20140101

Enumerated Types in CL


The Holidays gave me some time to go back to work on another of my little libraries. Here is the result.


Enumerated Types in Common Lisp


Several programming languages have the notion of enumerated type, e.g., C/C++ enum. Common Lisp can substitute the notion of enumerated type using the member type specifiers.

    (deftype colors () '(member red green blue))

This is sufficient for the annotation purposes of traditional Common Lisp, but it falls short of the standard uses that are expected of enumerated types in C/C++ and other languages. Moreover, languages like Java now provide very structured enumerated types.
Consider the following Java enumerated type, which provides an idiomatic way to express certain language processing functionalities:

    public enum Operation {
      PLUS   { double eval(double x, double y) { return x + y; } },
      MINUS  { double eval(double x, double y) { return x - y; } },
      TIMES  { double eval(double x, double y) { return x * y; } },
      DIVIDE { double eval(double x, double y) { return x / y; } };

      // Do arithmetic op represented by this constant
      abstract double eval(double x, double y);
    }

It is not difficult to emulate such methods in Common Lisp using EQL specializers and using symbols as enumerated type tags.
On the other hand, C/C++ use of enumerated types as numeric integer constants, as in

    enum numbers {ONE,
                  TWO,
                  FORTY_TWO = 42,
                  FORTY_THREE
    };

can easily be emulated in Common Lisp by using appropriate defconstant's; alas, this breaks the use of case and similar constructs.
Common Lisp programmers have, needless to say, come up with several versions of enumerated types. Most available definitions provide a DEFENUM or DEF-ENUM macro which provides functionalities similar to C/C++ enumerated types, while adding a switch or select macros as work-around the case problem. A typical rendition of the C/C++ enum just shown could be rendered as

    (def-enum numbers ONE TWO (FORTY-TWO 42) FORTY-THREE)

In the best Common Lisp N.I.H. tradition, yet anothern DEFENUM macro is necessary.


The DEFENUM Library


The present library, unimaginatively named DEFENUM, provides a new DEFENUM macro that merges most of the functionalities provided elsewhere. The objective is, as always, to make the simple things simple and the complex ones possible (and possibly, simple as well).
The simplest enumerated types are represented as expected:

     (defenum season (spring summer fall winter))

This defines an enumerated type (the macro expands - also - into a deftype) with the four tags indicating the seasons. The type checks work as expected, and the C/C++ behavior is also reproduced, as the following shows:

    cl-prompt> (typep 'fall 'season)
    T

    cl-prompt> (+ fall winter)
    5

The library provides also a number of facilities to handle enumerated types.

    cl-prompt> (season-p 'spring)
    T

    cl-prompt> (season-p winter) ; No quote.
    T

The function season accesses the individual tags.

    cl-prompt> (season winter) 
    WINTER 

Tags can be handled as lists.

    cl-prompt> (tags 'season)
    (SPRING SUMMER FALL WINTER)

Other functions are available as well.

    cl-prompt> (loop for season in (tags 'season)
                     for s-id from spring
                     do (format t "~S is followed by ~S~%"
                                season
                                (tag-of 'season (mod (1+ s-id) 4))))
    SPRING is followed by SUMMER
    SUMMER is followed by FALL
    FALL is followed by WINTER
    WINTER is followed by SPRING
    NIL

    cl-prompt> (previous-enum-tag 'season 'fall)
    SUMMER

Enumerated types live in their own namespace.

    cl-prompt> (find-enum 'season)
    #<ENUM SEASON (SPRING SUMMER FALL WINTER)>


Simple and Structured Enumerated Types


The season enumerated type is simple: nothing particularly complicated. On the other hand, Java enumerated types show that is possible to extend the notion of enumerated type in an interesting way, by introducing the notion of structured enumerated type.
Two interesting examples in Java [JE5] are the Planet and the Operation enumerated types.

    public enum Planet {
      MERCURY (3.303e+23, 2.4397e6),
      VENUS   (4.869e+24, 6.0518e6),
      EARTH   (5.976e+24, 6.37814e6),
      MARS    (6.421e+23, 3.3972e6),
      JUPITER (1.9e+27,   7.1492e7),
      SATURN  (5.688e+26, 6.0268e7),
      URANUS  (8.686e+25, 2.5559e7),
      NEPTUNE (1.024e+26, 2.4746e7),
      PLUTO   (1.27e+22,  1.137e6);

      private final double mass;   // in kilograms
      private final double radius; // in meters
      Planet(double mass, double radius) {
        this.mass = mass;
        this.radius = radius;
      }
      public double mass()   { return mass; }
      public double radius() { return radius; }

