Introduction: loop, iterate, for, mapcar
loop is the built-in macro for iteration.
Its simplest form is (loop (print "hello")): this will print forever.
A simple iteration over a list is:
(loop for x in '(1 2 3)
do (print x))
It prints what’s needed but returns nil.
If you want to return a list, use collect:
(loop for x in '(1 2 3)
collect (* x 10))
;; (10 20 30)
The Loop macro is different than most Lisp expressions in having a complex internal domain specific language that doesn’t use s-expressions. So you need to read Loop expressions with half of your brain in Lisp mode, and the other half in Loop mode. You love it or you hate it.
Think of Loop expressions as having four parts: expressions that set up variables that will be iterated, expressions that conditionally terminate the iteration, expressions that do something on each iteration, and expressions that do something right before the Loop exits. In addition, Loop expressions can return a value. It is very rare to use all of these parts in a given Loop expression, but you can combine them in many ways.
iterate is a
popular iteration macro that aims at being simpler, “lispier” and more
predictable than loop, besides being extensible. However it isn’t built-in,
so you have to import it:
(ql:quickload :iterate)
(use-package :iterate)
Iterate looks like this:
(iter (for i from 1 to 5)
(collect (* i i)))
(if you use loop and iterate in the same package, you might run into name conflicts)
Iterate also comes with display-iterate-clauses that can be quite handy:
(display-iterate-clauses '(for))
;; FOR PREVIOUS &OPTIONAL INITIALLY BACK Previous value of a variable
;; FOR FIRST THEN Set var on first, and then on subsequent iterations
;; ...
Much of the examples on this page that are valid for loop are also valid for iterate, with minor modifications.
for is an extensible iteration macro that is often shorter than loop, that “unlike loop is extensible and sensible, and unlike iterate does not require code-walking and is easier to extend”.
It has the other advantage of having one construct that works for all
data structures (lists, vectors, hash-tables…): in doubt, just use
for… over:
(for:for ((x over <your data structure>))
(print …))
You also have to quickload it:
(ql:quickload :for)
We’ll also give examples with mapcar and map, and eventually
with their friends mapcon, mapcan, maplist, mapc and mapl
which E. Weitz categorizes very well in his “Common Lisp Recipes”,
chap. 7. The one you are certainly accustomed to from other languages is
mapcar: it takes a function, one or more lists as arguments,
applies the function on each element of the lists one by one and
returns a list of result.
(mapcar (lambda (it) (+ it 10)) '(1 2 3))
(11 12 13)
map is generic, it accepts list and vectors as arguments, and
expects the type for its result as first argument:
(map 'vector (lambda (it) (+ it 10)) '(1 2 3))
;; #(11 12 13)
(map 'list (lambda (it) (+ it 10)) #(1 2 3))
;; (11 12 13)
(map 'string (lambda (it) (code-char it)) '#(97 98 99))
;; "abc"
The other constructs have their advantages in some situations ;) They either process the tails of lists, or concatenate the return values, or don’t return anything. We’ll see some of them.
If you like mapcar, use it a lot, and would like a quicker and
shorter way to write lambdas, then you might like one of those
lambda shorthand libraries.
Here is an example with cl-punch:
(mapcar ^(* _ 10) '(1 2 3))
;; (10 20 30)
and voilà :) We won’t use this more in this recipe, but feel free to do.
Last but not least, you might like series, a library that describes itself as combining aspects of sequences, streams, and loops. Series expressions look like operations on sequences (= functional programming), but can achieve the same high level of efficiency as a loop. Series first appeared in “Common Lisp the Language”, in the appendix A (it nearly became part of the language). Series looks like this:
(collect
(mapping ((x (scan-range :from 1 :upto 5)))
(* x x)))
;; (1 4 9 16 25)
Recipes
Looping forever, return
(loop
(print "hello"))
return can return a result:
(loop for i in '(1 2 3)
when (> i 1)
return i)
2
Looping a fixed number of times
dotimes
(dotimes (n 10)
(print n))
Here dotimes returns nil. The return value is evaluated at the end of the loop.
You can use return inside of it:
(dotimes (i 10)
(if (> i 3)
(return)
(print i)))
loop… repeat
(loop repeat 10
do (format t "Hello!~%"))
This prints 10 times “hello” and returns nil.
(loop repeat 10 collect (random 10))
;; (5 1 3 5 4 0 7 4 9 1)
with collect, this returns a list.
