[swift-evolution] [Idea] Bringing the partial/total ordering distinction into Comparable

Xiaodi Wu xiaodi.wu at gmail.com
Sun Apr 24 11:41:23 CDT 2016


On Sun, Apr 24, 2016 at 5:28 AM, Haravikk via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> Is there a reason that NaN can’t just compare in a more useful way, e.g-
> always return true for the less than operator unless the other value is
> also NaN, thus ensuring it always comes first in ascending order? Or is
> there too much of a performance cost to make it a special case?
>

Because NaN is not less than the other value. I'd be very much against
changing how comparison operators work with floating point values to
deviate from standards. What you're describing is the IEEE 754 function
minNum, which is proposed as `minimum` in the Swift floating point protocol
proposal.


> That said I’m a +1 to the idea, especially as only the new operator would
> really need to be implemented in cases happy to use the defaults for
> everything else (as the new operator covers them all, so long as it’s
> implemented with O(1) complexity).
>
> For naming I’d prefer the simpler .Before, .Same and .After, but that’s
> minor detail, as it reads as Order.Before and so-on.
>

At least with respect to floating point, the IEEE 754 standard goes with
the terminology "below" and "above"--which is reflected also in the names
"nextUp" and "nextDown".

Regarding how this affects sorting methods though, some people (myself
> included) like the simplicity of being able to do the following:
>
> myArray.sort(>) // If array is of Comparable elements, just throw in the
> operator
>
> While for less-than you could just pass in the new operator instead, is
> there an easy way to flip the operator to achieve a similar result?
>

What's wrong with reverse()?


