Controlling evaluation¶

Evaluation is controlled by

• extenders for iteration
• conditional evaluation
• explicit return from a lambda
• signalling and trapping errors
• control words

Extenders¶

These are the primary means of iterating in q.

Distributors¶

The distributors Each, Each Left, Each Right, Each Parallel, and Each Prior are extenders that apply maps across the items of lists and dictionaries.

Progressors¶

The progressors Scan and Over are extenders that apply maps progressively: that is, first to argument/s, then progressively to the result of each evaluation.

For unary maps, they have three forms, known as Converge, Do, and While.

Case¶

There is no case or switch control word in q. Use the Case operator instead. Or a dictionary.

Conditional evaluation¶

Syntax: ?[x;y;z]

Cond returns z when x is zero; else y.

Two arguments are evaluated: x and either y or z.

Vector Conditional does something similar for lists of arguments, but evaluates all three arguments.

Explicit return¶

Syntax: :x

The result of a lambda is the last expression in its definition, unless the last expression is empty or an assignment, in which case the lambda returns the generic null ::.

:x has a lambda terminate and return x.

q)foo:{if[0>type x;:x]; x cross x}
q)foo 2 3
2 2
2 3
3 2
3 3
q)foo 3
3

Signalling and trapping errors¶

Signal will exit the lambda under evaluation and signal an error to the expression that invoked it.

q)goo:{if[0>type x;'type]; x cross x}
q)goo 2 3
2 2
2 3
3 2
3 3
q)goo 3
'type
[0]  goo 3
^

Trap and Trap At set traps to catch errors.

Control words¶

Control words are rarely used in practice.

Control words are not functions, cannot be arguments or list items, and do not return results.

do¶

Syntax: do[count;e1;e2;e3;…;en]

Where

• count is a positive integer
• e1, e2, … en are expressions

the expressions e1 to en are evaluated, in order, count times.

Continued fraction for $\pi$, for 7 steps:

q)r:()
q)t:2*asin 1
q)do[7;r,:q:floor t;t:reciprocal t-q]
q)r
3 7 15 1 292 1 1

do can be used for accurate timing of expressions, e.g. time log of first 100,000 numbers, over 100 trials:

q)\t do[100;log til 100000]
396

if¶

Syntax: if[test;e1;e2;e3;…;en]

• test is an expression that evaluates to an atom
• e1, e2, … en are expressions

unless test evaluates to zero, the expressions e1 to en are evaluated, in order

q)a:100
q)r:""
q)if[a>10;a:20;r:"true"]
q)a
20
q)r
"true"

while¶

Syntax: while[test;e1;e2;e3;…;en]

• test is an expression that evaluates to an atom
• e1, e2, … en are expressions

Unless test evaluates to zero, the expressions e1 to en are evaluated, in order. The cycle – evaluate test, then the expressions – continues until test evaluates to zero.

q)r:1 1
q)x:10
q)while[x-:1;r,:sum -2#r]
q)r
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89