Series
(iterate ((n (scan-range :below 10)))
(print n))
Iterate’s for loop
For lists and vectors:
(iter (for item in '(1 2 3))
(print item))
(iter (for i in-vector #(1 2 3))
(print i))
Looping over a hash-table is also straightforward:
(let ((h (let ((h (make-hash-table)))
(setf (gethash 'a h) 1)
(setf (gethash 'b h) 2)
h)))
(iter (for (k v) in-hashtable h)
(print k)))
;; b
;; a
In fact, take a look here,
or (display-iterate-clauses '(for)) to know about iterating over
- symbols in-package
- forms - or lines, or whatever-you-wish - in-file, or in-stream
- elements in-sequence - sequences can be vectors or lists
Looping over a list
dolist
(dolist (item '(1 2 3))
(print item))
dolist returns nil.
loop
with in, no surprises:
(loop for x in '(a b c)
do (print x))
;; A
;; B
;; C
;; NIL
(loop for x in '(a b c)
collect x)
;; (A B C)
With on, we loop over the cdr of the list:
(loop for i on '(1 2 3) do (print i))
;; (1 2 3)
;; (2 3)
;; (3)
mapcar
(mapcar (lambda (x)
(print (* x 10)))
'(1 2 3))
10
20
30
(10 20 30)
mapcar returns the results of the lambda function as a list.
Series
(iterate ((item (scan '(1 2 3))))
(print item))
scan-sublists is the equivalent of loop for ... on:
(iterate ((i (scan-sublists '(1 2 3))))
(print i))
Looping over a vector
loop: across
(loop for i across #(1 2 3) do (print i))
Series
(iterate ((i (scan #(1 2 3))))
(print i))
Looping over a hash-table
We create a hash-table:
(setf h (make-hash-table))
(setf (gethash 'a h) 1)
(setf (gethash 'b h) 2)
loop
Looping over keys:
(loop for k being the hash-key of h do (print k))
;; b
;; a
same with hash-value.
Looping over key-values pairs:
(loop for k
being the hash-key
using (hash-value v) of h
do (format t "~a ~a~%" k v))
b 2
a 1
for
the same with for:
(for:for ((it over h))
(print it))
(A 1)
(B 2)
NIL
maphash
The lambda function of maphash takes two arguments: the key and the
value:
(maphash (lambda (key val)
(format t "key: ~a val:~a~&" key val))
h)
;; key: A val:1
;; key: B val:2
;; NIL
See also with-hash-table-iterator.
Series
(iterate (((k v) (scan-hash h)))
(format t "~&~a ~a~%" k v))
Looping over two lists in parallel
loop
(loop for x in '(a b c)
for y in '(1 2 3)
collect (list x y))
;; ((A 1) (B 2) (C 3))
mapcar
(mapcar (lambda (x y)
(list x y))
'(a b c)
'(1 2 3))
;; ((A 1) (B 2) (C 3))
or simply:
(mapcar #'list
'(a b c)
'(1 2 3))
;; ((A 1) (B 2) (C 3))
Return a flat list:
(mapcan (lambda (x y)
(list x y))
'(a b c)
'(1 2 3))
;; (A 1 B 2 C 3)
Series
(collect
(#Mlist (scan '(a b c))
(scan '(1 2 3))))
A more efficient way, when the lists are known to be of equal length:
(collect
(mapping (((x y) (scan-multiple 'list
'(a b c)
'(1 2 3))))
(list x y)))
Return a flat list:
(collect-append ; or collect-nconc
(mapping (((x y) (scan-multiple 'list
'(a b c)
'(1 2 3))))
(list x y)))
Nested loops
loop
(loop for x from 1 to 3
collect (loop for y from 1 to x
collect y))
;; ((1) (1 2) (1 2 3))
iterate
(iter outer
(for i below 2)
(iter (for j below 3)
(in outer (collect (list i j)))))
;; ((0 0) (0 1) (0 2) (1 0) (1 1) (1 2))
Series
(collect
(mapping ((x (scan-range :from 1 :upto 3)))
(collect (scan-range :from 1 :upto x))))
Computing an intermediate value
Use =.
With for:
(loop for x from 1 to 3
for y = (* x 10)
collect y)
;; (10 20 30)
With with, the difference being that the value is computed only
once:
(loop for x from 1 to 3
for y = (* x 10)
with z = x
collect (list x y z))
;; ((1 10 1) (2 20 1) (3 30 1))
The HyperSpec defines the with clause like this:
with-clause::= with var1 [type-spec] [= form1] {and var2 [type-spec] [= form2]}*
so it turns out we can specify the type before the = and chain the with with and:
(loop for x from 1 to 3
for y integer = (* x 10)
with z integer = x
collect (list x y z))
(loop for x upto 3
with foo = :foo
and bar = :bar
collect (list x foo bar))
Loop with a counter
loop
Iterate through a list, and have a counter iterate in parallel. The length of the list determines when the iteration ends. Two sets of actions are defined, one of which is executed conditionally.
* (loop for x in '(a b c d e)
for y from 1
when (> y 1)
do (format t ", ")
do (format t "~A" x)
)
A, B, C, D, E
NIL
We could also write the preceding loop using the IF construct.
