Efficient way to filter a Map by value in Elixir

Question

In Elixir, what would be an efficient way to filter a Map by its values.

Right now I have the following solution

%{foo: \"bar\", biz: ni         


        

Answer 1

You can also write like this:

m = %{foo: "bar", biz: nil, baz: 4}

Enum.reduce(m, m, fn 
  {key, nil}, acc -> Map.delete(acc, key)
  {_, _}, acc -> acc
end)

The code above is quite efficient if there are few nil values in m.

Answer 2

You can use :maps.filter/2, which filters a map and does not create any intermediate list:

iex(1)> :maps.filter fn _, v -> v != nil end, %{foo: "bar", biz: nil, baz: 4}
%{baz: 4, foo: "bar"}

A simple benchmark confirms this is faster than Enum.filter + Map.new:

map = for i <- 1..100000, into: %{}, do: {i, Enum.random([nil, 1, 2])}

IO.inspect :timer.tc(fn ->
  map
  |> Enum.reject(fn {_, v} -> is_nil(v) end)
  |> Map.new
end)

IO.inspect :timer.tc(fn ->
  :maps.filter fn _, v -> v != nil end, map
end)

{44728,
 %{48585 => 1, 60829 => 2, 12995 => 1, 462 => 2, 704 => 2, 28954 => 2,
   29635 => 2, 78798 => 1, 92572 => 1, 89750 => 2, 39389 => 2, 62855 => 2,
   79313 => 1, 92062 => 2, 61871 => 1, 92856 => 2, 75920 => 1, 59922 => 1,
   37912 => 2, 30420 => 2, 51211 => 2, 7994 => 2, 78269 => 2, 9765 => 2,
   38352 => 2, 6653 => 1, 82555 => 2, 54031 => 2, 45138 => 1, 41351 => 1,
   40746 => 1, 5961 => 1, 66704 => 2, 33823 => 1, 47603 => 1, 86873 => 1,
   81009 => 2, 96255 => 1, 36219 => 1, 1328 => 2, 33314 => 1, 54477 => 2,
   40189 => 2, 27028 => 1, 31676 => 1, 94037 => 1, 32388 => 1, 4351 => 1,
   46309 => 1, ...}}
{28638,
 %{48585 => 1, 60829 => 2, 12995 => 1, 462 => 2, 704 => 2, 28954 => 2,
   29635 => 2, 78798 => 1, 92572 => 1, 89750 => 2, 39389 => 2, 62855 => 2,
   79313 => 1, 92062 => 2, 61871 => 1, 92856 => 2, 75920 => 1, 59922 => 1,
   37912 => 2, 30420 => 2, 51211 => 2, 7994 => 2, 78269 => 2, 9765 => 2,
   38352 => 2, 6653 => 1, 82555 => 2, 54031 => 2, 45138 => 1, 41351 => 1,
   40746 => 1, 5961 => 1, 66704 => 2, 33823 => 1, 47603 => 1, 86873 => 1,
   81009 => 2, 96255 => 1, 36219 => 1, 1328 => 2, 33314 => 1, 54477 => 2,
   40189 => 2, 27028 => 1, 31676 => 1, 94037 => 1, 32388 => 1, 4351 => 1,
   46309 => 1, ...}}

Answer 3

In this case comprehension would be a good idea, because it also does not create an intermediate list and returns you a map:

map = %{baz: 4, biz: nil, foo: "bar"}
for {key, value} <- map, !is_nil(value), into: %{}, do: {key, value}

Answer 4

It could be a little expensive but it is more declarative, which IMO adds more value. Also consider how big is going to be your collection and if it makes sense to optimize this filter.

However, I understand your concern, so here is what I did:

%{foo: "bar", biz: nil, baz: 4}
|> Enum.reduce(%{}, filter_nil_values/2)

Where filter_nil_values/2 is defined as

defp filter_nil_values({_k, nil}, accum), do: accum
defp filter_nil_values({k, v}, accum), do: Map.put(accum, k, v)

I tried to do this in a one-line function, but it looks awful.