include module type of struct include Seq end
type 'a t = unit -> 'a node
A sequence xs
of type 'a t
is a delayed list of elements of type 'a
. Such a sequence is queried by performing a function application xs()
. This function application returns a node, allowing the caller to determine whether the sequence is empty or nonempty, and in the latter case, to obtain its head and tail.
and +'a node = 'a Seq.node =
| Nil
| Cons of 'a * 'a t
A node is either Nil
, which means that the sequence is empty, or Cons (x, xs)
, which means that x
is the first element of the sequence and that xs
is the remainder of the sequence.
Consuming sequences
The functions in this section consume their argument, a sequence, either partially or completely:
is_empty
and uncons
consume the sequence down to depth 1. That is, they demand the first argument of the sequence, if there is one.iter
, fold_left
, length
, etc., consume the sequence all the way to its end. They terminate only if the sequence is finite.for_all
, exists
, find
, etc. consume the sequence down to a certain depth, which is a priori unpredictable.
Similarly, among the functions that consume two sequences, one can distinguish two groups:
iter2
and fold_left2
consume both sequences all the way to the end, provided the sequences have the same length.for_all2
, exists2
, equal
, compare
consume the sequences down to a certain depth, which is a priori unpredictable.
The functions that consume two sequences can be applied to two sequences of distinct lengths: in that case, the excess elements in the longer sequence are ignored. (It may be the case that one excess element is demanded, even though this element is not used.)
None of the functions in this section is lazy. These functions are consumers: they force some computation to take place.
val is_empty : 'a t -> bool
is_empty xs
determines whether the sequence xs
is empty.
It is recommended that the sequence xs
be persistent. Indeed, is_empty xs
demands the head of the sequence xs
, so, if xs
is ephemeral, it may be the case that xs
cannot be used any more after this call has taken place.
val uncons : 'a t -> ('a * 'a t) option
If xs
is empty, then uncons xs
is None
.
If xs
is nonempty, then uncons xs
is Some (head xs, tail xs)
, that is, a pair of the head and tail of the sequence xs
.
This equivalence holds if xs
is persistent. If xs
is ephemeral, then uncons
must be preferred over separate calls to head
and tail
, which would cause xs
to be queried twice.
length xs
is the length of the sequence xs
.
The sequence xs
must be finite.
val iter : ('a -> unit) -> 'a t -> unit
iter f xs
invokes f x
successively for every element x
of the sequence xs
, from left to right.
It terminates only if the sequence xs
is finite.
val fold_left : ('a -> 'b -> 'a) -> 'a -> 'b t -> 'a
fold_left f _ xs
invokes f _ x
successively for every element x
of the sequence xs
, from left to right.
An accumulator of type 'a
is threaded through the calls to f
.
It terminates only if the sequence xs
is finite.
val iteri : (int -> 'a -> unit) -> 'a t -> unit
iteri f xs
invokes f i x
successively for every element x
located at index i
in the sequence xs
.
It terminates only if the sequence xs
is finite.
iteri f xs
is equivalent to iter (fun (i, x) -> f i x) (zip (ints 0) xs)
.
val fold_lefti : ('b -> int -> 'a -> 'b) -> 'b -> 'a t -> 'b
fold_lefti f _ xs
invokes f _ i x
successively for every element x
located at index i
of the sequence xs
.
An accumulator of type 'b
is threaded through the calls to f
.
It terminates only if the sequence xs
is finite.
fold_lefti f accu xs
is equivalent to fold_left (fun accu (i, x) -> f accu i x) accu (zip (ints 0) xs)
.
val find : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a option
find p xs
returns Some x
, where x
is the first element of the sequence xs
that satisfies p x
, if there is such an element.
It returns None
if there is no such element.
The sequence xs
must be finite.
val find_map : ('a -> 'b option) -> 'a t -> 'b option
find_map f xs
returns Some y
, where x
is the first element of the sequence xs
such that f x = Some _
, if there is such an element, and where y
is defined by f x = Some y
.
It returns None
if there is no such element.
The sequence xs
must be finite.
val iter2 : ('a -> 'b -> unit) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> unit
iter2 f xs ys
invokes f x y
successively for every pair (x, y)
of elements drawn synchronously from the sequences xs
and ys
.
If the sequences xs
and ys
have different lengths, then iteration stops as soon as one sequence is exhausted; the excess elements in the other sequence are ignored.
