Small Useful Functions

[OttoRobba]

Cool functions

If I may suggest, another useful function is a table.shuffle - great for random item lists and whatnot. I'm using the one below, it works only with properly indexed tables but it should be easily adaptable.

Code: Select all

function table.shuffle(array)
    math.randomseed(os.time())
    local arrayCount = #array
    for i = arrayCount, 2, -1 do
        local j = math.random(1, i)
        array[i], array[j] = array[j], array[i]
    end
    return array
end

For use with LÖVE, love.math.random would probably be better.

[Robin]

Looks like a good implementation of Fisher–Yates shuffle. Don't call math.randomseed, though. It should generally only be called at the start of the program, otherwise it becomes less random.

[Roland_Yonaba]

Looks like a good implementation of Fisher–Yates shuffle.

Definitely.

Don't call math.randomseed, though. It should generally only be called at the start of the program, otherwise it becomes less random.

I agree with that, too.

[HugoBDesigner]

Another table-related small function that I made a long time ago. Pretty useful, I think. Gets the biggest item of a table, being it another table (amount of items), a string (amount of chars) or a number (biggest value). For the biggest table, it only gets array sizes, but not string items (like something["anotherthing"]). For that, I'd highly suggest replacing every "#table" thing on the code by "table.size" and implement this function (may be in the main post).

Code: Select all

function table.biggest(t, dtype) --Copied from Mari0 +Portal, but totally mine :)
	local dtype = dtype or "number"
	local biggest = nil
	for i, v in pairs(t) do
		if not biggest then
			if type(v) == dtype then
				biggest = i
			end
		else
			if type(v) == dtype then
				if dtype == "table" then
					if #v > #t[biggest] then
						biggest = i
					end
				elseif dtype == "number" then
					if v > t[biggest] then
						biggest = i
					end
				elseif dtype == "string" then
					if string.len(v) > string.len(t[biggest]) then
						biggest = i
					end
				end
			end
		end
	end
	return biggest
end

EDIT: I was trying to get fading colors, but the way LÖVE provides it in Snippets' category is a bit (a lot) confusing. So, I made my own, simple fading color function:

Arguments: the timer value, the maximum timer value, the first color's table, the second color's table
Returns the new colors

Code: Select all

function fade(currenttime, maxtime, c1, c2)
	local tp = currenttime/maxtime
	local ret = {} --return color
	
	for i = 1, #c1 do
		ret[i] = c1[i]+(c2[i]-c1[i])*tp
		ret[i] = math.max(ret[i], 0)
		ret[i] = math.min(ret[i], 255)
	end
	
	return unpack(ret)
end

I also made a small function to get the average value of numbers:

Code: Select all

function math.med( ... )
	local args = { ... }
	local ret = 0
	for i = 1, #args do
		ret = ret + args[i]
	end
	return ret/#args
end

[HugoBDesigner]

Another small drawing function. This time, to draw ellipses:

Code: Select all

function love.graphics.ellipse(mode, x, y, w, h, segments)
	local pointstable = {}
	local segments = segments or 32
	for i = 1, segments do
		local px = x + w/2
		local py = y + h/2
		local a = math.pi*2/segments*i
		px = px + math.cos(a)*w/2
		py = py + math.sin(a)*h/2
		table.insert(pointstable, px)
		table.insert(pointstable, py)
	end
	love.graphics.polygon(mode, pointstable)
end

[Ref]

Slightly different ellipse function - permits rotation.

Code: Select all

function ellipse( mode, x, y, rx, ry, an, ox, oy )
	-- x&y are upper left corner
	-- for centering  ox = rx/2 & oy = ry/2
	assert( type(mode) == 'string', 'Ops! Forgot to select mode!' )
	ry = ry or rx
	ox = ox or 0
	oy = oy or 0
	an = an or 0
	love.graphics.push()
	love.graphics.translate( x, y )
	love.graphics.rotate( an )
	local segments = ( rx + ry ) / 10
	local vertices = {}
	for i = 0, 2 * math.pi * ( 1 - 1 / segments ), 2 * math.pi / segments do
		vertices[#vertices+1] = rx * (1 + math.cos(i) ) / 2 - ox
		vertices[#vertices+1] = ry * (1 + math.sin(i) ) / 2 - oy
	end
	love.graphics.polygon( mode, vertices )
	love.graphics.pop()
	end

