Dictionary

Dicts are maps from a certain key type to a certain value type. The key must currently be a string. The value can be any type but all elements of the Dict are the same type (not currently enforced).

Dicts are different than records: dicts can have arbitrary keys.

Dark v1 Problems

Dictionaries are the same as records

Problem: Right now, both dictionaries and records are represented by a DObj and a TObj. We need to separate them.

Subproblem: the only way to update a "record" is with Dict::set.

Solution: add a syntax for updating records. In existing functional languages, they use { existingValue with fieldName1 = newValue1; fieldName2 = newValue2 }

Status: not speced

Subproblem: The "syntax" to create dicts and records is overloaded. Both use { field : value } (as both are the same thing right now. If we split them, we need a way to disambiguate which one you're creating.

Solution option 1: Add a new syntax for records. For example, we might do:

Person {.

The big advantage here is that the autocomplete would create a bunch of new fields to fill in the object, like so:

Person {
  name : ___ // "string" placeholder text)
  age : ___ // "int" placeholder text
}

Solution option 2: Add a new syntax for dictionaries. For example, we might do:

let myDict = dict{
    ___ : ___ // would be useful to have a prompt to tell you to use quotes here
}

This would have a number of other benefits

Subproblem: What do we do with existing records and objects? Do they become records or objects or a third legacy DObj?

Solutions:

  • Add a new dictionary type, that is not compatible with DObj
    • It would need new functions that are type compatible
    • It would allow keys of any single type
    • The values would homogenous
    • dot syntax would not be supported (use Dict::get instead)
    • record syntax would not be supported
      • could support dot
  • Remove hack where we allow hyphens in record names
    • Since people use maps for headers, switch headers to string pairs
  • Add a type checker which distinguishes between Dicts and Record
  • DObj would become just a record
    • old Dict:: functions would be for records, and would be deprecated. They could even be renamed to Record:: for now, until we add syntax for the new stuff. We could automatically transition them to the new stuff
    • dot access could instead be

Status: TODO

Dictionaries are string only

Problem: Right now, you can't have a dictionary of other things

Solutions:

  • Add a syntax for updating records so that we don't have to use Dict::set
  • Add a type checker which distinguishes between Dicts and Record
    • I wonder if we could use the same syntax for both?
  • Stop using the DObj for both
    • will likely need a new version of the language for this

Status: TODO

It's possible to have heterogenous dictionaries

Problem: If you have a dict of ints, you can add a string to it

Solution: This might be solved by having a type checker tell you what you're doing wrong. Or perhaps we actually track the type of a dict and raise an error if the wrong type is inserted

Status: TODO

v2 Spec

v2 Language definition

v2 Standard library

Dict::filterMap(Dict 'k 'v, ('v -> Option 'b)) -> Dict 'k 'b
Dict::filter_v1(Dict 'k 'v, ('v -> bool)) -> Dict 'k 'v
Dict::isEmpty(Dict dict) -> Bool
Dict::keys(Dict dict) -> List
Dict::map(Dict dict, Block f) -> Dict
Dict::member(Dict dict, Str key) -> Bool
Dict::merge(Dict left, Dict right) -> Dict
Dict::remove(Dict dict, Str key) -> Dict
Dict::set(Dict dict, Str key, Any val) -> Dict
Dict::singleton(Str key, Any value) -> Dict
Dict::size(Dict dict) -> Int
Dict::toJSON(Dict dict) -> Str
Dict::toList(Dict dict) -> List
Dict::values(Dict dict) -> List

// Remove string-only
Dict::get_v2(Dict Str 'v, Str) -> Option 'v
Dict::get_v2(Dict Str 'v, Str) -> Option 'v


// TODO use tuples
Dict::fromList(List entries) -> Option
Dict::fromListOverwritingDuplicates(List entries) -> Dict

v2 Editor changes