The disordR package: design
philosophy and a use-case in multivariate polynomials
Robin K. S. Hankin
2024-11-13
Abstract
To cite the disordR package in publications please use
Hankin (2022). This document motivates the
concept of “disordered vector” using coefficients of multivariate
polynomials as represented by associative maps such as the
STL map class as used by the mvp package.
Values and keys of a map are stored in an implementation-specific way so
certain extraction and replacement operations should be forbidden. For
example, consider a finite set S of real numbers. The
“first” element of S is implementation specific (because a
set does not specify the order of its elements)…but the maximum value of
S has a well-defined value, as does the sum. The
disordR package makes it impossible to execute forbidden
operations (such as finding the “first” element), while allowing
transparent R idiom for permitted operations such as finding the maximum
or sum. Note that one cannot dispense with order entirely, as we wish to
consider keys and values of STL objects separately, but we
need to retain the ability to match individual keys with their
corresponding values.
An illustrative R session is given in which the disordR
package is used abstractly, without reference to any particular
application, and then shows how the disordR package is used
in the mvp package. disordR is used in the
clifford, freealg, hyper2,
mvp, spray, stokes, and
weyl packages.
Introduction
In C++ (ISO Central Secretary
1998), the STL map class (Josuttis 1999) is an object that associates a
value to each of a set of keys. Accessing values or keys of a
map object is problematic because the value-key pairs are
not stored in a well-defined order. The situation is applicable to any
package which uses the map objects. Consider, for example,
the mvp package which deals with multinomials using
STL maps. An mvp object is a map from terms to
coefficients, and a map has no intrinsic ordering: the maps
x -> 1, y -> 3, xy -> 3, xy^3 -> 4and
xy^3 -> 4, xy -> 3, x -> 1, y -> 3are the same map and correspond to the same multinomial
(symbolically, \(x+3y+3xy+4xy^3=4xy^3+3xy+x+3y\)). Thus the
coefficients of the multinomial might be c(1,3,3,4) or
c(4,3,1,3), or indeed any ordering. Internally, the
elements are stored in some order but the order used is
implementation-specific. Quite often, I am interested in the
coefficients per se, without consideration of their meaning in
the context of a multivariate polynomial. I might ask:
- “How many coefficients are there?”
- “What is the largest coefficient?”
- “Are any coefficients exactly equal to one?”
- “How many coefficients are greater than 2?”
These are reasonable and mathematically meaningful questions because they have an answer that is independent of the order in which the coefficients are stored. Compare a meaningless question: “what is the second coefficient?”. This is meaningless because of the order ambiguity discussed above: the answer is at best implementation-specific, but fundamentally it is a question that one should not be allowed to ask.
To deal with the coefficients in isolation in R, one might be tempted
to use a multiset. However, this approach does not allow one to link the
coefficients with the terms. Suppose I coerce the coefficients to a
multiset object (as per the sets package, for example):
then it is impossible to extract the terms with coefficient greater than
2 (which would be the polynomial \(3y+3xy+4xy^3\)) because the link between
the coefficients and the terms is not included in the multiset object.
Sensible questions involving this aspect of mvp objects
might be:
- Give me all terms with coefficients greater than 2
- Give me all terms with positive coefficients
- Give me all terms with integer coefficients
and these questions cannot be answered if the the coefficients are stored as a multiset (compare inadmissible questions such as “give me the first three terms”). Further note that replacement methods are mathematically meaningful, for example:
- Set any term with a negative coefficient to zero
- Add 100 to any coefficient less than 30
Again these operations are reasonable but precluded by multiset formalism (compare inadmissible replacements: “replace the first two terms with zero”, or “double the last term” would be inadmissible).
What we need is a system that forbids stupid questions and stupid operations, while permitting sensible questions and operations
The disord class of the disordR package is
specificially designed for this situation. This class of object has a
slot for the coefficients in the form of a numeric R vector, but also
another slot which uses hash codes to prevent users from misusing the
ordering of the numeric vector.
For example, a multinomial x+2y+3z might have
coefficients c(1,2,3) or c(3,1,2). Package
idiom to extract the coefficients of a multivariate polynomial
a is coeffs(a); but this cannot return a
standard numeric vector. If stored as a numeric vector, the user might
ask “what is the first element?” and this question should not be asked
[and certainly not answered!], because the elements are stored in an
implementation-specific order. The disordR package uses
disord objects which are designed to return an error if
such inadmissible questions are asked. But disord objects
can answer admissible questions and perform admissible operations.
