Finding the minimum element in a list

[Indecipherable]

Not really in a loop, but I guess it can be put inside it

Code: Select all

(defun min-list (mlist)
   (eval `(min ,@mlist)))

[Paul]

Not really in a loop, but I guess it can be put inside it

Code: Select all

(defun min-list (mlist)
   (eval `(min ,@mlist)))

No. Just, no!

[gugamilare]

Not really in a loop, but I guess it can be put inside it

Code: Select all

(defun min-list (mlist)
   (eval `(min ,@mlist)))

As a rule of thumb, don't use eval unless what you are doing really needs an evaluator (e.g. if you are generating functions on-the-fly or if you need an interpreter of some sort).

[Konfusius]

Why not? It's perfectly legal and correct code. Using

Code: Select all

(defun min-list (mlist)
   (apply #'min mlist))

would be more efficient, though.

[gugamilare]

It's slow, ugly and unnecessary. Also, Lispers who view your code will think you couldn't find a better way to deal with the problem because, in general, using eval when not needed is very common among newbies.

It would be more efficient to use reduce instead of apply (it has already been said in this thread) because, in general, it is faster to call functions with only two arguments then with many arguments. Not to mention that there is a limit on the number of arguments a function can take, so reduce would work more generally.

[nuntius]

EVAL is something like the UUOC of the lisp world...