Permutations

I started composing a set of APL exercises in response to a query from a new APL enthusiast who attended Morten’s presentation at Functional Conf, Bangalore, October 2014. The first set of exercise are at a low level of difficulty, followed by another set at an intermediate level. One of the intermediate exercises is:

Permutations

a. Compute all the permutations of ⍳⍵ in lexicographic order. For example:

   perm 3
0 1 2
0 2 1
1 0 2
1 2 0
2 0 1
2 1 0

b. Write a function that checks whether is a solution to perm ⍺, without computing perm ⍺. You can use the function assert. For example:

assert←{⍺←'assertion failure' ⋄ 0∊⍵:⍺ ⎕SIGNAL 8 ⋄ shy←0}

pcheck←{
  assert 2=⍴⍴⍵:
  assert (⍴⍵)≡(!⍺),⍺:
  …
  1
}

   6 pcheck perm 6
1

   4 pcheck 2 4⍴0 1 2 3, 0 1 3 2
assertion failure
pcheck[2] assert(⍴⍵)≡(!⍺),⍺:
         ∧

c. What is the index of permutation in perm ⍺? Do this without computing all the permutations. For example:

   7 ip 1 6 5 2 0 3 4    ⍝ index from permutation
1422

(The left argument in this case is redundant, being the same as ≢⍵.)

d. What is the -th permutation of ⍳⍺? Do this without computing all the permutations. For example:

   7 pi 1442             ⍝ permutation from index
1 6 5 2 0 3 4

   (perm 7) ≡ 7 pi⍤0 ⍳!7
1

The Anagram Kata

Coincidentally, Gianfranco Alongi was attempting in APL the anagrams kata from Cyber Dojo:

Write a program to generate all potential anagrams of an input string.

For example, the potential anagrams of “biro” are
biro bior brio broi boir bori
ibro ibor irbo irob iobr iorb
rbio rboi ribo riob roib robi
obir obri oibr oirb orbi orib

This is essentially the same program/exercise/kata, because the potential anagrams are 'biro'[perm 4]. You can compare solutions in other languages to what’s here (google “anagrams kata”).

Spoiler Alert

Deriving a Solution

I am now going to present solutions to part a of the exercise, generating all permutations of ⍳⍵.

Commonly, in TDD (test-driven development) you start with a very simple case and try to extend it successively to more general cases. It’s all too easy to be led into a dead-end because the simple case may have characteristics absent in a more general case. For myself, for this problem, I would start “in the middle”: Suppose I have perm 3, obtained by whatever means:

   p
0 1 2
0 2 1
1 0 2
1 2 0
2 0 1
2 1 0

How do I get perm 4 from that? One way is as follows:

   p1←0,1+p
   (0 1 2 3[p1]) (1 0 2 3[p1]) (2 0 1 3[p1]) (3 0 1 2[p1])
┌───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┐
│0 1 2 3│1 0 2 3│2 0 1 3│3 0 1 2│
│0 1 3 2│1 0 3 2│2 0 3 1│3 0 2 1│
│0 2 1 3│1 2 0 3│2 1 0 3│3 1 0 2│
│0 2 3 1│1 2 3 0│2 1 3 0│3 1 2 0│
│0 3 1 2│1 3 0 2│2 3 0 1│3 2 0 1│
│0 3 2 1│1 3 2 0│2 3 1 0│3 2 1 0│
└───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┘

So it’s indexing each row of a matrix m by 0,1+p. There are various ways of forming the matrix m, one way is:

   ⍒⍤1∘.=⍨0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
1 0 2 3
2 0 1 3
3 0 1 2

(Some authors waxed enthusiastic about this “magical matrix”.) In any case, a solution obtains readily from the above description: Form a matrix from the above individual planes; replace the 0 1 2 3 by ⍳⍵; and make an appropriate computation for the base case (when 0=⍵). See the 2015-07-12 entry below.

The Best perm Function

What is the “best” perm function I can write in APL? This “best” is a benchmark not only on my own understanding but also on advancements in APL over the years.

