Infinite data structure
An infinite data structure represents or generates an unbounded number of elements, commonly by producing them lazily rather than storing them all.
Clojure: The Essential Reference
An infinite sequence is a sequence with unboundedly many elements, typically generated on demand.
- How it is used
- Supplies unbounded inputs for sequential processing, evolving states, and on-demand work generation.
- How deep it goes
- Defines generator contracts and exceptions, works through stateful examples, and demonstrates memory and performance consequences of laziness.
- Examples
- Demonstrates Fibonacci pairs, a pi approximation, Game of Life states, random values, and lazy worker batches.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch with lazy-seq and cons, or apply it via iterate to generate and consume successive states.
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Learn Haskell by Example
An infinite list is a lazily generated list with no finite endpoint whose finite prefixes can be evaluated on demand.
- How it is used
- Builds reusable signal-processing curves without calculating their lengths in advance.
- How deep it goes
- Explains lazy generation, safe finite-demand operations, recursive definitions, range syntax, and the failure of full evaluation.
- Examples
- Demonstrates recursive ones, natural and odd-number ranges, repeat, finite zipping, and an ADSR audio envelope.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via take, repeat, range syntax, zipWith, and zipWith3 while avoiding operations that demand complete evaluation.
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Related concepts
- iterateproduced by · Iterate is an operation that advances through successive values or states according to specified functions or iteration rules.
- cycleproduced by · cycle is an iterator operation that repeatedly traverses a source sequence, indefinitely or for a specified number of repetitions.
- repeatproduced by · repeat is a function that produces a sequence containing repeated copies of a value, either finitely or indefinitely.
- lazy evaluationused by · Lazy evaluation is an evaluation strategy that defers computing an expression or value until its result is needed, potentially avoiding the computation entirely.
- taggingcontrasts with · Tagging is the assignment of descriptive labels or metadata to information or resources to support their identification, classification, organization, filtering, or retrieval.
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