4.4.3: list_iterator()

In this section MJD introduces the imap and igrep iterators. We've already used them; imap was introduced in 4.3.3: Example - A Flat-File Database - part 2 (available in the iterator library as i.Map) while igrep was introduced in 4.3: Examples (available in the iterator library as i.Filter). I've won't spend any more time on them here.

A list_iterator() transforms a Perl array into an iterator. Go's native container is the slice so we will build an adaptor for the same purpose here.

One problem we run into is that a slice of some type, say []int, can not be typecasted to a []interface{} type, we would need to create a interface{} of equal length as the []int and then copy the values over. This is not efficient and not something I want to do. I have two solutions to this problem. The first one is to write an adapter speficic for the type you want to use.

type intslice struct {
    slice []int
    pos   int
}

func IntSlice(vals []int) i.Forward {
    return &intslice{slice: vals}
}

func (i *intslice) AtEnd() bool {
    return i.pos >= len(i.slice)
}

func (i *intslice) Next() error {
    i.pos++
    return nil
}

func (i *intslice) Value() interface{} {
    return i.slice[i.pos]
}

func (i *intslice) Error() error {
    return nil
}

func (i *intslice) SetError(err error) {
}

This is a typical i.Forward iterator that simply wraps around the int slice you provide.

itr := IntSlice([]int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11})
itr = i.Filter(
    func(itr i.Iterator) bool {
        n, _ := itr.Value().(int)
        return math.Mod(float64(n), 3) == 0
    }, itr)

for !itr.AtEnd() {
    fmt.Println(itr.Value())
    itr.Next()
}

I've created a script that generates iterators such as this for all the base types in Go. They are all available in the iterator library.


A second strategy is not to wrap a slice but to use Go's support for variable arguments. Yes, if you are forced to wrap a slice this will not help you but sometimes all we need is to wrap a list of values that we've written out in the source file.

type list struct {
    slice []interface{}
    pos   int
}

func List(vals ...interface{}) i.Forward {
    return &list{slice: vals}
}

func (i *list) AtEnd() bool {
    return i.pos >= len(i.slice)
}

func (i *list) Next() error {
    i.pos++
    return nil
}

func (i *list) Value() interface{} {
    return i.slice[i.pos]
}

func (i *list) Error() error {
    return nil
}

func (i *list) SetError(err error) {
}

This will work for any type, even a mix of different types.

itr = List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
itr = i.Filter(func(itr i.Iterator) bool {
    n, _ := itr.Value().(int)
    return math.Mod(float64(n), 2) == 0
}, itr)

for !itr.AtEnd() {
    fmt.Println(itr.Value())
    itr.Next()
}

Get the source at GitHub. The variable argument version is also available in the iterator library.