* (loop for x in '(a b c d e)
for y from 1
if (> y 1)
do (format t ", ~A" x)
else do (format t "~A" x)
)
A, B, C, D, E
NIL
Series
By iterating on multiple series in parallel, and using an infinite range, we can make a counter.
(iterate ((x (scan '(a b c d e)))
(y (scan-range :from 1)))
(when (> y 1) (format t ", "))
(format t "~A" x))
Ascending, descending order, limits
loop
from… to…:
(loop for i from 0 to 10
do (print i))
;; 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
from… below…: this stops at 9:
(loop for i from 0 below 10
do (print i))
Similarly, use from 10 downto 0 (10…0) and from 10 above 0 (10…1).
Series
:from ... :upto, including the upper limit:
(iterate ((i (scan-range :from 0 :upto 10)))
(print i))
:from ... :below, excluding the upper limit:
(iterate ((i (scan-range :from 0 :below 10)))
(print i))
Steps
loop
with by:
(loop for i from 1 to 10 by 2
do (print i))
if you use by (1+ (random 3)), the random is evaluated only once, as
if it was in a closure:
(let ((step (random 3)))
(loop for i from 1 to 10 by (+ 1 step)
do (print i))
Series
with :by
(iterate ((i (scan-range :from 1 :upto 10 :by 2)))
(print i))
Loop and conditionals
loop
with if, else and finally:
;; https://riptutorial.com/common-lisp/example/11095/conditionally-executing-loop-clauses
(loop repeat 10
for x = (random 100)
if (evenp x)
collect x into evens
else
collect x into odds
finally (return (values evens odds)))
(42 82 24 92 92)
(55 89 59 13 49)
Combining multiple clauses in an if body requires special syntax (and
do, and count):
(loop repeat 10
for x = (random 100)
if (evenp x)
collect x into evens
and do (format t "~a is even!~%" x)
else
collect x into odds
and count t into n-odds
finally (return (values evens odds n-odds)))
46 is even!
8 is even!
76 is even!
58 is even!
0 is even!
(46 8 76 58 0)
(7 45 43 15 69)
5
iterate
Translating (or even writing!) the above example using iterate is straight-forward:
(iter (repeat 10)
(for x = (random 100))
(if (evenp x)
(progn
(collect x into evens)
(format t "~a is even!~%" x))
(progn
(collect x into odds)
(count t into n-odds)))
(finally (return (values evens odds n-odds))))
Series
The preceding loop would be done a bit differently in Series. split
sorts one series into multiple according to provided boolean series.
(let* ((number (#M(lambda (n) (random 100))
(scan-range :below 10)))
(parity (#Mevenp number)))
(iterate ((n number) (p parity))
(when p (format t "~a is even!~%" n)))
(multiple-value-bind (evens odds) (split number parity)
(values (collect evens)
(collect odds)
(collect-length odds))))
Note that although iterate and the three collect expressions are
written sequentially, only one iteration is performed, the same as the
example with loop.
Terminate the loop with a test (until, while)
loop
(loop for x in '(1 2 3 4 5)
until (> x 3)
collect x)
;; (1 2 3)
the same, with while:
(loop for x in '(1 2 3 4 5)
while (< x 4)
collect x)
Series
We truncate the series with until-if, then collect from its result.
(collect
(until-if (lambda (i) (> i 3))
(scan '(1 2 3 4 5))))
Loop, print and return a result
loop
do and collect can be combined in one expression
(loop for x in '(1 2 3 4 5)
while (< x 4)
do (format t "x is ~a~&" x)
collect x)
x is 1
x is 2
x is 3
(1 2 3)
Series
By mapping we can perform a side effect and also collect items
(collect
(mapping ((x (until-if (complement (lambda (x) (< x 4)))
(scan '(1 2 3 4 5)))))
(format t "x is ~a~&" x)
x))
Named loops and early exit
loop
The special loop named foo syntax allows you to create a loop that
you can exit early from. The exit is performed using return-from,
and can be used from within nested loops.
;; useless example
(loop named loop-1
for x from 0 to 10 by 2
do (loop for y from 0 to 100 by (1+ (random 3))
when (< x y)
do (return-from loop-1 (values x y))))
0
2
Loop shorthands for when/return
Several actions provide shorthands for combinations of when/return:
* (loop for x in '(foo 2)
thereis (numberp x))
T
* (loop for x in '(foo 2)
never (numberp x))
NIL
* (loop for x in '(foo 2)
always (numberp x))
NIL
Series
A block is manually created and returned from.