Iteration terminates only if at least one of the sequences xs
and ys
is finite.
iter2 f xs ys
is equivalent to iter (fun (x, y) -> f x y) (zip xs ys)
.
val fold_left2 : ('a -> 'b -> 'c -> 'a) -> 'a -> 'b t -> 'c t -> 'a
fold_left2 f _ xs ys
invokes f _ x y
successively for every pair (x, y)
of elements drawn synchronously from the sequences xs
and ys
.
An accumulator of type 'a
is threaded through the calls to f
.
If the sequences xs
and ys
have different lengths, then iteration stops as soon as one sequence is exhausted; the excess elements in the other sequence are ignored.
Iteration terminates only if at least one of the sequences xs
and ys
is finite.
fold_left2 f accu xs ys
is equivalent to fold_left (fun accu (x, y) -> f accu x y) (zip xs ys)
.
val for_all2 : ('a -> 'b -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> bool
for_all2 p xs ys
determines whether all pairs (x, y)
of elements drawn synchronously from the sequences xs
and ys
satisfy p x y
.
If the sequences xs
and ys
have different lengths, then iteration stops as soon as one sequence is exhausted; the excess elements in the other sequence are ignored. In particular, if xs
or ys
is empty, then for_all2 p xs ys
is true. This is where for_all2
and equal
differ: equal eq xs ys
can be true only if xs
and ys
have the same length.
At least one of the sequences xs
and ys
must be finite.
for_all2 p xs ys
is equivalent to for_all (fun b -> b) (map2 p xs ys)
.
val exists2 : ('a -> 'b -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> bool
exists2 p xs ys
determines whether some pair (x, y)
of elements drawn synchronously from the sequences xs
and ys
satisfies p x y
.
If the sequences xs
and ys
have different lengths, then iteration must stop as soon as one sequence is exhausted; the excess elements in the other sequence are ignored.
At least one of the sequences xs
and ys
must be finite.
exists2 p xs ys
is equivalent to exists (fun b -> b) (map2 p xs ys)
.
val equal : ('a -> 'b -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> bool
Provided the function eq
defines an equality on elements, equal eq xs ys
determines whether the sequences xs
and ys
are pointwise equal.
At least one of the sequences xs
and ys
must be finite.
val compare : ('a -> 'b -> int) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> int
Provided the function cmp
defines a preorder on elements, compare cmp xs ys
compares the sequences xs
and ys
according to the lexicographic preorder.
For more details on comparison functions, see Array.sort
.
At least one of the sequences xs
and ys
must be finite.
Constructing sequences
The functions in this section are lazy: that is, they return sequences whose elements are computed only when demanded.
empty
is the empty sequence. It has no elements. Its length is 0.
return x
is the sequence whose sole element is x
. Its length is 1.
val cons : 'a -> 'a t -> 'a t
cons x xs
is the sequence that begins with the element x
, followed with the sequence xs
.
Writing cons (f()) xs
causes the function call f()
to take place immediately. For this call to be delayed until the sequence is queried, one must instead write (fun () -> Cons(f(), xs))
.
val init : int -> (int -> 'a) -> 'a t
init n f
is the sequence f 0; f 1; ...; f (n-1)
.
n
must be nonnegative.
If desired, the infinite sequence f 0; f 1; ...
can be defined as map f (ints 0)
.
val unfold : ('b -> ('a * 'b) option) -> 'b -> 'a t
unfold
constructs a sequence out of a step function and an initial state.
If f u
is None
then unfold f u
is the empty sequence. If f u
is Some (x, u')
then unfold f u
is the nonempty sequence cons x (unfold f u')
.
For example, unfold (function [] -> None | h :: t -> Some (h, t)) l
is equivalent to List.to_seq l
.
repeat x
is the infinite sequence where the element x
is repeated indefinitely.
repeat x
is equivalent to cycle (return x)
.
val forever : (unit -> 'a) -> 'a t
forever f
is an infinite sequence where every element is produced (on demand) by the function call f()
.
For instance, forever Random.bool
is an infinite sequence of random bits.
forever f
is equivalent to map f (repeat ())
.
cycle xs
is the infinite sequence that consists of an infinite number of repetitions of the sequence xs
.
If xs
is an empty sequence, then cycle xs
is empty as well.
Consuming (a prefix of) the sequence cycle xs
once can cause the sequence xs
to be consumed more than once. Therefore, xs
must be persistent.
val iterate : ('a -> 'a) -> 'a -> 'a t
iterate f x
is the infinite sequence whose elements are x
, f x
, f (f x)
, and so on.
In other words, it is the orbit of the function f
, starting at x
.
