Question

I have a function, binary_range_search, that is called like so:

my $brs_iterator = binary_range_search(
    target => $range,                   # eg. [1, 200]
    search => $ranges                   # eg. [ {start => 1,   end => 1000},
);                                      #       {start => 500, end => 1500} ]

brs_iterator->() will iterate over all @$ranges on which $range overlaps.

I would like to extend binary_range_search to be able to call it with multiple ranges as its target, eg:

target => $target_ranges # eg. [ [1, 200], [50, 300], ... ]
search => $search_ranges # as above

So, when the search on $range->[0] is exhausted, it should move on to $range->[1], and so on. Here is the function in question, in its original form:

sub binary_range_search {
    my %options = @_;
    my $range    = $options{target}  || return;
    my $ranges   = $options{search}  || return;

    my ( $low, $high ) = ( 0, @{$ranges} - 1 );

    while ( $low <= $high ) {

        my $try = int( ( $low + $high ) / 2 );

        $low  = $try + 1, next if $ranges->[$try]{end}   < $range->[0];
        $high = $try - 1, next if $ranges->[$try]{start} > $range->[1];

        my ( $down, $up ) = ($try) x 2;

        my %seen = ();

        my $brs_iterator = sub {

            if (    $ranges->[ $up + 1 ]{end}       >= $range->[0]
                    and $ranges->[ $up + 1 ]{start} <= $range->[1]
                    and !exists $seen{ $up + 1 } )
            {
                $seen{ $up + 1 } = undef;
                return $ranges->[ ++$up ];
            }
            elsif ( $ranges->[ $down - 1 ]{end}       >= $range->[0]
                    and $ranges->[ $down + 1 ]{start} <= $range->[1]
                    and !exists $seen{ $down - 1 }
                    and $down > 0 )
            {
                $seen{ $down - 1 } = undef;
                return $ranges->[ --$down ];
            }
            elsif ( !exists $seen{$try} ) {
                $seen{$try} = undef;
              return $ranges->[$try];
            }
            else {
                return;
            }

        };
        return $brs_iterator;
    }
    return sub { };
}

It’s a standard binary search strategy, until it finds an overlapping range. It then moves on the right, exhausts it, moves on the left, exhausts it, and finally gives up. Ideally, it should then maybe shift the next target range, and redo the search, I suppose (perhaps via recursion?). My problem is, I am not sure how to make that work with the iterator construction.

Answer 1

I just wrapped your iterator generation in a for loop, and built up an array of iterator functions.

Depending on context, I either return a master iterator or a list of iterator functions. I wasn’t sure what you wanted.

use strict;
use warnings;


my $t = [ [1,200], [400,900] ];
my @r = (
    { start =>   1, end =>  100 },
    { start =>   2, end =>  500 },
    { start => 204, end =>  500 },
    { start => 208, end =>  500 },
    { start => 215, end => 1000 },
    { start => 150, end => 1000 },
    { start => 500, end => 1100 },
);

# Get a master iterator that will process each iterator in turn.
my $brs_iterator = binary_range_search(
    targets => $t,  
    search => \@r,
);

# Get an array of iterators
my @brs_iterator = binary_range_search(
    targets => $t,  
    search => \@r,
);



sub binary_range_search {
    my %options = @_;
    my $targets = $options{targets}  || return;
    my $ranges  = $options{search}  || return;


    my @iterators;

    TARGET:
    for my $target ( @$targets ) {

        my ( $low, $high ) = ( 0, $#{$ranges} );

        RANGE_CHECK:
        while ( $low <= $high ) {

            my $try = int( ( $low + $high ) / 2 );

            # Remove non-overlapping ranges
            $low  = $try + 1, next RANGE_CHECK 
                if $ranges->[$try]{end}   < $target->[0];

            $high = $try - 1, next RANGE_CHECK 
                if $ranges->[$try]{start} > $target->[1];

            my ( $down, $up ) = ($try) x 2;

            my %seen = ();

            my $brs_iterator = sub {

                if (    exists $ranges->[$up + 1]
                        and $ranges->[ $up + 1 ]{end}   >= $target->[0]
                        and $ranges->[ $up + 1 ]{start} <= $target->[1]
                        and !exists $seen{ $up + 1 } )
                {
                    $seen{ $up + 1 } = undef;
                    return $ranges->[ ++$up ];
                }
                elsif ( $ranges->[ $down - 1 ]{end}       >= $target->[0]
                        and $ranges->[ $down + 1 ]{start} <= $target->[1]
                        and !exists $seen{ $down - 1 }
                        and $down > 0 )
                {
                    $seen{ $down - 1 } = undef;
                    return $ranges->[ --$down ];
                }
                elsif ( !exists $seen{$try} ) {
                    $seen{$try} = undef;
                  return $ranges->[$try];
                }
                else {
                    return;
                }

            };
            push @iterators, $brs_iterator;
            next TARGET;
        }

    }

    # In scalar context return master iterator that iterates over the list of range iterators.
    # In list context returns a list of range iterators.
    return wantarray 
         ? @iterators 
         : sub { 
             while( @iterators ) {
                 if( my $range = $iterators[0]() ) {
                     return $range;
                 }
                 shift @iterators;
             }
             return;
        }; 
}