Wikifunctions:Type proposals/Integer

From Wikifunctions

Summary

Now that we have natural numbers (0 or positive), we should also support negative numbers. See en:integers.

Uses

For math (and others, you can add your own use cases below).

  • Subtraction of natural numbers without a floor.

Structure

Integers are stored in two parts - magnitude (as a natural number) and whether the number is positive (as a boolean). A zero is always marked as positive for consistency.

Integers are objects with 2 additional keys. The first key is for a Natural number (Z13518)/Natural number with the magnitude, and the second key is for a Boolean (Z40)/Boolean saying if the number is positive. The magnitude is in decimal notation (see validator).

Example values

Value 0 

{
  "type": "integer",
  "magnitude": {
    "type": "natural number",
    "value": "0"
  },
  "positive": {
    "type": "boolean",
    "identity": "true"
  }
}

{
  "Z1K1": "Zxyz",
  "ZxyzK1": {
    "Z1K1": "Z13518",
    "Z13518K1": "0"
  },
  "ZxyzK2": {
    "Z1K1": "Z40",
    "Z40K1": "Z41"
  }
}

Value 7 

{
  "type": "integer",
  "magnitude": {
    "type": "natural number",
    "value": "7"
  },
  "positive": {
    "type": "boolean",
    "identity": "true"
  }
}

{
  "Z1K1": "Zxyz",
  "ZxyzK1": {
    "Z1K1": "Z13518",
    "Z13518K1": "7"
  },
  "ZxyzK2": {
    "Z1K1": "Z40",
    "Z40K1": "Z41"
  }
}

Value -1234 

{
  "type": "integer",
  "magnitude": {
    "type": "natural number",
    "value": "1234"
  },
  "positive": {
    "type": "boolean",
    "identity": "false"
  }
}

{
  "Z1K1": "Zxyz",
  "ZxyzK1": {
    "Z1K1": "Z13518",
    "Z13518K1": "1234"
  },
  "ZxyzK2": {
    "Z1K1": "Z40",
    "Z40K1": "Z42"
  }
}

Persistent objects

A few negative and positive numbers might be worth storing, but this is up to the community.

Validator

The validator ensures that:

  • The "magnitude" is a valid natural number
  • The "positive" is a valid boolean
  • If the "magnitude" is 0, the "positive" must be true

Identity

Two natural numbers are the same if they have the same magnitude and positive values - since 0 is always marked as positive we don't need to special-case it.

Converting to code

Python

The native number type in Python 3 allows for arbitrarily large integers, and so the converter from an integer type to native code would look like: 

magnitude = int( n['ZxyzK1']['Z13518K1']['Z6K1'] )
return magnitude if n['ZxyzK2']['Z40K1'] == 'Z41' else -magnitude

And the converter from native code to the integer type would look like: 

return {
  "Z1K1": "Zxyz",
  "ZxyzK1": {
    "Z1K1": "Z13518",
    "Z13518K1": str(abs(n))
  },
  "ZxyzK2": {
    "Z1K1": "Z40",
    "Z40K1": "Z41" if n >= 0 else "Z42"
  }
}

JavaScript

Since ES11 (EcmaScript 2020), JavaScript has a native BigInt type, which supports both positive and negative values. We use BigInt to represent numbers in native JavaScript code; the converted from an integer type to native code would like: 

const magnitude = BigInt( n.ZxyzK1.Z13518K1.Z6K1 );
return ( n.ZxyzK2.Z40K1 === 'Z41' ? magnitude : -magnitude );

And the converter from native code to the integer type would look like: 

return {
  "Z1K1": "Zxyz",
  "ZxyzK1": {
    "Z1K1": "Z13518",
    "Z13518K1": ( n < 0n ? -n : n ).toString()
  },
  "ZxyzK2": {
    "Z1K1": "Z40",
    "Z40K1": ( n < 0n ? "Z42" : "Z41" )
  }
}

Renderer

It is expected that the renderers for integers will use the digits most common for a given language (e.g. ١٥ for 15 in Arabic), and may add the appropriate separators at the appropriate places (e.g. commas to mark groups of three digits in English: format large natural number strings by adding commas (Z13473)), to make the displayed numbers as readable as possible.

They output either a String (Z6) (string) or [later] a HTML fragment (Z89) (balanced HTML Fragment).

Parsers

It is expected that the parsers for integers will be able to understand the output of the renderers, but in addition to that be lenient about separators, and maybe even be liberal in the input digits.

Alternatives

  • Are there advantages/disadvantages of putting the sign in the single string as a "-" (or even a "+")?
  • Well, they are the same, and canonically unsigned. (So, yeah, maybe “unsigned integer” is another good alias for Natural number.) I think handling and explaining the Boolean is liable to be more trouble than it’s worth. Logically, the Boolean (as proposed) applies to the predicate “not negative”, so I’m already confused (no, not really, but you see my point? Truly, this is not a negative comment.) GrounderUK (talk) 20:01, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Retrieved from "https://www.wikifunctions.org/w/index.php?title=Wikifunctions:Type_proposals/Integer&oldid=102203"