?
>>
>> Or error cases of today:
>>
>> lists:keyfind(2, id, []) today gives badarg, but should return false
>> for a map list?
>>
>> The safest way to introduce these functions would be to create new
>> ones called something like lists:mkeyfind, but if possible it would be
>> very neat to use the same API. It really is unfortunate that
>> lists:keyfind is so forgiving today, you can mix and match whatever
>> you want in the list and keyfind will quietly ignore it.
>>
>> Also we have to consider which of the lists:key* functions we want a
>> map counterpart? Does it make sense for all of them?
>>
>> Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
>>
>> Lukas
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 7:33 PM, John Doe <donpedrothird@REDACTED
>> <mailto:donpedrothird@REDACTED>> wrote:
>>
>>     It would be nice to extend lists module with a set of optimized
>>     functions like lists:key*** for lists containing maps.
>>
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-- 
Loïc Hoguin
http://ninenines.eu