“Best” is a subjective and personal measure. Brevity comes into it but is not the only criteria. For example, {(∧/(⍳⍵)∊⍤1⊢t)⌿t←⍉(⍵⍴⍵)⊤⍳⍵*⍵} is the shortest known solution, but requires space and time exponential in the size of the result, and that disqualifies it from being “best”. The similarly inefficient {(∧/(⍳⍵)∊⍤1⊢t)⌿t←↑,⍳⍵⍴⍵} is shorter still, but does not work for 1=⍵.

1981, The N Queens Problem

    p←perm n;i;ind;t
   ⍝ all permutations of ⍳n
    p←(×n,n)⍴⎕io
    →(1≥n)⍴0
    t←perm n-1
    p←(0,n)⍴ind←⍳n
    i←n-~⎕io
   l10:p←(i,((i≠ind)/ind)[t]),[⎕io]p
    →(⎕io≤i←i-1)⍴l10

It was the fashion at the time that functions be written to work in either index-origin and therefore have ⎕io sprinkled hither, thither, and yon.

1987, Some Uses of { and }

   perm:  ⍪⌿k,⍤¯1 (⍙⍵-1){⍤¯ 1 k~⍤1 0 k←⍳⍵
       :  1≥⍵
       :  (1,⍵)⍴0

Written in Dictionary APL, wherein: ⍪⌿⍵ ←→ ⊃⍪⌿⊂⍤¯1⊢⍵ and differs from its definition in Dyalog APL; is equivalent to in dfns; ⍺{⍵ ←→ (⊂⍺)⌷⍵; and ¯ by itself is infinity.

1990-2007

I worked on perm from time to time in this period, but in J rather than in APL. The results are described in a J essay and in a Vector article. The lessons translate directly into Dyalog APL.

2008, http://dfns.dyalog.com/n_pmat.htm

   pmat2←{{,[⍳2]↑(⊂⊂⎕io,1+⍵)⌷¨⍒¨↓∘.=⍨⍳1+1↓⍴⍵}⍣⍵⍉⍪⍬}

In retrospect, the power operator is not the best device to use, because the left operand function needs both the previous result (equivalent to perm ⍵-1) and . It is awkward to supply two arguments to that operand function, and the matter is finessed by computing the latter as 1+1↓⍴⍵.

In this formulation, ⍉⍪⍬ is rather circuitous compared to the equivalent 1 0⍴0. But the latter would have required a or similar device to separate it from the right operand of the power operator.

2015-07-12

   perm←{0=⍵:1 0⍴0 ⋄ ,[⍳2](⊂0,1+∇ ¯1+⍵)⌷⍤1⍒⍤1∘.=⍨⍳⍵}

For a time I thought the base case can be ⍳1 0 instead of 1 0⍴0, and indeed the function works with that as the base case. Unfortunately (⍳1 0)≢1 0⍴0, having a different prototype and datatype.

Future

Where might the improvements come from?

  • We are contemplating an under operator whose monadic case is f⍢g ⍵ ←→ g⍣¯1 f g ⍵. Therefore 1+∇ ¯1+⍵ ←→ ∇⍢(¯1∘+)⍵
  • Moreover, it is possible to define ≤⍵ as ⍵-1 (decrement) and ≥⍵ as ⍵+1 (increment), as in J; whence 1+∇ ¯1+⍵ ←→ ∇⍢≤⍵
  • Monadic = can be defined as in J, =⍵ ←→ (∪⍳⍨⍵)∘.=⍳≢⍵ (self-classify); whence ∘.=⍨⍳⍵ ←→ =⍳⍵

Putting it all together:

   perm←{0=⍵:1 0⍴0 ⋄ ,[⍳2](⊂0,∇⍢≤⍵)⌷⍤1⍒⍤1=⍳⍵}

We should do something about the ,[⍳2] :-)​​

Type Comments

I’ve taken to commenting the closing brace of my inner dfns with a home-grown type notation pinched from the Functional Programming community:

    dref←{                  ⍝ Value for name ⍵ in dictionary ⍺ 
        names values←⍺      ⍝ dictionary pair
        (names⍳⊂⍵)⊃values   ⍝ value corresponding to name ⍵
    }                       ⍝ :: Value ← Dict ∇ Name

I keep changing my mind about whether the result type should be to the left (Value ← ...) or to the right (... → Value). The FP crowd favours → Value but I’m coming around to Value ← because:

* In contrast to (say) Haskell, APL’s function/argument sequences associate right.
* Value ← mirrors the result pattern in a tradfn header and so looks familiar.
* The type of function composition f∘g is simpler this way round.

