lists - list manipulation

Enable with use lists;. Namespaced under lists.; every function is called as lists.NAME(...). Each function returns a new list - nothing mutates the input. Commit the result with the usual assignment:

use io;
use lists;

def xs as list of int init [3, 1, 4, 1, 5];
$xs = lists.push($xs, 9);          # append item
$xs = lists.pop($xs);              # drop last
$xs = lists.sort($xs);             # sort ascending
io.printf("first=%d last=%d\n", lists.first($xs), lists.last($xs));

For the common “append to a list as you build it” pattern, the language ships the $xs[] = item; sugar (see user-guide/types-and-values.md). It’s shorthand for $xs = lists.push($xs, item); and, in a loop, much faster: $xs[] mutates in place through the copy-on-write protocol (amortized O(N) for N appends), whereas $xs = lists.push($xs, item) returns a new list each pass and copies the whole thing - O(N^2) overall. Prefer $xs[] when building a list element by element; use lists.push when you specifically want a fresh list and keep the original.

Functions

Sort

lists.sort works on lists whose elements share a comparable kind:

• All elements int or float (mixed allowed - the comparison promotes int to float, same rule as +).
• All elements string - lexicographic order on the underlying rune sequence.
• All elements bool - false < true.

A list mixing strings with numbers, or containing null, list, or map elements, errors at runtime rather than silently producing nonsense. Comparator-based sort (lists.sortBy) is deferred until methods are first-class values.

first/last versus head/tail

first and last return elements (the value at index 0 or len-1). head and tail return sublists of length n, modelled on the Unix head / tail commands. They are not aliases; pick the one that matches what you actually want:

def xs as list of int init [10, 20, 30, 40, 50];
lists.first($xs);          # 10              (an int)
lists.last($xs);           # 50              (an int)
lists.head($xs, 2);        # [10, 20]        (a list of int)
lists.tail($xs, 2);        # [40, 50]        (a list of int)

For “everything except the first/last element”, use slice:

lists.slice($xs, 1);                # [20, 30, 40, 50]
lists.slice($xs, 0, len($xs) - 1);  # [10, 20, 30, 40]

Argument order

lists.contains puts the haystack first and the needle second (lists.contains($xs, item)). Mirrors strings.contains($s, $sub). PHP’s in_array($needle, $haystack) order is deliberately not adopted - it’s famously confusing.

Shuffle

lists.shuffle(xs) returns a uniformly-random permutation of xs - non-mutating, like every other helper in this library. The algorithm is Durstenfeld’s variant of the Fisher-Yates shuffle (O(n), uniform across the n! permutations). The random source is the same one math.rand / math.randInt / math.randSeed use, so calling math.randSeed(N) before a shuffle makes the result deterministic across runs:

use lists;
use math;

math.randSeed(1);
def a as list of int init lists.shuffle([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);
math.randSeed(1);
def b as list of int init lists.shuffle([1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);
# $a and $b are byte-identical permutations.

Empty and single-element inputs are returned (still copied per the non-mutating convention). The function does NOT require use math; in the calling program - the shared source is a Go-side implementation detail.

Range

lists.range(start, end) returns a half-open list of consecutive integers: [start, start+1, ..., end-1] for ascending, descending implied when start > end. End is exclusive. Same semantic as lists.slice and strings.substring, and the same shape every half-open range function in the wider ecosystem has (Python range, Go slice indexing, Rust .., etc.). The full design rationale (including why we deviated from Jennifer’s English-reading default) is in design-decisions.md > Half-open ranges.

use lists;

lists.range(0, 5);          # [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]    - 5 elements
lists.range(1, 5);          # [1, 2, 3, 4]       - 4 elements (5 excluded)
lists.range(5, 5);          # []                 - coincident bounds: empty
lists.range(3, 0);          # [3, 2, 1]          - descending implied

Two properties fall out:

• Index alignment. lists.range(0, len($xs)) gives exactly the valid indices for a list of len($xs) elements, matching how $xs[i] indexing works.
• Composability. lists.concat(lists.range(a, b), lists.range(b, c)) is exactly lists.range(a, c). Partitioning a range never duplicates or skips the boundary.

For the “count from 1 to N inclusive” idiom, write lists.range(1, N + 1).

lists.range(start, end, step) walks by step, always stopping strictly before end. Positive step requires start <= end; negative step requires start >= end; step must be non-zero (positional error).

lists.range(0, 9, 3);       # [0, 3, 6]          - 9 excluded
lists.range(1, 9, 3);       # [1, 4, 7]          - 10 past 9, stop at 7
lists.range(10, 1, -3);     # [10, 7, 4]         - 1 excluded
lists.range(10, 0, -3);     # [10, 7, 4, 1]      - -2 past 0, stop at 1

There’s no “did the step land?” question - the rule is uniformly “emit while inside the open end.”

Value semantics

Every function copies its inputs; the original list is never modified. Callers always re-bind the result:

def xs as list of int init [1, 2, 3];
def ys as list of int init lists.push($xs, 4);
# $xs is still [1, 2, 3]; $ys is [1, 2, 3, 4]

This matches the rest of Jennifer’s value-semantics design - the same rule that makes $dst = $src; a copy, not an alias.

See also: maps.md, index.md. len(xs) is a language built-in (no import needed).