109: Learning Kotlin - Sequences the new Iterables

In this episode of Fragmented, we go back to learning some Kotlin and look at the Iterable like data structure introduced called "Sequences". What is a sequence? How is it different from Iterable? When should I use it?

Show Notes

• Kotlin Sequence
• Java Iterable vs Iterator - stackoverflow.com

Eager/Lazy

Eager evaluation:

val lst = listOf(1, 2)
val lstMapped: List = lst.map { print("$it "); it * it }
print("before sum ")
val sum = lstMapped.sum()

// prints "1 2 before sum"

Lazy evaluation:

val seq = sequenceOf(1, 2)
val seqMapped: Sequence = seq.map { print("$it "); it * it }
print("before sum ")
val sum = seqMapped.sum()

// prints "before sum 1 2"

Source stackoverflow.com answer

Intermediate and terminal operations

Notice that at each chain operation, a new temporary list is created:

data class Person(val name: String, val age: Int)

fun main(args: Array) {
    val people = 
        listOf(Person("Chris Martin", 31), 
               Person("Will Champion", 32),
               Person("Jonny Buckland", 33),
               Person("Guy Berryman", 34),
               Person("Mhris Cartin", 30))
    
    println(people
            .filter { it.age > 30 } // new temp. list
            .map {                  
                it.name.split(" ").map {it[0]}.joinToString("")
            }  // new temp. list
            .map { it.toUpperCase() }) // new temp. list
}

Using a sequence:

println(people
        .asSequence()  // convert to sequence
        .filter { it.age > 30 } // lazy eval (intermediate op)
        .map {                  
            it.name.split(" ").map {it[0]}.joinToString("")
        }  // lazy eval (intermediate op)
        .map { it.toUpperCase() }  // lazy eval (intermediate op)
        .toList() // terminal operation
       )

Without a terminal operation, Sequences won't print anything:

val seq = sequenceOf(1, 2, 3)
println(seq) // prints address
println(seq.toList()) // [1, 2, 3]

You can't pick an index from a sequence:

println(seq[0]) // throws ERROR "No get method providing array access"
println(seq.toList()[0]) // 1

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