Such comments serve as an aide-mémoire when I later come to read the code though, with some ingenuity, the notation might possibly be extended to a more formal system, which could have value to a compiler or code-checker. We would need:

Glyphs for Dyalog’s three primitive atomic data types. For no particularly good reason, I’ve been using:

# number
' character
. ref

Glyphs for a few generic (polymorphic) types. These could be just regular lower-case letters a b c … though I currently prefer greek letters:

⍺ ∊ ⍳ ⍴ ⍵ ...

Some constructors for type expressions. This is the most contentious part. For what it’s worth, I’ve been using:

::  is of type ...
∇  function
∇∇  operator
←  returns
[⍺] vector of ⍺s
{⍺} optional left argument ⍺

For example:

foo :: ⍵ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍵

implies:
foo is an ambi-valent function whose
– result is of the same type () as its right argument and whose
– optional left argument may be of a different type ().

I can abstract/name type expressions with (capitalised) identifiers using :=. For example:

Dict   := [Name][Value]        ⍝ dictionary name and value vectors
Eval   := Expr ← Dict ∇ Expr   ⍝ expression reduction
List ⍵ := '∘' | ⍵ (List ⍵)     ⍝ recursive pairs. See
list
Name   := ⍞                    ⍝ primitive type: character vector

The type: character vector ['] is used so frequently that the three glyphs fuse into: . This means that a vector-of-character-vectors, also a common type, is [⍞].

Primitive and derived function types.
If we’re not too nit-picky and ignore issues such as single extension and rank conformability, we can give at least hints for the types of some primitive functions and operators.

 ⍳ :: # ← ⍺ ∇ ⍺              ⍝ dyadic index-of
 ⍴ :: ⍺ ← [#] ∇ ⍺            ⍝ reshape (also take, transpose, ...)

The three forms of primitive composition have interesting types:

∘ :: ⍴ ← {⍺} (⍴ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍳) ∇∇ (⍳ ← ∇ ⍵ ) ⍵     ⍝ {⍺}f∘g ⍵
:: ⍴ ←                 ⍺ ∇∇ (⍴ ← ⍺ ∇ ⍵ ) ⍵   ⍝ A∘g ⍵
:: ⍴ ←      ((⍴ ← ⍺ ∇ ⍵) ∇∇ ⍵ )⍺             ⍝ (f∘B)⍵

It follows that:

f :: ⍴ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍳
g :: ⍳ ←     ∇ ⍵
=> f∘g :: ⍴ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍵          ⍝ intermediate type ⍳ cancels out

and for trains:

A :: ⍳                  ⍝ A is an array of type ⍳
f :: ⍳ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍵
g :: ⍴ ← {⍳} ∇ ∊
h :: ∊ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍵
=> f g h :: ⍴ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍵        ⍝ fgh fork
=> A g h :: ⍴ ←     ∇ ⍵        ⍝ Agh fork
=>   g h :: ⍴ ← {⍺} ∇ ⍵        ⍝ gh atop

For a more substantial example, search function joy for :: and := in a recent download of dfns.dws.

Muse:
This notation is not yet complete or rigorous enough to be of much use to a compiler but there may already be enough to allow the writing of a dfn, which checks its own and others internal consistency. In the long term, if a notation similar to this evolved into something useful, it might be attractive to allow optional type specification as part of the function definition: without the comment symbol:

    dref←{                  ⍝ Value for name ⍵ in dictionary ⍺ 
        names values←⍺      ⍝ dictionary pair
        (names⍳⊂⍵)⊃values   ⍝ value corresponding to name ⍵
    } :: Value ← Dict ∇ Name