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Re: [xsl] XPath 3.0 How to implement the function composition operator?


Subject: Re: [xsl] XPath 3.0 How to implement the function composition operator?
From: Michael Kay <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:43:52 +0100

See the list of changes for Saxon 9.4 at

http://www.saxonica.com/documentation9.4-demo/index.html#!changes/xp30-94

<quote>
The XQuery/XPath 3.0 parser has been extended to support partial function application ("?" as a function argument) in dynamic function calls. Previously this feature was supported only in direct function calls to a named function.
</quote>


Michael Kay
Saxonica


On 16/10/2012 01:56, Dimitre Novatchev wrote:
I thought that using the argument placeholder "?" could be used to
specify a more readable implementation.

However it seems tht Saxon EE 9.3.05 (coming with oXygen) doesn't
support argument place holders.

For this query:

          let $f := function($m as xs:integer, $n as xs:integer) as xs:integer
                          {$m + $n}
            return
                $f(5, ?)(3)

an error message is raised:

Unexpected token "?" in path expression
Start location: 24:0
URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20/#ERRXPST0003

Could someone, please, explain what is the issue with this expression?


Cheers, Dimitre



On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 4:02 PM, Michael Kay <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
compose is a function that takes two functions as input and produces a third
function as output, so it looks like this:

$compose := function($a as function(item()*) as item()*,

                         $b as function(item()*) as item()*)
                      as (function(item()*) as item()*)
{  function($c as item()*) as item()* { $b($a($c)) } }

(Or the other way around. I don't know which way Haskell does it.)

Michael Kay
Saxonica



On 15/10/2012 23:08, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
Hi Folks,

How is function composition implemented in XPath 3.0?

Example: Suppose I want to compose these two function:

1. increment: this function increases its argument by 1.

2. double: this function multiplies its argument by 2.

In Haskell I can compose the two functions like so:

f = double . increment

And then I can apply the composed functions to an argument:

f 2

The result is 6.

How is f implemented in XPath 3.0?

Here is my attempt, which is not correct:

              let $increment :=  function($x as xs:integer) {$x + 1},
                   $double        :=  function($y as xs:integer) {$y * 2},
                   $compose   :=  function(
                                                                 $a as
function(item()*) as item()*,
                                                                 $b as
function(item()*) as item()*
                                                              )
                                                             as item()*
                                                 {$b($a)},
                  $f  :=  $compose($double, $increment)
              return $f(2)

What is the correct way?

/Roger


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