# xforms More transducers and reducing functions for Clojure(script)! [](https://travis-ci.org/cgrand/xforms) *Transducers* (in `net.cgrand.xforms`) can be classified in three groups: regular ones, higher-order ones (which accept other transducers as arguments) and 1-item ones which emit only 1 item out no matter how many went in. They generally only make sense in the context of a higher-order transducer. * regular ones: `partition` (1 arg), `reductions`, `for`, `window` and `window-by-time` * higher-order ones: `by-key`, `multiplex`, `transjuxt`, `partition` (2+ args) * 1-item ones: `reduce`, `into`, `last`, `count`, `avg`, `sd`, `min`, `minimum`, `max`, `maximum`, `str` *Reducing functions* (in `net.cgrand.xforms.rfs`): `min`, `minimum`, `max`, `maximum`, `str`, `str!`, `avg`, `sd`, `juxt` and `last`. Transducing contexts: `transjuxt` (for performing several transductions in a single pass), `into`, `count`. ## Usage Add this dependency to your project: ```clj [net.cgrand/xforms "0.8.0"] ``` ```clj => (require '[net.cgrand.xforms :as x]) ``` `str` and `str!` are two reducing functions to build Strings and StringBuilders in linear time. ```clj => (quick-bench (reduce str (range 256))) Execution time mean : 58,714946 µs => (quick-bench (reduce rf/str (range 256))) Execution time mean : 11,609631 µs ``` `for` is the transducing cousin of `clojure.core/for`: ```clj => (quick-bench (reduce + (for [i (range 128) j (range i)] (* i j)))) Execution time mean : 514,932029 µs => (quick-bench (transduce (x/for [i % j (range i)] (* i j)) + 0 (range 128))) Execution time mean : 373,814060 µs ``` You can also use `for` like `clojure.core/for`: `(x/for [i (range 128) j (range i)] (* i j))` expands to `(eduction (x/for [i % j (range i)] (* i j)) (range 128))`. `by-key` and `reduce` are two new transducers. Here is an example usage: ```clj ;; reimplementing group-by (defn my-group-by [kfn coll] (into {} (x/by-key kfn (x/reduce conj)) coll)) ;; let's go transient! (defn my-group-by [kfn coll] (into {} (x/by-key kfn (x/into [])) coll)) => (quick-bench (group-by odd? (range 256))) Execution time mean : 29,356531 µs => (quick-bench (my-group-by odd? (range 256))) Execution time mean : 20,604297 µs ``` Like `by-key`, `partition` also takes a transducer as last argument to allow further computation on the partition. ```clj => (sequence (x/partition 4 (x/reduce +)) (range 16)) (6 22 38 54) ``` Padding is achieved as usual: ```clj => (sequence (x/partition 4 4 (repeat :pad) (x/into [])) (range 9)) ([0 1 2 3] [4 5 6 7] [8 :pad :pad :pad]) ``` `avg` is a transducer to compute the arithmetic mean. `transjuxt` is used to perform several transductions at once. ```clj => (into {} (x/by-key odd? (x/transjuxt [(x/reduce +) x/avg])) (range 256)) {false [16256 127], true [16384 128]} => (into {} (x/by-key odd? (x/transjuxt {:sum (x/reduce +) :mean x/avg :count x/count})) (range 256)) {false {:sum 16256, :mean 127, :count 128}, true {:sum 16384, :mean 128, :count 128}} ``` `window` is a new transducer to efficiently compute a windowed accumulator: ```clj ;; sum of last 3 items => (sequence (x/window 3 + -) (range 16)) (0 1 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42) => (def nums (repeatedly 8 #(rand-int 42))) #'user/nums => nums (11 8 32 26 6 10 37 24) ;; avg of last 4 items => (sequence (x/window 4 x/avg #(x/avg %1 %2 -1)) nums) (11 19/2 17 77/4 18 37/2 79/4 77/4) ;; min of last 3 items => (sequence (x/window 3 (fn ([] (sorted-set)) ([s] (first s)) ([s x] (conj s x))) disj) nums) (11 8 8 8 6 6 6 10) ``` ## On Partitioning Both `by-key` and `partition` takes a transducer as parameter. This transducer is used to further process each partition. It's worth noting that all transformed outputs are subsequently interleaved. See: ```clj => (sequence (x/partition 2 1 identity) (range 8)) (0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7) => (sequence (x/by-key odd? identity) (range 8)) ([false 0] [true 1] [false 2] [true 3] [false 4] [true 5] [false 6] [true 7]) ``` That's why most of the time the last stage of the sub-transducer will be a `x/reduce` or a `x/into`: ```clj => (sequence (x/partition 2 1 (x/into [])) (range 8)) ([0 1] [1 2] [2 3] [3 4] [4 5] [5 6] [6 7] [7]) => (sequence (x/by-key odd? (x/into [])) (range 8)) ([false [0 2 4 6]] [true [1 3 5 7]]) ``` ## Simple examples `(group-by kf coll)` is `(into {} (x/by-key kf (x/into []) coll))`. `(plumbing/map-vals f m)` is `(into {} (x/by-key (map f)) m)`. My faithful `(reduce-by kf f init coll)` is now `(into {} (x/by-key kf (x/reduce f init)))`. `(frequencies coll)` is `(into {} (x/by-key identity x/count) coll)`. ## On key-value pairs Clojure `reduce-kv` is able to reduce key value pairs without allocating vectors or map entries: the key and value are passed as second and third arguments of the reducing function. Xforms allows a reducing function to advertise its support for key value pairs (3-arg arity) by implementing the `KvRfable` protocol (in practice using the `kvrf` macro). Several xforms transducers and transducing contexts leverage `reduce-kv` and `kvrf`. When these functions are used together, pairs can be transformed without being allocated.
| fn | kvs in? | kvs out? |
|---|---|---|
| `for` | when first binding is a pair | when `body-expr` is a pair |
| `reduce` | when is `f` is a kvrf | no |
| 1-arg `into` (transducer) | when `to` is a map | no |
| 3-arg `into` (transducing context) | when `from` is a map | when `to` is a map |
| `by-key` (as a transducer) | when is `kfn` and `vfn` are unspecified or `nil` | when `pair` is `vector` or unspecified |
| `by-key` (as a transducing context on values) | no | no |