[Ecls-list] order problem

[Marco Antoniotti]

On Monday, May 17, 2004, at 16:02 America/New_York, Michael O'Connor 
wrote:

> I've got a problem with a piece of code that re-orders
> data which isn't working as I'd expect in ECL (but
> works as expected when run in CLisp), it can be
> illustrated with the following example:
>
> (setf data (list (list "a" 2) (list "b" 1)))
> (format t "Before: ~A~%" data)
> (sort data (lambda (a b) (< (second a) (second b))))
> (format t "After: ~A~%" data)
>
> In ECL the above produces:
> Before: ((a 2) (b 1))
> After: ((a 2))
>
> I'd expect the final line above to read 'After: ((b 1)
> (a 2))'. Am I doing something wrong?

SORT is destructive.  It changes the underlying representation of the 
list.  You cannot rely on it leaving DATA internal structure unchanged.
The fact that it works in CLISP is ok, but what you noticed in ECL is 
also OK as per the ANSI spec.
Try this instead.

(setf data (list (list "a" 2) (list "b" 1)))
(format t "Before: ~A~%" data)
(setf data (sort data  #'< :key #'second)) ; Note (1) the SETF and (2) 
the use of the :KEY in SORT.
(format t "After: ~A~%" data)

Cheers

--
Marco Antoniotti					http://bioinformatics.nyu.edu
NYU Courant Bioinformatics Group		tel. +1 - 212 - 998 3488
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