schemeapplymap-functiongambit

n arity zip function in scheme (problems with apply and map)


I am having trouble calling map over a list of lists.

01>(define (foldr f accum xs)
  (if (null? xs) accum
      (f (car xs) (foldr f accum (cdr xs)))))

02> (map (lambda xs foldr cons '() xs) '(1 2) '(3 4) '(5 6))

((1 3 5) (2 4 6))

this is what we want, but I can't get this to work from a callable function.

EDIT -- (map (lambda x x) '(1 2) '(3 4) '(5 6)) gives the same result!

03> (define (zip . xs)
    (map (lambda ys foldr cons '() ys) xs)))

04> (zip '(1 2) '(3 4) '(5 6))

(((1 2)) ((3 4)) ((5 6)))

I can see the problem that the arguments passed to zip become a list, but I do not know hot to keep treating them as I did with the working version.

I am not sure how apply is used with map

05> (define zip
  (lambda xs
    (apply (map (lambda ys foldr cons '() ys)) xs)))

06> (zip '(1 2) '(3 4) '(5 6))

*** ERROR IN zip, (stdin)@546.12 -- Wrong number of arguments passed to procedure (map '#<procedure #49>)

this makes sense as map is not calling anything. ;; but then how could we apply map to the same args that map calls for the fold function?

07> (define (zip . args)
  (apply (lambda xs (map (lambda ys foldr cons '() ys) xs)) args))

08> (zip '(1 2) '(3 4) '(5 6))

(((1 2)) ((3 4)) ((5 6)))

which is just the same a the first attempt. I'm sure (...hope) that I am missing something tiny here.


Solution

  • The zip function is in my Standard Prelude.

    > (define (zip . xss) (apply map list xss))
    > (zip '(1 2 3) '(a b c))
    ((1 a) (2 b) (3 c))
    > (zip '(1 2 3) '(a b c) '(x y z))
    ((1 a x) (2 b y) (3 c z))