Evaluating AST (abstract syntax tree) in Clojure

Question

How to evaluate AST with better performance? Currently we create AST as tree where leaf nodes (terminals) are functions of one argument - map of keywords and their values. Terminals are represented with keywords, and functions (non-terminals) can be user (or clojure) defined functions. Full growth method creates tree from non-terminals and terminals:

(defn full-growth
  "Creates individual by full growth method: root and intermediate nodes are
   randomly selected from non-terminals Ns,
   leaves at depth depth are randomly selected from terminals Ts"
  [Ns Ts arity-fn depth]
  (if (<= depth 0)
    (rand-nth Ts)
    (let [n (rand-nth Ns)]
      (cons n (repeatedly (arity-fn n) #(full-growth Ns Ts arity-fn(dec depth)))))))

Example of generated AST:

=> (def ast (full-growth [+ *] [:x] {+ 2, * 2} 3))
#'gpr.symb-reg/ast
=> ast
(#object[clojure.core$_STAR_ 0x6fc90beb "clojure.core$_STAR_@6fc90beb"]
 (#object[clojure.core$_STAR_ 0x6fc90beb "clojure.core$_STAR_@6fc90beb"]
  (#object[clojure.core$_STAR_ 0x6fc90beb "clojure.core$_STAR_@6fc90beb"]
   :x
   :x)
  (#object[clojure.core$_PLUS_ 0x1b00ba1a "clojure.core$_PLUS_@1b00ba1a"]
   :x
   :x))
 (#object[clojure.core$_PLUS_ 0x1b00ba1a "clojure.core$_PLUS_@1b00ba1a"]
  (#object[clojure.core$_PLUS_ 0x1b00ba1a "clojure.core$_PLUS_@1b00ba1a"]
   :x
   :x)
  (#object[clojure.core$_PLUS_ 0x1b00ba1a "clojure.core$_PLUS_@1b00ba1a"]
   :x
   :x)))

, which is equivalent to

`(~* (~* (~* ~:x ~:x) (~+ ~:x ~:x)) (~+ (~+ ~:x ~:x) (~+ ~:x ~:x)))

(def ast `(~* (~* (~* ~:x ~:x) (~+ ~:x ~:x)) (~+ (~+ ~:x ~:x) (~+ ~:x ~:x))))

We can write fn which directly evaluates this AST as:

(defn ast-fn
  [{x :x}]
  (* (* (* x x) (+ x x)) (+ (+ x x) (+ x x))))

=> (ast-fn {:x 3})
648

We have two methods for creating function based on AST, one with help of apply and map, and the other with help of comp and juxt:

(defn tree-apply
  "((+ :x :x) in) => (apply + [(:x in) (:x in))]"
  ([tree] (fn [in] (tree-apply tree in)))
  ([tree in]
    (if (sequential? tree)
    (apply (first tree) (map #(tree-apply % in) (rest tree)))
    (tree in))))
#'gpr.symb-reg/tree-apply

=> (defn tree-comp
     "(+ :x :x) => (comp (partial apply +) (juxt :x :x))"
     [tree]
     (if (sequential? tree)
       (comp (partial apply (first tree)) (apply juxt (map tree-comp (rest tree))))
       tree))
#'gpr.symb-reg/tree-comp


=> ((tree-apply ast) {:x 3})
648

=> ((tree-comp ast) {:x 3})
648

With timing fn we measure time for executing functions over test cases:

=> (defn timing
     [f interval]
     (let [values (into [] (map (fn[x] {:x x})) interval)]
       (time (into [] (map f) values)))
       true)

=> (timing ast-fn (range -10 10 0.0001))
"Elapsed time: 37.184583 msecs"
true

=> (timing (tree-comp ast) (range -10 10 0.0001))
"Elapsed time: 328.961435 msecs"
true

=> (timing (tree-apply ast) (range -10 10 0.0001))
"Elapsed time: 829.483138 msecs"
true

As you can see there is huge difference in performance between direct function (ast-fn), tree-comp generated function and tree-apply generated function.

Is there some better way?

Edit: madstap's answer looks quite promising. I made some modifications on his solution (terminals could be also some other functions, not just keyword, like constant function which constantly returns value, regardless of input):

(defn c [v] (fn [_] v))
(def c1 (c 1))

(defmacro full-growth-macro
     "Creates individual by full growth method: root and intermediate nodes are
      randomly selected from non-terminals Ns,
      leaves at depth depth are randomly selected from terminals Ts"
     [Ns Ts arity-fn depth]
     (let [tree (full-growth Ns Ts arity-fn depth)
           val-map (gensym)
           ast2f (fn ast2f [ast] (if (sequential? ast)
                   (list* (first ast) (map #(ast2f %1) (rest ast)))
                   (list ast val-map)))
           new-tree (ast2f tree)]
       `{:ast '~tree
         :fn (fn [~val-map] ~new-tree)}))

Now, creating ast-m (with use of constant c1 as terminal) and associated ast-m-fn:

=> (def ast-m (full-growth-macro [+ *] [:x c1] {+ 2 * 2} 3))
#'gpr.symb-reg/ast-m
=> ast-m
{:fn
 #object[gpr.symb_reg$fn__20851 0x31802c12 "gpr.symb_reg$fn__20851@31802c12"],
 :ast
 (+
  (* (+ :x :x) (+ :x c1))
  (* (* c1 c1) (* :x c1)))}
=> (defn ast-m-fn
     [{x :x}]
     (+
     (* (+ x x) (+ x 1))
     (* (* 1 1) (* x 1))))
#'gpr.symb-reg/ast-m-fn

Timing looks very similar:

=> (timing (:fn ast-m) (range -10 10 0.0001))
"Elapsed time: 58.478611 msecs"
true
=> (timing (:fn ast-m) (range -10 10 0.0001))
"Elapsed time: 53.495922 msecs"
true
=> (timing ast-m-fn (range -10 10 0.0001))
"Elapsed time: 74.412357 msecs"
true
=> (timing ast-m-fn (range -10 10 0.0001))
"Elapsed time: 59.556227 msecs"
true

Answer 1

Use a macro to write the equivalent of ast-fn.

(ns foo.core
  (:require
   [clojure.walk :as walk]))

(defmacro ast-macro [tree]
  (let [val-map (gensym)
        new-tree (walk/postwalk (fn [x]
                                  (if (keyword? x)
                                    (list val-map x)
                                    x))
                                (eval tree))]
    `(fn [~val-map] ~new-tree)))

On my machine this comes close to the perf of ast-fn. 45 msecs to 50 msecs. It does more lookups, but that can be fixed with some extra tinkering.

Edit: I thought some more about this. evaling the argument at macroexpansion time will limit how you can use this (the argument can't be a local). Making full-growth a macro could work better. Like amalloy says, it's all about what you want to do at runtime vs macroexpansion time.

(defmacro full-growth-macro
  "Creates individual by full growth method: root and intermediate nodes are
   randomly selected from non-terminals Ns,
   leaves at depth depth are randomly selected from terminals Ts"
  [Ns Ts arity-fn depth]
  (let [tree (full-growth Ns Ts arity-fn depth)
        val-map (gensym)
        new-tree (walk/postwalk (fn [x]
                                  (if (keyword? x)
                                    (list val-map x)
                                    x))
                                tree)]
    `{:ast '~tree
      :fn (fn [~val-map] ~new-tree)}))