The functions in this section are lazy: that is, they return sequences whose elements are computed only when demanded.
val map : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a t -> 'b t
map f xs
is the image of the sequence xs
through the transformation f
.
If xs
is the sequence x0; x1; ...
then map f xs
is the sequence f x0; f x1; ...
.
val mapi : (int -> 'a -> 'b) -> 'a t -> 'b t
mapi
is analogous to map
, but applies the function f
to an index and an element.
mapi f xs
is equivalent to map2 f (ints 0) xs
.
val filter : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t
filter p xs
is the sequence of the elements x
of xs
that satisfy p x
.
In other words, filter p xs
is the sequence xs
, deprived of the elements x
such that p x
is false.
val filter_map : ('a -> 'b option) -> 'a t -> 'b t
filter_map f xs
is the sequence of the elements y
such that f x = Some y
, where x
ranges over xs
.
filter_map f xs
is equivalent to map Option.get (filter Option.is_some (map f xs))
.
val scan : ('b -> 'a -> 'b) -> 'b -> 'a t -> 'b t
If xs
is a sequence [x0; x1; x2; ...]
, then scan f a0 xs
is a sequence of accumulators [a0; a1; a2; ...]
where a1
is f a0 x0
, a2
is f a1 x1
, and so on.
Thus, scan f a0 xs
is conceptually related to fold_left f a0 xs
. However, instead of performing an eager iteration and immediately returning the final accumulator, it returns a sequence of accumulators.
For instance, scan (+) 0
transforms a sequence of integers into the sequence of its partial sums.
If xs
has length n
then scan f a0 xs
has length n+1
.
val take_while : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t
take_while p xs
is the longest prefix of the sequence xs
where every element x
satisfies p x
.
val drop_while : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t
drop_while p xs
is the sequence xs
, deprived of the prefix take_while p xs
.
val group : ('a -> 'a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t t
Provided the function eq
defines an equality on elements, group eq xs
is the sequence of the maximal runs of adjacent duplicate elements of the sequence xs
.
Every element of group eq xs
is a nonempty sequence of equal elements.
The concatenation concat (group eq xs)
is equal to xs
.
Consuming group eq xs
, and consuming the sequences that it contains, can cause xs
to be consumed more than once. Therefore, xs
must be persistent.
val memoize : 'a t -> 'a t
The sequence memoize xs
has the same elements as the sequence xs
.
Regardless of whether xs
is ephemeral or persistent, memoize xs
is persistent: even if it is queried several times, xs
is queried at most once.
The construction of the sequence memoize xs
internally relies on suspensions provided by the module Lazy
. These suspensions are not thread-safe. Therefore, the sequence memoize xs
must not be queried by multiple threads concurrently.
This exception is raised when a sequence returned by once
(or a suffix of it) is queried more than once.
The sequence once xs
has the same elements as the sequence xs
.
Regardless of whether xs
is ephemeral or persistent, once xs
is an ephemeral sequence: it can be queried at most once. If it (or a suffix of it) is queried more than once, then the exception Forced_twice
is raised. This can be useful, while debugging or testing, to ensure that a sequence is consumed at most once.
val transpose : 'a t t -> 'a t t
If xss
is a matrix (a sequence of rows), then transpose xss
is the sequence of the columns of the matrix xss
.
The rows of the matrix xss
are not required to have the same length.
The matrix xss
is not required to be finite (in either direction).
The matrix xss
must be persistent.
Combining sequences
val concat : 'a t t -> 'a t
If xss
is a sequence of sequences, then concat xss
is its concatenation.
If xss
is the sequence xs0; xs1; ...
then concat xss
is the sequence xs0 @ xs1 @ ...
.
val flat_map : ('a -> 'b t) -> 'a t -> 'b t
flat_map f xs
is equivalent to concat (map f xs)
.
val concat_map : ('a -> 'b t) -> 'a t -> 'b t
concat_map f xs
is equivalent to concat (map f xs)
.
concat_map
is an alias for flat_map
.
val zip : 'a t -> 'b t -> ('a * 'b) t
zip xs ys
is the sequence of pairs (x, y)
drawn synchronously from the sequences xs
and ys
.
If the sequences xs
and ys
have different lengths, then the sequence ends as soon as one sequence is exhausted; the excess elements in the other sequence are ignored.
zip xs ys
is equivalent to map2 (fun a b -> (a, b)) xs ys
.
val map2 : ('a -> 'b -> 'c) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> 'c t
map2 f xs ys
is the sequence of the elements f x y
, where the pairs (x, y)
are drawn synchronously from the sequences xs
and ys
.