      // universal gravitational constant  (m3 kg-1 s-2)
      public static final double G = 6.67300E-11;

      public double surfaceGravity() {
        return G * mass / (radius * radius);
      }
      public double surfaceWeight(double otherMass) {
        return otherMass * surfaceGravity();
      }
    }

A program that exercises the Planet enumerated type is the following (the units are unimportant):

    $ cat Planet.java
        
    public enum Planet {

        ...

        public static void main(String[] args) {
          double earthWeight = Double.parseDouble(args[0]);
          double mass = earthWeight/EARTH.surfaceGravity();
          for (Planet p : Planet.values())
             System.out.printf("Your weight on %s is %f%n",
                               p, p.surfaceWeight(mass));
        }
    }

    $ java Planet 175
    Your weight on MERCURY is 66.107583
    Your weight on VENUS is 158.374842
    Your weight on EARTH is 175.000000
    Your weight on MARS is 66.279007
    Your weight on JUPITER is 442.847567
    Your weight on SATURN is 186.552719
    Your weight on URANUS is 158.397260
    Your weight on NEPTUNE is 199.207413
    Your weight on PLUTO is 11.703031

DEFENUM provides structured enumerated types as well. The Java Planet enumerated type and the test program above are rendered in Common Lisp as follows:

    (defconstant g 6.67300D-11)

    (defenum (planet (:initargs (mass radius)))
         ((MERCURY (3.303D+23 2.4397D6))
          (VENUS   (4.869D+24 6.0518D6))
          (EARTH   (5.976D+24 6.37814D6))
          (MARS    (6.421D+23 3.3972D6))
          (JUPITER (1.9D+27   7.1492D7))
          (SATURN  (5.688D+26 6.0268D7))
          (URANUS  (8.686D+25 2.5559D7))
          (NEPTUNE (1.024D+26 2.4746D7))
          (PLUTO   (1.27D+22  1.137D6))
          )
         
         ((mass 0.0d0 :type double-float)
          (radius 0.0d0 :type double-float)
          )

         (:documentation "The Planet Enum.")

         (:method surface-gravity ((p planet))
          (* g (/ mass (* radius radius))))

         (:method surface-weight ((p planet) other-mass)
          (* other-mass (surface-gravity p)))
         )

Note the definition of methods that will be specialized on the tags of the enumeration. With the definition above, the test Java program can be rendered, as an example, as follows:

    cl-prompt> (let* ((earth-weight 175)
                      (mass (/ earth-weight (surface-gravity 'earth)))
                      )
                   (dolist (p (tags 'planet))
                     (format t "Your weight on ~S is ~F~%"
                             (tag-name  p)
                             (surface-weight p mass)))

    Your weight on MERCURY is 66.10758266016366
    Your weight on VENUS is 158.37484247218296
    Your weight on EARTH is 174.99999999999997
    Your weight on MARS is 66.27900720649754
    Your weight on JUPITER is 442.84756696175464
    Your weight on SATURN is 186.55271929202414
    Your weight on URANUS is 158.39725989314937
    Your weight on NEPTUNE is 199.20741268219015
    Your weight on PLUTO is 11.703030772485283

tag-name is necessary because the print-object method for structured tags is not too extreme; it could be made to print the tag name.
Of course, all the other functions presented before work as expected.

    cl-prompt> (planet-p 'venus)
    T

    cl-prompt> (planet-p 'vulcan)
    NIL

The Java Operation example shows how to define methods that are actually specialized on tags (the rationale is to avoid writing error-prone non-object-oriented switch statements. The Java Operation is the following:

    public enum Operation {
      PLUS    { double eval(double x, double y) { return x + y; } },
      MINUS   { double eval(double x, double y) { return x - y; } },
      TIMES   { double eval(double x, double y) { return x * y; } },
      DIVIDE  { double eval(double x, double y) { return x / y; } };

      // Do arithmetic op represented by this constant
      abstract double eval(double x, double y);

      public static void main(String args[]) {
        double x = Double.parseDouble(args[0]);
        double y = Double.parseDouble(args[1]);
        for (Operation op : Operation.values())
          System.out.printf("%f %s %f = %f%n", x, op, y, op.eval(x, y));
      }
    }

This form of Java enum type definition allows for the direct association of methods to tags. In Common Lisp this is nothing more than EQL specialized methods, and DEFENUM directly provides for this idiom. Actually there are two equivalent forms for it.