(block loop-1
(iterate ((x (scan-range :from 0 :upto 10 :by 2)))
(iterate ((y (scan-range :from 0 :upto 100 :by (1+ (random 3)))))
(when (< x y)
(return-from loop-1 (values x y))))))
Count
loop
(loop for i from 1 to 3 count (oddp i))
;; 2
Series
(collect-length (choose-if #'oddp (scan-range :from 1 :upto 3)))
Summation
loop
(loop for i from 1 to 3 sum (* i i))
;; 14
Summing into a variable:
(loop for i from 1 to 3
sum (* i i) into total
do (print i)
finally (print total))
1
2
3
14
Series
(collect-sum (#M(lambda (i) (* i i))
(scan-range :from 1 :upto 3)))
max, min
loop
(loop for i from 1 to 3 maximize (mod i 3))
;; 2
and minimize.
Series
(collect-max (#M(lambda (i) (mod i 3))
(scan-range :from 1 :upto 3)))
and collect-min.
Destructuring, aka pattern matching against the list or dotted pairs
loop
(loop for (a b) in '((x 1) (y 2) (z 3))
collect (list b a) )
;; ((1 X) (2 Y) (3 Z))
(loop for (x . y) in '((1 . a) (2 . b) (3 . c)) collect y)
;; (A B C)
Use nil to ignore a term:
(loop for (a nil) in '((x 1) (y 2) (z 3))
collect a )
;; (X Y Z)
Iterating 2 by 2 over a list
To iterate over a list, 2 items at a time we use a combination of on, by and destructuring.
We use on to loop over the rest (the cdr) of the list.
(loop for rest on '(a 2 b 2 c 3)
collect rest)
;; ((A 2 B 2 C 3) (2 B 2 C 3) (B 2 C 3) (2 C 3) (C 3) (3))
We use by to skip one element at every iteration ((cddr list) is equivalent to (rest (rest list)))
(loop for rest on '(a 2 b 2 c 3) by #'cddr
collect rest)
;; ((A 2 B 2 C 3) (B 2 C 3) (C 3))
Then we add destructuring to bind only the first two items at each iteration:
(loop for (key value) on '(a 2 b 2 c 3) by #'cddr
collect (list key (* 2 value)))
;; ((A 2) (B 4) (C 6))
Series
In general, with destructuring-bind:
(collect
(mapping ((l (scan '((x 1) (y 2) (z 3)))))
(destructuring-bind (a b) l
(list b a))))
But for alists, scan-alist is provided:
(collect
(mapping (((a b) (scan-alist '((1 . a) (2 . b) (3 . c)))))
b))
Custom series scanners
If we often scan the same type of object, we can write our own scanner for it: the iteration itself can be factored out. Taking the example above, of scanning a list of two-element lists, we’ll write a scanner that returns a series of the first elements, and a series of the second.
(defun scan-listlist (listlist)
(declare (optimizable-series-function 2))
(map-fn '(values t t)
(lambda (l)
(destructuring-bind (a b) l
(values a b)))
(scan listlist)))
(collect
(mapping (((a b) (scan-listlist '((x 1) (y 2) (z 3)))))
(list b a)))
Shorter series expressions
Consider this series expression:
(collect-sum (mapping ((i (scan-range :length 5)))
(* i 2)))
It’s a bit longer than it needs to be—the mapping form’s only
purpose is to bind the variable i, and i is used in only one
place. Series has a “hidden feature” which allows us to simplify this
expression to the following:
(collect-sum (* 2 (scan-range :length 5)))
This is called implicit mapping, and can be enabled in the call to
series::install:
(series::install :implicit-map t)
When using implicit mapping, the #M reader macro demonstrated above
becomes redundant.
Loop gotchas
- the keyword
it, often used in functional constructs, can be recognized as a loop keyword. Don’t use it inside a loop.
Appendix: list of loop keywords
Name Clause
named
Variable Clauses
initially finally for as with
Main Clauses
do collect collecting append
appending nconc nconcing into count
counting sum summing maximize return
maximizing minimize minimizing doing
thereis always never if when
unless repeat while until
These don’t introduce clauses:
= and it else end from upfrom
above below to upto downto downfrom
in on then across being each the hash-key
hash-keys of using hash-value hash-values
symbol symbols present-symbol
present-symbols external-symbol
external-symbols fixnum float t nil of-type
But note that it’s the parsing that determines what is a keyword. For example in:
(loop for key in hash-values)
Only for and in are keywords.
©Dan Robertson on Stack Overflow.
Credit and references
Loop
- Tutorial for the Common Lisp Loop Macro by Peter D. Karp
- http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/doc/cl/loop.html
- riptutorial.com *
Iterate
- The Iterate Manual -
- iterate - highlights at a glance and examples
- Loop v Iterate - SabraOnTheHill
Series
Others
- See also: more functional constructs (do-repeat, take,…)
Page source: iteration.md