If the sequences xs
and ys
have different lengths, then the sequence ends as soon as one sequence is exhausted; the excess elements in the other sequence are ignored.
map2 f xs ys
is equivalent to map (fun (x, y) -> f x y) (zip xs ys)
.
val interleave : 'a t -> 'a t -> 'a t
interleave xs ys
is the sequence that begins with the first element of xs
, continues with the first element of ys
, and so on.
When one of the sequences xs
and ys
is exhausted, interleave xs ys
continues with the rest of the other sequence.
val sorted_merge : ('a -> 'a -> int) -> 'a t -> 'a t -> 'a t
If the sequences xs
and ys
are sorted according to the total preorder cmp
, then sorted_merge cmp xs ys
is the sorted sequence obtained by merging the sequences xs
and ys
.
For more details on comparison functions, see Array.sort
.
val product : 'a t -> 'b t -> ('a * 'b) t
product xs ys
is the Cartesian product of the sequences xs
and ys
.
For every element x
of xs
and for every element y
of ys
, the pair (x, y)
appears once as an element of product xs ys
.
The order in which the pairs appear is unspecified.
The sequences xs
and ys
are not required to be finite.
The sequences xs
and ys
must be persistent.
val map_product : ('a -> 'b -> 'c) -> 'a t -> 'b t -> 'c t
The sequence map_product f xs ys
is the image through f
of the Cartesian product of the sequences xs
and ys
.
For every element x
of xs
and for every element y
of ys
, the element f x y
appears once as an element of map_product f xs ys
.
The order in which these elements appear is unspecified.
The sequences xs
and ys
are not required to be finite.
The sequences xs
and ys
must be persistent.
map_product f xs ys
is equivalent to map (fun (x, y) -> f x y) (product xs ys)
.
Splitting a sequence into two sequences
val unzip : ('a * 'b) t -> 'a t * 'b t
unzip
transforms a sequence of pairs into a pair of sequences.
unzip xs
is equivalent to (map fst xs, map snd xs)
.
Querying either of the sequences returned by unzip xs
causes xs
to be queried. Therefore, querying both of them causes xs
to be queried twice. Thus, xs
must be persistent and cheap. If that is not the case, use unzip (memoize xs)
.
val split : ('a * 'b) t -> 'a t * 'b t
split
is an alias for unzip
.
val partition_map : ('a -> ('b, 'c) Either.t) -> 'a t -> 'b t * 'c t
partition_map f xs
returns a pair of sequences (ys, zs)
, where:
ys
is the sequence of the elements y
such that f x = Left y
, where x
ranges over xs
;
zs
is the sequence of the elements z
such that f x = Right z
, where x
ranges over xs
.
partition_map f xs
is equivalent to a pair of filter_map Either.find_left (map f xs)
and filter_map Either.find_right (map f xs)
.
Querying either of the sequences returned by partition_map f xs
causes xs
to be queried. Therefore, querying both of them causes xs
to be queried twice. Thus, xs
must be persistent and cheap. If that is not the case, use partition_map f (memoize xs)
.
val partition : ('a -> bool) -> 'a t -> 'a t * 'a t
partition p xs
returns a pair of the subsequence of the elements of xs
that satisfy p
and the subsequence of the elements of xs
that do not satisfy p
.
partition p xs
is equivalent to filter p xs, filter (fun x -> not (p x)) xs
.
Consuming both of the sequences returned by partition p xs
causes xs
to be consumed twice and causes the function f
to be applied twice to each element of the list. Therefore, f
should be pure and cheap. Furthermore, xs
should be persistent and cheap. If that is not the case, use partition p (memoize xs)
.
Converting between sequences and dispensers
A dispenser is a representation of a sequence as a function of type unit -> 'a option
. Every time this function is invoked, it returns the next element of the sequence. When there are no more elements, it returns None
. A dispenser has mutable internal state, therefore is ephemeral: the sequence that it represents can be consumed at most once.
val of_dispenser : (unit -> 'a option) -> 'a t
of_dispenser it
is the sequence of the elements produced by the dispenser it
. It is an ephemeral sequence: it can be consumed at most once. If a persistent sequence is needed, use memoize (of_dispenser it)
.
val to_dispenser : 'a t -> unit -> 'a option
to_dispenser xs
is a fresh dispenser on the sequence xs
.
This dispenser has mutable internal state, which is not protected by a lock; so, it must not be used by several threads concurrently.
Sequences of integers
ints i
is the infinite sequence of the integers beginning at i
and counting up.