Suppose we have two multivariate polynomials, a as
defined as above with a=x+2y+3z and b=x+3y+4z.
Even though the sum a+b is well-defined algebraically,
idiom such as coeffs(a) + coeffs(b) is not defined because
there is no guarantee that the coefficients of the two multivariate
polynomials are stored in the same order. We might have
c(1,2,3)+c(1,3,4)=c(2,5,7) or
c(1,2,3)+c(1,4,3)=c(2,6,6), with neither being more
“correct” than the other. In the package, this ambiguity is rendered
void: coeffs(a) + coeffs(b) will return an error. Note
carefully that a+b—and hence coeffs(a+b)—is
perfectly well defined, although the result is subject to the same
ambiguity as coeffs(a).
In the same way, coeffs(a) + 1:3 is not defined and will
return an error. Further, idiom such as
coeffs(a) <- 1:3and
coeffs(a) <- coeffs(b) are not defined and will also
return an error. However, note that
coeffs(a) + coeffs(a)
coeffs(a) + coeffs(a)^2
coeffs(a) <- coeffs(a)^2
coeffs(a) <- coeffs(a)^2 + 7are perfectly well defined, with package idiom behaving as expected.
Idiom such as disord(a) <- disord(a)^2 is OK: one
does not need to know the order of the coefficients on either side, so
long as the order is the same on both sides. The idiomatic English
equivalent would be: “the coefficient of each term of a
becomes its square”; note that this operation is insensitive to the
order of coefficients. The whole shebang is intended to make idiom such
as coeffs(a) <- coeffs(a)%%2 possible, so we can
manipulate polynomials over finite rings, here \(Z/2Z\).
The replacement methods are defined so that an expression like
coeffs(a)[coeffs(a) < 5] <- 0 works as expected; the
English idiom would be “replace any coefficient less than 5 with 0”.
To fix ideas, consider a fixed small mvp object:
library("mvp")##
## Attaching package: 'mvp'## The following object is masked from 'package:base':
##
## trunca <- as.mvp("5 a c^3 + a^2 d^2 f^2 + 4 a^3 b e^3 + 3 b c f + 2 b^2 e^3")
a## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 5 a c^3 + a^2 d^2 f^2 + 4 a^3 b e^3 + 3 b c f + 2 b^2 e^3Extraction presents issues; consider coeffs(a)<3.
This object has Boolean elements but has the same ordering ambiguity as
coeffs(a). One might expect that we could use this to
extract elements of coeffs(a): specifically, those elements
less than 5. We may use replace methods for coefficients if this makes
sense. Idiom such as
coeffs(a)[coeffs(a)<5] <- 4 + coeffs(a)[coeffs(a)<5]
coeffs(a) <- pmax(a,3)is algebraically meaningful and allowed in the package.
Idiomatically: “Add 4 to any element less than 5”; “coefficients become
the parallel maximum of themselves and 3” respectively. Further note
that coeffs(a) <- rev(coeffs(a)) is disallowed (although
coeffs(a) <- rev(rev(coeffs(a))) is meaningful and
admissible).
So the output of coeffs(x) is defined only up to an
unknown rearrangement. The same considerations apply to the output of
vars(), which returns a list of character vectors in an
undefined order, and the output of powers(), which returns
a numeric list whose elements are in an undefined order. However, even
though the order of these three objects is undefined individually, their
ordering is jointly consistent in the sense that the first element of
coeffs(x) corresponds to the first element of
vars(x) and the first element of powers(x).
The identity of this element is not defined—but whatever it is, the
first element of all three accessor methods refers to it.
Note also that a single term (something like 4a3*b*c^6)
has the same issue: the variables are not stored in a well-defined
order. This does not matter because the algebraic value of the term does
not depend on the order in which the variables appear and this term
would be equivalent to 4bc^6*a^3.
An R session with the disordR package
We will use the disordR package to show how the idiom
works.
library("disordR")
set.seed(0)
a <- rdis()
a## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 9 4 7 1 2 7 2 3 1
## (in some order)Object a is a disord object but it behaves
similarly to a regular numeric vector in many ways:
a^2## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 81 16 49 1 4 49 4 9 1
## (in some order)a+1/a## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 9.111111 4.250000 7.142857 2.000000 2.500000 7.142857 2.500000 3.333333
