How do I generate memoized recursive functions in Clojure?

Question

I\'m trying to write a function that returns a memoized recursive function in Clojure, but I\'m having trouble making the recursive function see its own memoized bindings. I

Answer 1

Here's a cross between the Y-combinator and Clojure's memoize:

(defn Y-mem [f]
  (let [mem (atom {})]
    (#(% %)
     (fn [x]
       (f #(if-let [e (find @mem %&)]
            (val e)
            (let [ret (apply (x x) %&)]
              (swap! mem assoc %& ret)
              ret))))))))

You can macrosugar this up:

(defmacro defrecfn [name args & body]
  `(def ~name
       (Y-mem (fn [foo#]
                 (fn ~args (let [~name foo#] ~@body))))))

Now for using it:

(defrecfn fib [n]
  (if (<= n 1)
      n
      (+' (fib (- n 1))
          (fib (- n 2)))))

user=> (time (fib 200))
"Elapsed time: 0.839868 msecs"
280571172992510140037611932413038677189525N

Or the Levenshtein distance:

(defrecfn edit-dist [s1 s2]
  (cond (empty? s1) (count s2)
        (empty? s2) (count s1)
        :else (min (inc (edit-dist s1 (butlast s2)))
                   (inc (edit-dist (butlast s1) s2))
                   ((if (= (last s1) (last s2)) identity inc)
                      (edit-dist (butlast s1) (butlast s2))))))

Answer 2

Here is the simplest solution:

(def fibo
  (memoize (fn [n]
             (if (< n 2)
               n
               (+ (fibo (dec n))
                  (fibo (dec (dec n))))))))