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2 points by rocketnia 4852 days ago | link | parent

"I know, which is why I mentioned[...]"

Yeah, I know. ^_^

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"I like it better than Python's "you can only store hashable things in keys" approach."

Well... you can only use hashable things as keys in Racket too. (How else would hash tables work?) Almost everything in Racket is hashable, but it's possible to make things that kinda aren't, like this:

  arc> ($:define-­struct foo (dumm­y) #:pro­perty prop:­equal+hash­ (list­ (lamb­da args #t) (lamb­da args (erro­r "Can'­t prima­ry hash this.­")) (lamb­da args (erro­r "Can'­t secon­dary hash this.­"))))
  #<void>
  arc> (= my-ta­ble (tabl­e))
  #hash()
  arc> (= my-fo­o $.mak­e-foo!dumm­y-val)
  #<foo>
  arc> (= my-ta­ble.my-foo­ 2)
  Error: "Can't primary hash this."
This is using the 'equal? hash. I don't know if there's a way to make something in Racket that's unhashable with regard to 'eq? or 'eqv?.

You can get at these hash values directly using 'equal-hash-code and friends. http://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/hashtables.html



1 point by Pauan 4852 days ago | link

"Well... you can only use hashable things as keys in Racket too."

Hm... odd, I remember in Python, that you weren't able to use things like lists (which are mutable) as keys... but I guess I remember wrong because I just tried it and it works. Not sure what the problem was that I had with Python's hash tables...

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By the way, I feel like hash table keys should only use eq, not equal...

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1 point by rocketnia 4852 days ago | link

"By the way, I feel like hash table keys should only use eq, not equal..."

Racket has eq-based tables too those, and I wouldn't want 'equal? for weak table keys. However, if I want to use a list or something as a key, it's likely because I want to look something up using multiple values, in which case 'equal? is useful. (In those cases, the ability to intern something into an immutable data structure 'equal? to it would probably be just as useful....)

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