SICP Section 3.3 – 3.5 : Found a bug in memq

1. Is memq broken?

memq is an in-built list search function; it finds the first occurrence of a key in a list and returns a new list starting from that key.

(memq 3 (list 1 2 3 4))
//; '(3 4)

(memq 5 (list 1 2 3 4))
//; #f

Now that you know what memq does, lets look at some weird behaviour
(define x (list 1 2))
(define a (list 3 4))

//; append x to the list
(set! a (append a x))
(memq x a)
//; #f -> x is not in a

Building on that foundation leads to the following conundrum
(define x '(1 2 3))

//; Create a cycle: last element of x is itself
(set-cdr! x x)

//; is x in x?
(memq x x)

//; never-ending loop

memq tests whether the key exists in the list and if it does, then it returns the list starting from the first occurrence of the key. But what is the first occurrence in a cyclic list? Could this be the bug?
2. Algorithms, algorithms

Horner’s algorithm

This is useful for calculating polynomial values at discrete points; for example, given a polynomial function, f(x) = 7x³ + 4x² + 4; what is f(3)? A potential application (and possible interview question too) is to convert string values into numbers – 1234 is the value of x³ + 2x² + 3x + 4 when x is 10.
// assuming polynomial is represented
// from lowest power to highest

//i.e. 1234 -> [4, 3, 2, 1]

function horner (poly, base) {
    if(base === 0) {
        return 0;
    }

    var val = 0;
    var polyLen = poly.length;
    for(var i = 0; i < polyLen; i++ ) {
        val += poly[i] * Math.pow(base, i);
    }
    return val;
}

horner([4,3,2,1], 10);
//1234



Fast exponentiation

Because going twice as fast is more fun than going fast.

function exponent (base, power) {
    var val = 1;
    while(power > 0) {
        val = val * base;
        power = power - 1;
    }
    return val;
}


Now, lets look at fast exponentiation.
function fastExponent(base, power) {
    if(power === 1) {
        return base;
    }

    //handle odd powers
    if((power % 2) === 1) {
       return base * fastExponent(base, (power - 1));
    }

    var part = fastExponent(base, (power / 2));
    return part * part;
}

fastExponent(10,3)
//1000

Fast exponentiation grows logarithmically Ο(log N) while the normal one is Ο(N). This same concept can be reapplied to similar scenarios.
3. Streams
Functional programming offers many advantages but one potential downside is performance and needless calculation. For example, while imperative programming offers quick exit constructs (e.g. break, continue); functional programming constructs like filter, map and reduce have no such corollary – the entire list has to be processed even if only the first few items are needed.
Streams offer an elegant solution to this issue by performing only just-in-time computations. Data is lazily evaluated and this makes it possible to easily (and beautifully) represent infinite lists. Inshaaha Allaah I should explain this concept in an upcoming post. It’s very beautiful and elegant and powerful.
Related Posts on my SICP adventures

SICP Review: Sections 3.1 & 3.2
SICP Section 2.5

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