Question

Is it possible to combine memoization and tail-recursion somehow? I’m learning F# at the moment and understand both concepts but can’t seem to combine them.

Suppose I have the following memoize function (from Real-World Functional Programming):

let memoize f = let cache = new Dictionary<_, _>()
                (fun x -> match cache.TryGetValue(x) with
                          | true, y -> y
                          | _       -> let v = f(x)
                                       cache.Add(x, v)
                                       v)

and the following factorial function:

let rec factorial(x) = if (x = 0) then 1 else x * factorial(x - 1)

Memoizing factorial isn’t too difficult and making it tail-recursive isn’t either:

let rec memoizedFactorial =
  memoize (fun x -> if (x = 0) then 1 else x * memoizedFactorial(x - 1))

let tailRecursiveFactorial(x) =
  let rec factorialUtil(x, res) = if (x = 0)
                                  then res
                                  else let newRes = x * res
                                       factorialUtil(x - 1, newRes)
  factorialUtil(x, 1)

But can you combine memoization and tail-recursion? I made some attempts but can’t seem to get it working. Or is this simply not possible?

Answer 1

As always, continuations yield an elegant tailcall solution:

open System.Collections.Generic 

let cache = Dictionary<_,_>()  // TODO move inside 
let memoizedTRFactorial =
    let rec fac n k =  // must make tailcalls to k
        match cache.TryGetValue(n) with
        | true, r -> k r
        | _ -> 
            if n=0 then
                k 1
            else
                fac (n-1) (fun r1 ->
                    printfn "multiplying by %d" n  //***
                    let r = r1 * n
                    cache.Add(n,r)
                    k r)
    fun n -> fac n id

printfn "---"
let r = memoizedTRFactorial 4
printfn "%d" r
for KeyValue(k,v) in cache do
    printfn "%d: %d" k v

printfn "---"
let r2 = memoizedTRFactorial 5
printfn "%d" r2

printfn "---"

// comment out *** line, then run this
//let r3 = memoizedTRFactorial 100000
//printfn "%d" r3

There are two kinds of tests. First, this demos that calling F(4) caches F(4), F(3), F(2), F(1) as you would like.

Then, comment out the *** printf and uncomment the final test (and compile in Release mode) to show that it does not StackOverflow (it uses tailcalls correctly).

Perhaps I’ll generalize out ‘memoize’ and demonstrate it on ‘fib’ next…

EDIT

Ok, here’s the next step, I think, decoupling memoization from factorial:

open System.Collections.Generic 

let cache = Dictionary<_,_>()  // TODO move inside 
let memoize fGuts n =
    let rec newFunc n k =  // must make tailcalls to k
        match cache.TryGetValue(n) with
        | true, r -> k r
        | _ -> 
            fGuts n (fun r ->
                        cache.Add(n,r)
                        k r) newFunc
    newFunc n id 
let TRFactorialGuts n k memoGuts =
    if n=0 then
        k 1
    else
        memoGuts (n-1) (fun r1 ->
            printfn "multiplying by %d" n  //***
            let r = r1 * n
            k r) 

let memoizedTRFactorial = memoize TRFactorialGuts 

printfn "---"
let r = memoizedTRFactorial 4
printfn "%d" r
for KeyValue(k,v) in cache do
    printfn "%d: %d" k v

printfn "---"
let r2 = memoizedTRFactorial 5
printfn "%d" r2

printfn "---"

// comment out *** line, then run this
//let r3 = memoizedTRFactorial 100000
//printfn "%d" r3

EDIT

Ok, here’s a fully generalized version that seems to work.

open System.Collections.Generic 

let memoize fGuts =
    let cache = Dictionary<_,_>()
    let rec newFunc n k =  // must make tailcalls to k
        match cache.TryGetValue(n) with
        | true, r -> k r
        | _ -> 
            fGuts n (fun r ->
                        cache.Add(n,r)
                        k r) newFunc
    cache, (fun n -> newFunc n id)
let TRFactorialGuts n k memoGuts =
    if n=0 then
        k 1
    else
        memoGuts (n-1) (fun r1 ->
            printfn "multiplying by %d" n  //***
            let r = r1 * n
            k r) 

let facCache,memoizedTRFactorial = memoize TRFactorialGuts 

printfn "---"
let r = memoizedTRFactorial 4
printfn "%d" r
for KeyValue(k,v) in facCache do
    printfn "%d: %d" k v

printfn "---"
let r2 = memoizedTRFactorial 5
printfn "%d" r2

printfn "---"

// comment out *** line, then run this
//let r3 = memoizedTRFactorial 100000
//printfn "%d" r3

let TRFibGuts n k memoGuts =
    if n=0 || n=1 then
        k 1
    else
        memoGuts (n-1) (fun r1 ->
            memoGuts (n-2) (fun r2 ->
                printfn "adding %d+%d" r1 r2 //%%%
                let r = r1+r2
                k r)) 
let fibCache, memoizedTRFib = memoize TRFibGuts 
printfn "---"
let r5 = memoizedTRFib 4
printfn "%d" r5
for KeyValue(k,v) in fibCache do
    printfn "%d: %d" k v

printfn "---"
let r6 = memoizedTRFib 5
printfn "%d" r6

printfn "---"

// comment out %%% line, then run this
//let r7 = memoizedTRFib 100000
//printfn "%d" r7