Two-dimensional zipper

Question

Inspired by the recent question about 2d grids in Haskell, I\'m wondering if it would be possible to create a two-dimensional zipper to keep track of a position in a list of

Answer 1

Well you can use something simple like the following code. We represent a table by the top rows of the selected element, the bottom rows of the selected element, plus the elements to the left of the selected one, and the elements to the right of the selected one.

The top rows and the left elements are stored in a reverse order to enable efficient movement.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a zipper though, because even though we hold a "location" in the data structure, it is not a "path".

-- Table sel left right top bottom
data Table a = Table a [a] [a] [[a]] [[a]] deriving Show

left :: Table a -> Table a
left tab@(Table _ [] _ _ _) = tab
left (Table sel (l:ls) rs ts bs) = Table l ls (sel:rs) ts bs

right :: Table a -> Table a
right tab@(Table _ _ [] _ _) = tab
right (Table sel ls (r:rs) ts bs) = Table r (sel:ls) rs ts bs

up :: Table a -> Table a
up tab@(Table _ _ _ [] _) = tab
up (Table sel ls rs (t:ts) bs) = Table sel' ls' rs' ts (b:bs)
  where
    (ls',(sel':rs')) = splitAt (length ls) t
    b = ls ++ (sel:rs)

down :: Table a -> Table a
down tab@(Table _ _ _ _ []) = tab
down (Table sel ls rs ts (b:bs)) = Table sel' ls' rs' (t:ts) bs
  where
    (ls',(sel':rs')) = splitAt (length ls) b
    t = ls ++ (sel:rs)

tableToList :: Table a -> [[a]]
tableToList (Table sel ls rs ts bs) = (reverse ts) ++ [ls ++ (sel:rs)] ++ bs

listToTable :: [[a]] -> Table a
listToTable [] = error "cannot make empty table"
listToTable ([]:_) = error "cannot make empty table"
listToTable ((t:tr):ts) = Table t [] tr [] ts

This even works for infinite lists -

selected :: Table a -> a
selected (Table sel _ _ _ _) = sel

a :: Table Int
a = listToTable $ replicate 10 [1..]

selected a                   #=> 1
selected $ down a            #=> 1
selected $ right $ down a    #=> 2