    (defenum operation
         (PLUS MINUS TIMES DIVIDE)
         ()
         (:method evaluate ('plus x y) (+ x y)) ; Note the 'quote' shorthand.
         (:method evaluate ('minus x y) (- x y))
         (:method evaluate ('times x y) (* x y))
         (:method evaluate ('divide x y) (/ x y))
         )

... or, more similar to the original Java idiom ...

    (defenum operation
         ((PLUS () (:method evaluate (x y) (+ x y))) ; Note the 'no tag argument' shorthand.
          (MINUS () (:method evaluate (x y) (- x y)))
          (TIMES () (:method evaluate (x y) (* x y)))
          (DIVIDE () (:method evaluate (x y) (/ x y)))
          ))

The test program works as expected.

    cl-prompt> (let ((x 4) (y 2))
                  (dolist (op (tags 'operation))
                     (format t "~S ~S ~S = ~S~%" x (tag-name op) y (evaluate op x y))))
    4 PLUS 2 = 6
    4 MINUS 2 = 2
    4 TIMES 2 = 8
    4 DIVIDE 2 = 2
    NIL

Therefore DEFENUM allows for all Java enumerated types idioms.


Having Your Cake...


Java enumerated types cannot be used in the way C/C++ enum types are (or, at least, not directly). This is because Java has only structured enumerated types.
DEFENUM lets you eat your cake.
Consider the following (contrived) C++ program.

// rgb.cc --

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

enum rgb {
  RED   = 0xff0000,
  GREEN = 0x00ff00,
  BLUE  = 0x0000ff
};

int
mix_colors(enum rgb c1, int c2, int c3) { return c1 | c2 | c3; }

int
main() {
  enum rgb basic_color = GREEN;

  cout << "The basic color chosen is: " << basic_color << endl;
  cout << "WHITE is: " << (RED | GREEN | BLUE) << endl;
  cout << "WHITE is also: " << mix_colors(RED, GREEN, BLUE) << endl;
}

// end of file -- rgb.cc --

DEFENUM allows to mix and match simple and structured enumerated types, as the following (again, contrived) example shows.

    cl-prompt> (defenum (colors (:initargs (r g b)))
                  ((red   #xff0000 (255 0 0) (:method mix (c2 c3) (logior red c1 c2)))
                   (green #x00ff00 (0 255 0) (:method mix (c2 c3) (logior green c1 c2)))
                   (blue  #x0000ff (0 0 255) (:method mix (c2 c3) (logior blue c1 c2)))
                   )
                  ((r 0 :type (integer 0 255))
                   (g 0 :type (integer 0 255))
                   (b 0 :type (integer 0 255))
                   )
                  (:documentation "The Colors Enum."))
    #<ENUM COLORS (RED GREEN BLUE)>

    cl-prompt> (format t "The color WHITE is ~D~%" (mix red green blue)) ; Yes, this works as is!
    The color WHITE is 16777215

    cl-prompt> (mapcar #'colors-r (tags 'colors))
    (255 0 0)

The C/C++ style numeric tag can be mixed with structured enumerated types.
Now you can eat your cake.
Not that you have to, but it is nice to know you can.

Final Remarks


The DEFENUM library is inspired by Java 5.0 'enum' classes and it allows you to build both simple and structured enumerated types in Common Lisp. It offers all the facilities of the Java version, while also retaining the C/C++ 'enum tags are integers' feature.
The use of the DEFENUM enumeration types has some limitations, due, of course, to Common Lisp slack typing and a few implementation choices.

References


The usual ones, plus searches of 'common lisp defenum def-enum'.
[JE5] Java Online Documentation, Enums, link.

Project site


DEFENUM is hosted at http://defenum.sourceforge.net.

Enjoy!



(cheers)