Discussion 12: Final Review

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Getting Started

If you have only 1 or 2 people in your group, you can join the other group in the room with you.

Ice breaker: Everybody say your name and the non-CS/EECS course that you're most excited about taking next semester.

Lists

The two most common mutation operations for lists are item assignment and the append method. 
>>> s = [1, 3, 4]
>>> t = s  # A second name for the same list
>>> t[0] = 2  # this changes the first element of the list to 2, affecting both s and t
>>> s
[2, 3, 4]
>>> s.append(5)  # this adds 5 to the end of the list, affecting both s and t
>>> t
[2, 3, 4, 5]

There are many other list mutation methods:

  • append(elem): Add elem to the end of the list. Return None.
  • extend(s): Add all elements of iterable s to the end of the list. Return None.
  • insert(i, elem): Insert elem at index i. If i is greater than or equal to the length of the list, then elem is inserted at the end. This does not replace any existing elements, but only adds the new element elem. Return None.
  • remove(elem): Remove the first occurrence of elem in list. Return None. Errors if elem is not in the list.
  • pop(i): Remove and return the element at index i.
  • pop(): Remove and return the last element.

Q1: Word Rope

Definition: A rope in Python is a list containing only one-letter strings except for the last element, which may either be a one-letter string or a rope.

Implement word_rope, a Python function that takes a non-empty string s containing only letters and spaces that does not start or end with a space. It returns a rope containing the letters of s in which each word is in a separate list.

Important: You may not use slicing or the split, find, or index methods of a string. Solve the problem using list operations.

Reminder: s[-1] evaluates to the last element of a sequence s.

Run in 61A Code
In this implementation, result is a rope and word is a list within that rope which is still being constructed. When x is a space, add an empty list to the end of word and assign word to this empty list. Otherwise, add x to the end of word.

Linked Lists

A linked list is a Link object or Link.empty.

You can mutate a Link object s in two ways:

  • Change the first element with s.first = ...
  • Change the rest of the elements with s.rest = ...

You can make a new Link object by calling Link:

  • Link(4) makes a linked list of length 1 containing 4.
  • Link(4, s) makes a linked list that starts with 4 followed by the elements of linked list s. 
class Link:
    """A linked list is either a Link object or Link.empty

    >>> s = Link(3, Link(4, Link(5)))
    >>> s.rest
    Link(4, Link(5))
    >>> s.rest.rest.rest is Link.empty
    True
    >>> s.rest.first * 2
    8
    >>> print(s)
    <3 4 5>
    """
    empty = ()

    def __init__(self, first, rest=empty):
        assert rest is Link.empty or isinstance(rest, Link)
        self.first = first
        self.rest = rest

    def __repr__(self):
        if self.rest:
            rest_repr = ', ' + repr(self.rest)
        else:
            rest_repr = ''
        return 'Link(' + repr(self.first) + rest_repr + ')'

    def __str__(self):
        string = '<'
        while self.rest is not Link.empty:
            string += str(self.first) + ' '
            self = self.rest
        return string + str(self.first) + '>'

Q2: Linear Sublists

Definition: A sublist of linked list s is a linked list of some of the elements of s in order. For example, <3 6 2 5 1 7> has sublists <3 2 1> and <6 2 7> but not <5 6 7>.

Definition: A linear sublist of a linked list of numbers s is a sublist in which the difference between adjacent numbers is always the same. For example <2 4 6 8> is a linear sublist of <1 2 3 4 6 9 1 8 5> because the difference between each pair of adjacent elements is 2.

Implement linear which takes a linked list of numbers s (either a Link instance or Link.empty). It returns the longest linear sublist of s. If two linear sublists are tied for the longest, return either one.

Run in 61A Code
There are three cases:
  • If rest is empty, return a one-element list containing just first.
  • If rest.first is in the linear sublist that starts with first, then build a list that contains first, and rest.first.
  • Otherwise, complete(first, rest.rest).
This while loop is creating a candidate linear sublist for every two possible starting values: s.first and t.first. The rest of the linear sublist must be in t.rest.

Scheme

Q3: Increasing Rope

Definition: A rope in Scheme is a non-empty list containing only numbers except for the last element, which may either be a number or a rope.

Implement up, a Scheme procedure that takes a positive integer n. It returns a rope containing the digits of n that is the shortest rope in which each pair of adjacent numbers in the same list are in increasing order.

Reminder: the quotient procedure performs floor division, like // in Python. The remainder procedure is like % in Python.

Run in 61A Code
Compare first to (car result) to decide whether to cons the value first onto the result or whether to form a new list that contains first and result as elements.
To correctly call helper from within up, build a rope that only contains the last digit of n: (remainder n 10).

SQL

A SELECT statement describes an output table based on input rows. To write one:
  1. Describe the input rows using FROM and WHERE clauses.
  2. Group those rows and determine which groups should appear as output rows using GROUP BY and HAVING clauses.
  3. Format and order the output rows and columns using SELECT and ORDER BY clauses.

SELECT (Step 3) FROM (Step 1) WHERE (Step 1) GROUP BY (Step 2) HAVING (Step 2) ORDER BY (Step 3);

Step 1 may involve joining tables (using commas) to form input rows that consist of two or more rows from existing tables.

The WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, and ORDER BY clauses are optional.

Q4: A Secret Message

A substitution cipher replaces each word with another word in a table in order to encrypt a message. To decode an encrypted message, replace each word x with its corresponding y in a code table.

Write a select statement to decode the original message It's The End using the code table.

Run in 61A Code

Join the original and code tables and make sure that the joined roles have the same word and x.

What happens now? Write another select statement to decode this encrypted message using the same code table.

Run in 61A Code

Join original with code AS a and code AS b to create six-column rows like: 2|The|The|Happens|Happens|Go, The Go at the end is part of the decoded message.

Scheduling time: This is the last discussion, but you could schedule a meeting with your group next week to study for the exam. Your regular discussion room and time should be available during RRR week if you want to use it.

Document the Occasion

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Important: Please help put the furniture in the room back where you found it before you leave. Thanks!