shmibs's solution to Flatten Array on the Elixir track

Instructions

Test suite

Solution

Note:

This solution was written on an old version of Exercism. The tests below might not correspond to the solution code, and the exercise may have changed since this code was written.

Take a nested list and return a single flattened list with all values except nil/null.

The challenge is to write a function that accepts an arbitrarily-deep nested list-like structure and returns a flattened structure without any nil/null values.

For Example

input: [1,[2,3,null,4],[null],5]

output: [1,2,3,4,5]

Running tests

Execute the tests with:

$ elixir flatten_array_test.exs

Pending tests

In the test suites, all but the first test have been skipped.

Once you get a test passing, you can unskip the next one by commenting out the relevant @tag :pending with a # symbol.

For example:

# @tag :pending
test "shouting" do
  assert Bob.hey("WATCH OUT!") == "Whoa, chill out!"
end

Or, you can enable all the tests by commenting out the ExUnit.configure line in the test suite.

# ExUnit.configure exclude: :pending, trace: true

For more detailed information about the Elixir track, please see the help page.

Source

Interview Question https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Flatten.html

Submitting Incomplete Solutions

It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.

flatten_array_test.exs

if !System.get_env("EXERCISM_TEST_EXAMPLES") do
  Code.load_file("flatten_array.exs", __DIR__)
end

ExUnit.start()
ExUnit.configure(exclude: :pending, trace: true)

defmodule FlattenArrayTest do
  use ExUnit.Case

  test "returns original list if there is nothing to flatten" do
    assert FlattenArray.flatten([1, 2, 3]) == [1, 2, 3]
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "flattens an empty nested list" do
    assert FlattenArray.flatten([[]]) == []
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "flattens a nested list" do
    assert FlattenArray.flatten([1, [2, [3], 4], 5, [6, [7, 8]]]) == [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "removes nil from list" do
    assert FlattenArray.flatten([1, nil, 2]) == [1, 2]
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "removes nil from a nested list" do
    assert FlattenArray.flatten([1, [2, nil, 4], 5]) == [1, 2, 4, 5]
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "returns an empty list if all values in nested list are nil" do
    assert FlattenArray.flatten([nil, [nil], [nil, [nil]]]) == []
  end
end

defmodule Flattener do
  # still got to be a better way X_X
  @doc """
    Accept a list and return the list flattened without nil values.

    ## Examples

      iex> Flattener.flatten([1, [2], 3, nil])
      [1,2,3]

      iex> Flattener.flatten([nil, nil])
      []

  """
  @spec flatten(list) :: list
  def flatten([]), do: []
  def flatten([[]|t]), do: flatten(t)
  def flatten([nil|t]), do: flatten(t)
  def flatten([h|t]) when is_list(h), do: flatten(h) ++ flatten(t)
  def flatten([h|t]), do: [h|flatten(t)]
end

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shmibs's solution

to Flatten Array in the Elixir Track