list-lazy.js

Lazy List in JavaScript

USAGE

In Browser

<script src="list-lazy.js"></script>

node.js

var List = require('./list-lazy.js').List;

SIMPLE EXAMPLE

By default List.Lazy returns an infinite list Note List.Integers is exported for convenience.

var ll = List.Lazy(function(i){return i}) // infinite integer;
ll.length;      // Infinity
ll.get(1e6);    // 1000000
ll.take(10);    // [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
var ll2 = ll.map(function(x){ return x*x });
ll2.get(1e3);   // 1000000
ll2.take(10);   // [0,1,4,9,16,25,36,49,81]
var ll3 = ll2.filter(function(x){ return x % 2 === 1 });
ll3.get(42);    // undefined
ll3.get(41);    // 1681
ll3.take(10)    // [1,9,25,49,81,121,169,225,289,361]

You can create a finite lazy list like follows. Note List.xrange is defined that way:

If the length is finite, you can apply .toArray().

var ll = List.Lazy({
    get:function(i){return i},
    length:1e3
});
ll.length; // 1000
ll.filter(function(x){ return x > 990 })
    .toArray()  // [991, 992, 993, 994, 995, 996, 997, 998, 999]
List.Integers.toArray();    // raises RangeError

FOR CONVENIENCE

List.Integers

Is an infinite list of integers which is just defined as:

List.Integers = List.Lazy(function(i){return i});

List.Integers.take(10); // [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]; 

List.xrange

Same as xrange() of Python.

http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#xrange

List.xrange(10).length      // 10
List.xrange(10).toArray();  // [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9];
List.xrange(1e6).take(10);  // [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9];

List.range

Same as range() of Python which is just defined as:

xrange.apply(null, slice.call(arguments)).toArray();

MORE SOPHISTICATED EXAMPLE

You can use this to memoize like this:

var fib = {
    0:0,
    1:1,
    n:1,
    get:function(n) {
        if (n in this) return this[n];
        while(this.n < n) 
            this[++this.n] = this[this.n-1] + this[this.n-2];
        return this[n];
    }
},
fb = List.Lazy(fib);
fb.get(22); // 17711
fb.take(10) // [0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34]

CAVEAT

This one works fine.

List.Integers
    .map(function(x){ return x*x })
    .filter(function(x){ return x % 2 === 1 })
    .filter(function(x){ return x < 100 })
    .take(5)      // [1,9,25,49,81]

While this one DOES NOT.

List.Integers
    .map(function(x){ return x*x })
    .filter(function(x){ return x % 2 === 1 })
    .filter(function(x){ return x < 100 })
    .take(10)     // TAKES FOREVER

.take(10) waits for 10 elements or the end of list but neither happens in this case.

The same thing happens if you try the following in Ruby 2.0:

(1..Float::INFINITY).lazy.select{|x| x < 100}.take(10)