zip function in Racket/Scheme

Question

Given two lists, return a list whose elements are lists of size two, such that for the i-th list, the first element is the i-th element of the first original list, and the second element is the i-th element of the second original list. If one list is smaller than the other, the resulting list is of the smallest size; and so if one of the lists is empty, return an empty list. For example:

> (zip '(1 2) '(3 4))
'((1 3) (2 4))

> (zip '(1 2 3) '())
'()
> (zip '() '(4 5 6))
'()
> (zip '(8 9) '(3 2 1 4))
'((8 3) (9 2))
> (zip '(8 9 1 2) '(3 4))
'((8 3) (9 4))

Answer 1

Try so:

(map cons '(1 2 3) '(a b c))

or so:

(map list '(1 2 3) '(a b c))

---

(define zip (lambda (l1 l2) (map list l1 l2)))

->(zip '(1 2 3) '(x y z))
'((1 x) (2 y) (3 z))

Answer 2

Because you didn't post the code you've written, I'm guessing this is homework. I'll give you some hints to get started, this is the general structure of the solution, fill-in the blanks - it'll be much more fun if you reach the correct answer by your own means!

(define (zip lst1 lst2)
  (cond ((<???> lst1)  ; if the first list is empty
         <???>)        ; then return the empty list 
        ((<???> lst2)  ; if the second list is empty
         <???>)        ; then also return the empty list 
        (else          ; otherwise
         (cons (list   ; cons a list with two elements:
                <???>  ; the first from the first list
                <???>) ; and the first from the second list
               (zip <???> <???>))))) ; advance recursion over both lists

I tested the above implementation with the sample inputs, and the results are as expected:

(zip '(1 2) '(3 4))
=> '((1 3) (2 4))

(zip '(1 2 3) '())
=> '()

(zip '() '(4 5 6))
=> '()

(zip '(8 9) '(3 2 1 4))
=> '((8 3) (9 2))

(zip '(8 9 1 2) '(3 4))
=> '((8 3) (9 4))