Homework 6
Due at 11:59:59 pm on Thursday, 10/19/2023.

Instructions

Download hw06.zip. Inside the archive, you will find starter files for the questions in this homework, along with a copy of the OK autograder.

Readings: This homework relies on following references:

• Section 1.7

Recursion

Question 1: Reduce

Write the recursive version of the function reduce which takes

• reducer - a two-argument function that reduces elements to a single value
• seq - a sequence of values
• start - the starting value in the reduction. This is usually the identity of the reducer

If you're feeling stuck, think about the parameters of reduce.

from operator import add, mul

def reduce(reducer, seq, start):
    """Reduce a sequence under a two-argument function starting from a start value.

    >>> def add(x, y):
    ...     return x + y
    >>> def mul(x, y):
    ...     return x*y
    >>> reduce(add, [1,2,3,4], 0)
    10
    >>> reduce(mul, [1,2,3,4], 0)
    0
    >>> reduce(mul, [1,2,3,4], 1)
    24
    """
    "*** YOUR CODE HERE ***"
    

Use OK to test your code:

python3 ok -q reduce

Question 2: Remove Last from Sequence

Complete the recursive function remove_last which creates a new list identical to the input list lst but with the last element in the sequence that is equal to x removed.

Hint: Remember that you can use negative indexing on lists! For example lst[-1] refers to the last element in a list lst, lst[-2] refers to the second to last element...

def remove_last(x, lst):
    """Create a new list that is identical to lst but with the last
    element from the list that is equal to x removed.

    >>> remove_last(1,[])
    []
    >>> remove_last(1,[1])
    []
    >>> remove_last(1,[1,1])
    [1]
    >>> remove_last(1,[2,1])
    [2]
    >>> remove_last(1,[3,1,2])
    [3, 2]
    >>> remove_last(1,[3,1,2,1])
    [3, 1, 2]
    >>> remove_last(5, [3, 5, 2, 5, 11])
    [3, 5, 2, 11]
    """
    "*** YOUR CODE HERE ***"

Illustrated here is a more complete doctest that shows good testing methodology. It is a little cumbersome as documentation, but you'll want to think about it for your projects. Test every condition that might come up. Then you won't be surprised when it does.

Use OK to test your code:

python3 ok -q remove_last

Question 3: Map

Write the recursive version of the function map which takes

• m - a one-argument function that you want to map onto each element in the list.
• s - a sequence of values

def map(f, seq):
    """
    Map a function f onto a sequence.

    >>> def double(x):
    ...     return x * 2
    >>> def square(x):
    ...     return x ** 2
    >>> def toLetter(x):
    ...     alpha = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z']
    ...     return alpha[x%26]
    >>> map(double, [1,2,3,4])
    [2, 4, 6, 8]
    >>> map(square, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10])
    [1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 100]
    >>> map(toLetter, [3, 0, 19, 0])
    ['d', 'a', 't', 'a']

    """
    "*** YOUR CODE HERE ***"

Use OK to test your code:

python3 ok -q map

Question 4: Hailstone

For the hailstone function from previously, you pick a positive integer n as the start. If n is even, divide it by 2. If n is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. Repeat this process until n is 1. Write a recursive version of hailstone that prints out the values of the sequence and returns the number of steps.

def hailstone_iterative(n):
    """Print out the hailstone sequence starting at n, and return the
    number of elements in the sequence.

    >>> a = hailstone_iterative(10)
    10
    5
    16
    8
    4
    2
    1
    >>> a
    7
    """
    "*** YOUR CODE HERE ***"

def hailstone_recursive(n):
    """Print out the hailstone sequence starting at n, and return the
    number of elements in the sequence.

    >>> a = hailstone_recursive(10)
    10
    5
    16
    8
    4
    2
    1
    >>> a
    7
    """
    "*** YOUR CODE HERE ***"

Use OK to test your code:

python3 ok -q hailstone_iterative
python3 ok -q hailstone_recursive

Tree Recursion

Question 5: Count Generations

Consider the following "family tree":

family_tree = [("Jordan", "Alex"), [
    [("Taylor", "Morgan"), [
        [("Riley", None), []],
        [("Avery", None), []]
    ]]
]]

In this family tree, we see a series of nested lists which takes the format [(parents), [children]]. An empty list means that person has no children. This tree represents 3 generations.

The goal is to count the maximum number of "generations" represented in the family tree. In this simple tree, there are 3 generations.

def count_generations(family_tree):
    """
    Count the number of generations in a nested list-based family tree.

    >>> count_generations([("A"), []])
    1
    >>> count_generations([("A"), [[("B"), []], [("C"), []] ] ])
    2
    >>> family_tree = [("Jordan", "Alex"), [
    ...     [("Taylor", "Morgan"), [
    ...         [("Riley", None), []],
    ...         [("Avery", None), []]
    ...     ]]
    ... ]]
    >>> count_generations(family_tree)
    3
    >>> family_tree = [("Jordan", "Alex"), [
    ...     [("Taylor", "Morgan"), [
    ...         [("Riley", "Sam"), [
    ...             [("Avery", None), []]
    ...         ]]
    ...     ]],
    ...     [("Casey", "Jamie"), [
    ...         [("Quinn", "Chris"), [
    ...             [("Dakota", None), []],
    ...             [("Skyler", None), []]
    ...         ]],
    ...         [("Jesse", "Jordan"), []]
    ...         ]]
    ...     ]]
    >>> count_generations(family_tree)
    4
    """
    if not family_tree:
        return 0
    parents = family_tree[0]
    children = family_tree[1]

    "*** YOUR CODE HERE ***"

Use OK to test your code:

python3 ok -q count_generations

Submission

When you are done, submit your file to Gradescope. You only need to upload the following files:

• hw06.py