## [9] 2.000000
## (in some order)Above, note how the result has the same hash code as a.
Other operations that make sense are max() and
sort():
max(a)## [1] 9sort(a)## [1] 1 1 2 2 3 4 7 7 9Above, see how the result is a standard numeric vector. However, inadmissible operations give an error:
a[1] # asking for the first element is inadmissible## Error in .local(x, i, j = j, ..., drop): if using a regular index to extract, must extract each element once and once only (or none of them)a[1] <- 1000 # also cannot replace the first element## Error in .local(x, i, j = j, ..., value): if using a regular index to replace, must specify each element once and once onlyStandard R semantics generally work as expected:
x <- a + 1/a
x## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 9.111111 4.250000 7.142857 2.000000 2.500000 7.142857 2.500000 3.333333
## [9] 2.000000
## (in some order)y <- a*2-9
y## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 9 -1 5 -7 -5 5 -5 -3 -7
## (in some order)x+y## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 18.1111111 3.2500000 12.1428571 -5.0000000 -2.5000000 12.1428571 -2.5000000
## [8] 0.3333333 -5.0000000
## (in some order)Above, observe that objects a, x and
y have the same hash code: they are “compatible”, in
disordR idiom. However, if we try to combine object
a with another object with different hash, we get
errors:
b <- rdis()
b## A disord object with hash cb3c0e30910281dedbef9dc8cccf27181102dc21 and elements
## [1] 5 6 7 9 5 5 9 9 5
## (in some order)a## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 9 4 7 1 2 7 2 3 1
## (in some order)a+b##
## disordR discipline error in:## a + b## Error in check_matching_hash(e1, e2, match.call()):
## hash codes 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and cb3c0e30910281dedbef9dc8cccf27181102dc21 do not matchThe error is given because objects a and b
are stored in an implementation-specific order (we say that
a and b are incompatible). In the
package, many extract and replace methods are implemented whenever this
is admissible:
a[a<0.5] <- 0 # round down
a## A disord object with hash 7046a57630e14a55c7d545ff178cbc9a5840343b and elements
## [1] 9 4 7 1 2 7 2 3 1
## (in some order)b[b>0.6] <- b[b>0.6] + 3 # add 3 to every element greater than 0.6
b## A disord object with hash cb3c0e30910281dedbef9dc8cccf27181102dc21 and elements
## [1] 8 9 10 12 8 8 12 12 8
## (in some order)Usual semantics follow, provided one is careful to maintain the hash code:
d <- disord(1:10)
d## A disord object with hash 798fb7cd46322851d14007618045e99583ef7c0f and elements
## [1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
## (in some order)e <- 10 + 3*d - d^2
e## A disord object with hash 798fb7cd46322851d14007618045e99583ef7c0f and elements
## [1] 12 12 10 6 0 -8 -18 -30 -44 -60
## (in some order)e<4## A disord object with hash 798fb7cd46322851d14007618045e99583ef7c0f and elements
## [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE
## (in some order)d[e<4] <- e[e<4]
d## A disord object with hash 798fb7cd46322851d14007618045e99583ef7c0f and elements
## [1] 1 2 3 4 0 -8 -18 -30 -44 -60
## (in some order)Above, the replacement command works because d and
e and e<4 [which is a Boolean
disord object] all have the same hash code.
An R session with the mvp package
The mvp package implements multivariate polynomials
using the STL map class. Following commands only work as
intended here with mvp >= 1.0-12. Below we see how
disordR idiom allows mathematically meaningful operation
while suppressing inadmissible ones:
library("mvp")
set.seed(0)
a <- rmvp()
b <- rmvp()
a## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 3 + 6 a + 3 a b e f^2 + 4 a d^2 e f^2 + 5 a^3 b^2 c + 4 b c^2 d e^2 + 6 b^3 d eb## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 4 + 5 a c + a c d^2 + 4 a^3 e f + 3 b e^2 f + 3 b f + 3 c f^4Observe that standard multivariate polynomial algebra works:
a + 2*b## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 11 + 6 a + 3 a b e f^2 + 10 a c + 2 a c d^2 + 4 a d^2 e f^2 + 5 a^3 b^2 c + 8
## a^3 e f + 4 b c^2 d e^2 + 6 b e^2 f + 6 b f + 6 b^3 d e + 6 c f^4(a+b)*(a-b) == a^2-b^2 # should be TRUE (expression is quite long)## [1] TRUEWe can extract the coefficients of these polynomials using the
coeffs() function:
coeffs(a)## A disord object with hash 28956179ca523d4271d4442cae8a1066438ecd89 and elements
## [1] 3 6 3 4 5 4 6
## (in some order)coeffs(b)## A disord object with hash c54f16fc8e819253a6fb82abff288cbe36b76aec and elements
## [1] 4 5 1 4 3 3 3
## (in some order)observe that the coefficients are returned as a disord
object. We may manipulate the coefficients of a polynomial in many ways.