[Ranguna259]

Does anyone have a formula that outputs the sum of all previous numbers of the the given one ?
For exemple if I provide 1 the function would give me 1
2 would give me 3 because 1+2=3
3 = 6, 1+2+3 = 6
4 = 10, 1+2+3+4 = 10
5 = 16, 1+2+3+4+5 = 15
6 = 21,1+2+3+4+5+6 = 21

And I'd like a formula and not actual a function because I don't want to calculate this with a for loop as googol numbers would take quite a lot of time.

EDIT: Here it is:

Code: Select all

function sum(n)
  return (n*(n+1))/2
end

[HugoBDesigner]

Does anyone have a formula that outputs the sum of all previous numbers of the the given one ?
For exemple if I provide 1 the function would give me 1
2 would give me 3 because 1+2=3
3 = 6, 1+2+3 = 6
4 = 10, 1+2+3+4 = 10
5 = 16, 1+2+3+4+5 = 15
6 = 21,1+2+3+4+5+6 = 21

And I'd like a formula and not actual a function because I don't want to calculate this with a for loop as googol numbers would take quite a lot of time.

EDIT: Here it is:

Code: Select all

function sum(n)
  return (n*(n+1))/2
end

I'd probably suggest this:

Code: Select all

function sum(n)
    local ret = 0
    local n = n
    while n >= 1 do
        ret = ret + n
        n = n - 1
    end
    return ret
end

But yours is a LOT better

[substitute541]

...
I also made a small function to get the average value of numbers:

Code: Select all

function math.med( ... )
	local args = { ... }
	local ret = 0
	for i = 1, #args do
		ret = ret + args[i]
	end
	return ret/#args
end

The average is called mean (or arithmetic mean) not median.

The median picks the midpoints of a (sorted) list of numbers:

Code: Select all

function math.med(...)
   local a = {...}
   table.sort(a, function (x, y) return x < y end)
   if #a % 2 ~= 0 then
      return a[math.ceil(#a/2)]
   else
      return a[#a/2]/2 + a[#a/2+1]/2
   end
end

Here are a couple of statistics functions that I converted from a python file I used to simplify my stats calculations.

Code: Select all

-- calculate the mean (average) of a list
function math.mean(...)
	local args = {...}
	local r = 0
	for i = 1, #args do
		r = r + args[i]
	end
	return r/#args
end

-- calculate the standard deviation of a list
function math.sd(...)
	local a = {...}
	local m = math.mean(...)
	local sd = 0
	local l = #a
	for i=1, l do
		d = a[i]-m
		sd = sd + d*d
	end
	sd = sd/l
	return math.sqrt(sd)
end

-- calculate the standard units of a value
function math.su(val, mean, sd)
	return (val-mean)/sd
end

-- return the list of standard units of a list
function math.sulist(...)
	local a = {...}
	local m = math.mean(...)
	local sd = math.sd(...)
	local su = {}
	for i=1, #a do
		su[#su+1] = math.su(a[i], m, sd)
	end
	return su
end

-- multiply two lists
function math.mulList(l1, l2)
	if #l1 ~= #l2 then return nil end
	local rs = {}
	for i=1, #l1 do
		rs[#rs+1]=l1[i]*l2[i]
	end
	return rs
end

-- calculate the correlation factor of two lists
function math.calcR(l1, l2)
	if #l1 ~= #l2 then return nil end
	local su1 = math.sulist(l1)
	local su2 = math.sulist(l2)
	return math.mean(math.mulList(su1, su2))
end

And for anyone who knows Python, here's the original .py file: Standard Deviation Calculator.py

Edits:
Fixed a couple of bugs in the code (such as passing a table instead of an unpacked one.)
math.med sorts the table before finding the midpoint.

[OttoRobba]

Looks like a good implementation of Fisher–Yates shuffle. Don't call math.randomseed, though. It should generally only be called at the start of the program, otherwise it becomes less random.

Ah yes, I don't know why I added it as part of the function here (specially since in my current code I generate a single random seed in the main.lua).