> When dealing with Comparable elements you usually only need the ascending
> and descending options after all, so they’re pretty common ways to sort.
>
> On 24 Apr 2016, at 02:28, Brent Royal-Gordon via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
> Currently, Comparable looks like this:
>
> public protocol Comparable : Equatable {
>  /// A [strict total order](
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_order#Strict_total_order)
>  /// over instances of `Self`.
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func < (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
>
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func <= (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
>
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func >= (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
>
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func > (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
> }
>
> Simple and straightforward, but not actually accurate. In a strict total
> order, all elements are ordered, but that's not true of the current
> Comparable. For instance, floating-point NaNs are not ordered.
>
> The FloatingPoint proposal (SE-0067, <
> https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0067-floating-point-protocols.md>)
> suggests that Comparable's requirements should be weakened so that only
> "normal" members of types need to be ordered, while "exceptional" members
> like NaNs are permitted to violate the rules. In practice, though, this
> ends up making algorithms give bizarre and incorrect results:
>
> Welcome to Apple Swift version 2.2 (swiftlang-703.0.18.1 clang-703.0.29).
> Type :help for assistance.
>  1> let numbers = Array(0.0.stride(to: 1.0, by: 0.2)) + [.NaN] +
> Array(1.0.stride(to: 0.0, by: -0.25))
> numbers: [Double] = 10 values {
>  [0] = 0
>  [1] = 0.20000000000000001
>  [2] = 0.40000000000000002
>  [3] = 0.60000000000000009
>  [4] = 0.80000000000000004
>  [5] = NaN
>  [6] = 1
>  [7] = 0.75
>  [8] = 0.5
>  [9] = 0.25
> }
>  2> numbers.sort()
> $R1: [Double] = 10 values {
>  [0] = 0
>  [1] = 0.20000000000000001
>  [2] = 0.40000000000000002
>  [3] = 0.60000000000000009
>  [4] = 0.80000000000000004
>  [5] = NaN
>  [6] = 0.25
>  [7] = 0.5
>  [8] = 0.75
>  [9] = 1
> }
>
> (Note that the behavior is actually much stranger than simply having the
> NaN act as a partition of the list—try sorting `Array(0.0.stride(to: 1.0,
> by: 0.1)) + [.NaN] + Array(0.0.stride(to: 1.0, by: 0.1))` to see what I
> mean. I'm sure there are sensible implementation reasons why `sort()`
> behaves this way, but they aren't really relevant to this discussion.)
>
> To address this, FloatingPoint introduces an ad-hoc mechanism: there is a
> `totalOrder` method in the protocol which actually *does* sort NaNs in a
> useful way. But because this is ad-hoc, it can't be extended to other,
> non-floating-point types. And since it's not part of Comparable, the plain
> `sort()` (well, `sorted()` in Swift 3) method on Sequences of Comparable
> elements doesn't use it. That's not great; the type system shouldn't lead
> us astray like this.
>
> I think we should go in the other direction. Rather than weakening
> Comparable's promises, I think we should instead strengthen and clarify
> them.
>
> In short, I propose we:
>
> * Introduce a new `<=>` operator which implements a strict total ordering
> on the Comparable type. Rather than returning a `Bool`, it returns a new
> `Order` type which is similar to `NSComparisonResult`. This provides a
> semantic hint that non-ordering is not an option for `<=>`.
> * Introduce a new `<>` operator which captures the concept of two values
> being unordered relative to one another. For example, `1.0 <> .nan` would
> be `true`.
> * Define the friendly comparison operators like `<` and `==` as being a
> partial order covering all values which are not `<>`.
> * Include default implementations such that you only need to define `<=>`;
> `<>` is always `false` by default, and the other operators call through to
> `<=>` and `<>` to determine the correct values to return.
> * Redefine functions like `sorted(_:)` and `max(_:)` to take a total
> ordering function returning an `Order`, not a partial ordering function
> returning a `Bool`. In other words, you would pass `<=>` instead of `<`.
>
> Here's what the new `Comparable` might look like:
>
> public enum Order {
>  case firstEarlier
>  case bothEqual
>  case firstLater
> }
>
> /// Instances of conforming types can be compared using relational
> operators.
> ///
> /// Comparable includes both a total order, which sorts all possible
> values,
> /// and a partial order, which compares only "normal" or "common" values.
> /// The partial order may consider some elements "unordered" and return
> `false`
> /// for all operations.
> ///
> /// The `<=>` operator implements the total order; the others implement
> the
> /// partial order. You may define only the total order, and `Comparable`
> will
> /// provide default implementations which use it. You may also define both
> the
> /// `<=>` operator and the `<>` "unordered" operator, and Comparable will
> /// provide default implementations for the rest of the partial order
> which them.
> /// You may also choose to implement the `<`, `>`, `<=`, `>=`, `==`, and
> /// `!=` operators to completely customize the implementation.
> public protocol Comparable : Equatable {
>  /// A [total order](
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_order#Strict_total_order)
>  /// over instances of `Self`. In a total order, no element is permitted
> to be
>  /// unordered relative to any other.
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func <=> (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Order
>
>  /// Returns `true` if, to partial order operators like `<` and `==`,
> `lhs` is
>  /// unordered relative to `rhs`.
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func <> (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
>
>  /// Returns `true` if `lhs` is less than `rhs`. Should be consistent with
> `<=>` except
>  /// when the elements are unordered relative to each other.
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func < (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
>
>  /// Returns `true` if `lhs` is greater than `rhs`. Should be consistent
> with `<=>` except
>  /// when the elements are unordered relative to each other.
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func > (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
>
>  /// Returns `true` if `lhs` is less than or equal to `rhs`. Should be
> consistent with `<=>`
>  /// except when the elements are unordered relative to each other.
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func <= (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
>
>  /// Returns `true` if `lhs` is greater than or equal to `rhs`. Should be
> consistent with `<=>` except
>  /// when the elements are unordered relative to each other.
>  @warn_unused_result
>  func >= (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Bool
> }
>
> Some APIs on Order which might be useful:
>
> public extension Order {
>  /// Returns the equivalent order for the two arguments reversed.
>  func reversed() -> Order {…}
>  /// Returns `x` and `y` reordered according to `self`, with the earlier
> one first.
>  func reorder<T>(_ x: T, _ y: T) -> (T, T) {…}
>  /// Returns `x` and `y` reordered with the earlier one first.
>  static func reorder<T: Comparable>(_ x: T, _ y: T) -> (T, T) {…}
> }
>
> Alternate designs:
>
> * The `<>` operator is arguably not very obvious, or too confusable with
> some languages' use of that operator for "not equals". It could instead be
> a different operator, an instance method, or a class method.
> * It might make sense to instead use `<>` to say "is comparable" and `!<>`
> to say "is incomparable".
> * It may also be better to define Comparable such that certain *values*
> are incomparable with any value, rather than certain *pairs* of values
> being incomparable. If so, we would want an `isIncomparable` property
> instead of a method or function. That works for `FloatingPoint`, but it
> might not suit other types. (For instance, with the `<>` operator in place,
> `String.Index` could be made incomparable with indices from other strings,
> but all `String.Index`es would still have a total order. That design
> wouldn't be possible with an `isIncomparable` property.)
> * The `<=>` operator is common from other languages, but it might still be
> too jargony. One interesting design for this would be to expose the total
> order as a method on `Comparable` which is used as an implementation hook
> for an `Order.init(_:_:)` initializer.
> * The cases of Order are highly bikesheddable. I like these names more
> than `ascending` and `descending` because I have an easier time
> understanding what they mean, but others might disagree.
> * I'm also toying with the idea that the partial order, which includes
> `==`, may have a looser definition of equality than the total order; this
> would mean that, for instance, `String`'s total order could fall back to
> `UnicodeScalar.value` comparison to distinguish between strings which have
> equal graphemes. I'm not sure how useful that would be in practice, though.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> Brent Royal-Gordon
> Architechies
>
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