We may do the following things:
coeffs(a)[coeffs(a) < 4] <- 0 # set any coefficient of a that is <4 to zero
a## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 6 a + 4 a d^2 e f^2 + 5 a^3 b^2 c + 4 b c^2 d e^2 + 6 b^3 d ecoeffs(b) <- coeffs(b)%%2 # consider coefficients of b modulo 2
b## mvp object algebraically equal to
## a c + a c d^2 + b e^2 f + b f + c f^4However, many operations which have reasonable idiom are in fact meaningless and are implicitly prohibited. For example:
x <- rmvp() # set up new mvp objects x and y
y <- rmvp()Then the following should all produce errors:
coeffs(x) + coeffs(y) # order implementation specific##
## disordR discipline error in:## coeffs(x) + coeffs(y)## Error in check_matching_hash(e1, e2, match.call()):
## hash codes b50be1f42b64dd2676fd8ac1a0a1cb2947cfe0c1 and 1a282859aaadfaa35657bce17433b7eff4e5753d do not matchcoeffs(x) <- coeffs(y) # ditto## Error in `coeffs<-.mvp`(`*tmp*`, value = new("disord", .Data = c(7, 5, : consistent(vars(x), value) is not TRUEcoeffs(x) <- 1:2 # replacement value not length 1##
## disordR discipline error in:## .local(x = x, i = i, j = j, value = value)## Error in check_matching_hash(x, value, match.call()):
## cannot combine disord object with hash code b50be1f42b64dd2676fd8ac1a0a1cb2947cfe0c1 with a vectorcoeffs(x)[coeffs(x) < 3] <- coeffs(x)[coeffs(y) < 3]##
## disordR discipline error in:## .local(x = x, i = i, j = j, drop = drop)## Error in check_matching_hash(x, i, match.call()):
## hash codes b50be1f42b64dd2676fd8ac1a0a1cb2947cfe0c1 and 1a282859aaadfaa35657bce17433b7eff4e5753d do not matchvars() and powers() return
disord objects
The disord() function takes a list argument, and this is
useful for working with mvp objects:
(a <- as.mvp("x^2 + 4 - 3*x*y*z"))## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 4 - 3 x y z + x^2vars(a)## A disord object with hash e09bcadc2a1cd06b9c3239445d73ec684acf17e6 and elements
## [[1]]
## character(0)
##
## [[2]]
## [1] "x" "y" "z"
##
## [[3]]
## [1] "x"
##
## (in some order)powers(a)## A disord object with hash e09bcadc2a1cd06b9c3239445d73ec684acf17e6 and elements
## [[1]]
## integer(0)
##
## [[2]]
## [1] 1 1 1
##
## [[3]]
## [1] 2
##
## (in some order)coeffs(a)## A disord object with hash e09bcadc2a1cd06b9c3239445d73ec684acf17e6 and elements
## [1] 4 -3 1
## (in some order)Note that the hash of all three objects is identical, generated from
the polynomial itself (not just the relevant element of the
three-element list that is an mvp object). This allows us
to do some rather interesting things:
double <- function(x){2*x}
(a <- rmvp())## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 4 + 2 a b d f + 5 a b e + 7 a f + 4 a^2 f^2 + d e^2 f^3 + epa <- powers(a)
va <- vars(a)
ca <- coeffs(a)
pa[ca<4] <- sapply(pa,double)[ca<4]
mvp(va,pa,ca)## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 4 + 5 a b e + 7 a f + 2 a^2 b^2 d^2 f^2 + 4 a^2 f^2 + d^2 e^4 f^6 + e^2Above, a was a multivariate polynomial and we doubled
the powers of all variables in terms with coefficients less than 4. Or
even:
a <- as.mvp("3 + 5*a*b - 7*a*b*x^2 + 2*a*b^2*c*d*x*y -6*x*y + 8*a*b*c*d*x")
a## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 3 + 5 a b + 8 a b c d x - 7 a b x^2 + 2 a b^2 c d x y - 6 x ypa <- powers(a)
va <- vars(a)
ca <- coeffs(a)
va[sapply(pa,length) > 4] <- sapply(va,toupper)[sapply(pa,length) > 4]
mvp(va,pa,ca)## mvp object algebraically equal to
## 3 + 8 A B C D X + 2 A B^2 C D X Y + 5 a b - 7 a b x^2 - 6 x yAbove, we took multivariate polynomial a and replaced
the variable names in every term with more than four variables with
their uppercase equivalents.