View Source Range (Elixir v1.14.4)

Ranges represent a sequence of zero, one or many, ascending or descending integers with a common difference called step.

The most common form of creating and matching on ranges is via the first..last and first..last//step notations, auto-imported from Kernel:

iex> 1 in 1..10
true
iex> 5 in 1..10
true
iex> 10 in 1..10
true

Ranges are always inclusive in Elixir. When a step is defined, integers will only belong to the range if they match the step:

iex> 5 in 1..10//2
true
iex> 4 in 1..10//2
false

When defining a range without a step, the step will be defined based on the first and last position of the range, If last >= first, it will be an increasing range with a step of 1. Otherwise, it is a decreasing range. Note however implicit decreasing ranges are deprecated. Therefore, if you need a decreasing range from 3 to 1, prefer to write 3..1//-1 instead.

../0 can also be used as a shortcut to create the range 0..-1//1, also known as the full-slice range:

iex> ..
0..-1//1

Use cases

Ranges typically have two uses in Elixir: as a collection or to represent a slice of another data structure.

Ranges as collections

Ranges in Elixir are enumerables and therefore can be used with the Enum module:

iex> Enum.to_list(1..3)
[1, 2, 3]
iex> Enum.to_list(3..1//-1)
[3, 2, 1]
iex> Enum.to_list(1..5//2)
[1, 3, 5]

Ranges may also have a single element:

iex> Enum.to_list(1..1)
[1]
iex> Enum.to_list(1..1//2)
[1]

Or even no elements at all:

iex> Enum.to_list(10..0//1)
[]
iex> Enum.to_list(0..10//-1)
[]

The full-slice range, returned by ../0, is an empty collection:

iex> Enum.to_list(..)
[]

Ranges as slices

Ranges are also frequently used to slice collections. You can slice strings or any enumerable:

iex> String.slice("elixir", 1..4)
"lixi"
iex> Enum.slice([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 1..4)
[1, 2, 3, 4]

In those cases, the first and last values of the range are mapped to positions in the collections.

If a negative number is given, it maps to a position from the back:

iex> String.slice("elixir", 1..-2//1)
"lixi"
iex> Enum.slice([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 1..-2//1)
[1, 2, 3, 4]

The range 0..-1//1, returned by ../0, returns the collection as is, which is why it is called the full-slice range:

iex> String.slice("elixir", ..)
"elixir"
iex> Enum.slice([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5], ..)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Definition

An increasing range first..last//step is a range from first to last increasing by step where step must be a positive integer and all values v must be first <= v and v <= last. Therefore, a range 10..0//1 is an empty range because there is no value v that is 10 <= v and v <= 0.

Similarly, a decreasing range first..last//step is a range from first to last decreasing by step where step must be a negative integer and values v must be first >= v and v >= last. Therefore, a range 0..10//-1 is an empty range because there is no value v that is 0 >= v and v >= 10.

Representation

Internally, ranges are represented as structs:

iex> range = 1..9//2
1..9//2
iex> first..last//step = range
iex> first
1
iex> last
9
iex> step
2
iex> range.step
2

You can access the range fields (first, last, and step) directly but you should not modify nor create ranges by hand. Instead use the proper operators or new/2 and new/3.

Ranges implement the Enumerable protocol with memory efficient versions of all Enumerable callbacks:

iex> range = 1..10
1..10
iex> Enum.reduce(range, 0, fn i, acc -> i * i + acc end)
385
iex> Enum.count(range)
10
iex> Enum.member?(range, 11)
false
iex> Enum.member?(range, 8)
true

Such function calls are efficient memory-wise no matter the size of the range. The implementation of the Enumerable protocol uses logic based solely on the endpoints and does not materialize the whole list of integers.

Link to this section Summary

Functions

Checks if two ranges are disjoint.

Creates a new range.

Creates a new range with step.

Shifts a range by the given number of steps.

Returns the size of range.

Link to this section Types

@type limit() :: integer()
@type step() :: pos_integer() | neg_integer()
@type t() :: %Range{first: limit(), last: limit(), step: step()}
@type t(first, last) :: %Range{first: first, last: last, step: step()}

Link to this section Functions

Link to this function

disjoint?(range1, range2)

View Source (since 1.8.0)
@spec disjoint?(t(), t()) :: boolean()

Checks if two ranges are disjoint.

Examples

iex> Range.disjoint?(1..5, 6..9)
true
iex> Range.disjoint?(5..1, 6..9)
true
iex> Range.disjoint?(1..5, 5..9)
false
iex> Range.disjoint?(1..5, 2..7)
false

Steps are also considered when computing the ranges to be disjoint:

iex> Range.disjoint?(1..10//2, 2..10//2)
true

# First element in common is 29
iex> Range.disjoint?(1..100//14, 8..100//21)
false
iex> Range.disjoint?(57..-1//-14, 8..100//21)
false
iex> Range.disjoint?(1..100//14, 50..8//-21)
false
iex> Range.disjoint?(1..28//14, 8..28//21)
true

# First element in common is 14
iex> Range.disjoint?(2..28//3, 9..28//5)
false
iex> Range.disjoint?(26..2//-3, 29..9//-5)
false

# Starting from the back without alignment
iex> Range.disjoint?(27..11//-3, 30..0//-7)
true
@spec new(limit(), limit()) :: t()

Creates a new range.

If first is less than last, the range will be increasing from first to last. If first is equal to last, the range will contain one element, which is the number itself.

If first is greater than last, the range will be decreasing from first to last, albeit this behaviour is deprecated. Therefore, it is advised to explicitly list the step with new/3.

Examples

iex> Range.new(-100, 100)
-100..100
Link to this function

new(first, last, step)

View Source (since 1.12.0)
@spec new(limit(), limit(), step()) :: t()

Creates a new range with step.

Examples

iex> Range.new(-100, 100, 2)
-100..100//2
Link to this function

shift(arg, steps_to_shift)

View Source (since 1.14.0)

Shifts a range by the given number of steps.

Examples

iex> Range.shift(0..10, 1)
1..11
iex> Range.shift(0..10, 2)
2..12

iex> Range.shift(0..10//2, 2)
4..14//2
Link to this function

size(range)

View Source (since 1.12.0)

Returns the size of range.

Examples

iex> Range.size(1..10)
10
iex> Range.size(1..10//2)
5
iex> Range.size(1..10//3)
4
iex> Range.size(1..10//-1)
0

iex> Range.size(10..1)
10
iex> Range.size(10..1//-1)
10
iex> Range.size(10..1//-2)
5
iex> Range.size(10..1//-3)
4
iex> Range.size(10..1//1)
0