thekeele's solution to Robot Simulator on the Elixir track

Instructions

Test suite

Solution

Note:

This exercise has changed since this solution was written.

Write a robot simulator.

A robot factory's test facility needs a program to verify robot movements.

The robots have three possible movements:

turn right
turn left
advance

Robots are placed on a hypothetical infinite grid, facing a particular direction (north, east, south, or west) at a set of {x,y} coordinates, e.g., {3,8}, with coordinates increasing to the north and east.

The robot then receives a number of instructions, at which point the testing facility verifies the robot's new position, and in which direction it is pointing.

The letter-string "RAALAL" means:
- Turn right
- Advance twice
- Turn left
- Advance once
- Turn left yet again
Say a robot starts at {7, 3} facing north. Then running this stream of instructions should leave it at {9, 4} facing west.

Running tests

Execute the tests with:

$ elixir robot_simulator_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

If you're stuck on something, it may help to look at some of the available resources out there where answers might be found.

Source

Inspired by an interview question at a famous company.

Submitting Incomplete Solutions

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

robot_simulator_test.exs

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

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

defmodule RobotSimulatorTest do
  use ExUnit.Case

  test "create has sensible defaults" do
    robot = RobotSimulator.create()
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot) == {0, 0}
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot) == :north
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "create works with valid arguments" do
    robot = RobotSimulator.create(:north, {0, 0})
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot) == {0, 0}
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot) == :north

    robot = RobotSimulator.create(:south, {-10, 0})
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot) == {-10, 0}
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot) == :south

    robot = RobotSimulator.create(:east, {0, 10})
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot) == {0, 10}
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot) == :east

    robot = RobotSimulator.create(:west, {100, -100})
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot) == {100, -100}
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot) == :west
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "create errors if invalid direction given" do
    position = {0, 0}
    invalid_direction = {:error, "invalid direction"}

    assert RobotSimulator.create(:invalid, position) == invalid_direction
    assert RobotSimulator.create(0, position) == invalid_direction
    assert RobotSimulator.create("east", position) == invalid_direction
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "create errors if invalid position given" do
    direction = :north
    invalid_position = {:error, "invalid position"}

    assert RobotSimulator.create(direction, {0, 0, 0}) == invalid_position
    assert RobotSimulator.create(direction, {0, :invalid}) == invalid_position
    assert RobotSimulator.create(direction, {"0", 0}) == invalid_position

    assert RobotSimulator.create(direction, "invalid") == invalid_position
    assert RobotSimulator.create(direction, 0) == invalid_position
    assert RobotSimulator.create(direction, [0, 0]) == invalid_position
    assert RobotSimulator.create(direction, nil) == invalid_position
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "simulate robots" do
    robot1 = RobotSimulator.create(:north, {0, 0}) |> RobotSimulator.simulate("LAAARALA")
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot1) == :west
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot1) == {-4, 1}

    robot2 = RobotSimulator.create(:east, {2, -7}) |> RobotSimulator.simulate("RRAAAAALA")
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot2) == :south
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot2) == {-3, -8}

    robot3 = RobotSimulator.create(:south, {8, 4}) |> RobotSimulator.simulate("LAAARRRALLLL")
    assert RobotSimulator.direction(robot3) == :north
    assert RobotSimulator.position(robot3) == {11, 5}
  end

  @tag :pending
  test "simulate errors on invalid instructions" do
    assert RobotSimulator.create() |> RobotSimulator.simulate("UUDDLRLRBASTART") ==
             {:error, "invalid instruction"}
  end
end

defmodule RobotSimulator do

  @valid_directions [:north, :east, :south, :west]

  @enforce_keys [:direction, :position]
  defstruct [:direction, :position]
  @type t :: %__MODULE__{direction: atom, position: {integer, integer}}

  @spec create(direction :: atom, position :: {integer, integer}) :: __MODULE__.t
  def create(direction \\ :north, position \\ {0, 0})

  def create(direction, position = {x, y})
      when is_integer(x) and is_integer(y) do
    if direction in @valid_directions do
      %__MODULE__{direction: direction, position: position}
    else
      {:error, "invalid direction"}
    end
  end

  def create(_, _), do: {:error, "invalid position"}

  @spec simulate(robot :: __MODULE__.t, instructions :: String.t()) :: __MODULE__.t
  def simulate(robot, instructions) do
    steps = String.codepoints(instructions)

    if Enum.all?(steps, & &1 in ["R", "L", "A"]) do
      do_simulate(robot, steps)
    else
      {:error, "invalid instruction"}
    end
  end

  defp do_simulate(robot, []),
    do: robot

  defp do_simulate(robot, [step | steps]) when step in ["R", "L"],
    do: robot |> change_direction(step, robot.direction) |> do_simulate(steps)

  defp do_simulate(robot, ["A" | steps]),
    do: robot |> change_position(robot.direction, robot.position) |> do_simulate(steps)

  defp change_direction(robot, "R", :north), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :east}
  defp change_direction(robot, "R", :east), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :south}
  defp change_direction(robot, "R", :south), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :west}
  defp change_direction(robot, "R", :west), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :north}
  defp change_direction(robot, "L", :north), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :west}
  defp change_direction(robot, "L", :east), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :north}
  defp change_direction(robot, "L", :south), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :east}
  defp change_direction(robot, "L", :west), do: %__MODULE__{robot | direction: :south}

  defp change_position(robot, :north, {x, y}), do: %__MODULE__{robot | position: {x, y + 1}}
  defp change_position(robot, :east, {x, y}), do: %__MODULE__{robot | position: {x + 1, y}}
  defp change_position(robot, :south, {x, y}), do: %__MODULE__{robot | position: {x, y - 1}}
  defp change_position(robot, :west, {x, y}), do: %__MODULE__{robot | position: {x - 1, y}}

  @spec direction(robot :: __MODULE__.t) :: atom
  def direction(robot), do: robot.direction

  @spec position(robot :: __MODULE__.t) :: {integer, integer}
  def position(robot), do: robot.position
end

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to Robot Simulator in the Elixir Track