alias Experimental.{GenStage, Flow} defmodule Flow do @moduledoc ~S""" Computational flows with stages. `Flow` allows developers to express computations on collections, similar to the `Enum` and `Stream` modules, although computations will be executed in parallel using multiple `GenStage`s. Flow was also designed to work with both bounded (finite) and unbounded (infinite) data. By default, Flow will work with batches of 500 items. This means Flow will only show improvements when working with larger collections. However, for certain cases, such as IO-bound flows, a smaller batch size can be configured through the `:min_demand` and `:max_demand` options supported by `from_enumerable/2`, `from_stages/2` and `partition/3`. Flow also provides the concepts of "windows" and "triggers", which allow developers to split the data into arbitrary windows according to event time. Triggers allow computations to be materialized at different intervals, allowing developers to peek at results as they are computed. **Note:** this module is currently namespaced under `Experimental.Flow`. You will need to `alias Experimental.Flow` before writing the examples below. ## Example As an example, let's implement the classic word counting algorithm using flow. The word counting program will receive one file and count how many times each word appears in the document. Using the `Enum` module it could be implemented as follows: File.stream!("path/to/some/file") |> Enum.flat_map(&String.split(&1, " ")) |> Enum.reduce(%{}, fn word, acc -> Map.update(acc, word, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Enum.to_list() Unfortunately, the implementation above is not very efficient, as `Enum.flat_map/2` will build a list with all the words in the document before reducing it. If the document is, for example, 2GB, we will load 2GB of data into memory. We can improve the solution above by using the Stream module: File.stream!("path/to/some/file") |> Stream.flat_map(&String.split(&1, " ")) |> Enum.reduce(%{}, fn word, acc -> Map.update(acc, word, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Enum.to_list() Now instead of loading the whole set into memory, we will only keep the current line in memory while we process it. While this allows us to process the whole data set efficiently, it does not leverage concurrency. Flow solves that: alias Experimental.Flow File.stream!("path/to/some/file") |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.flat_map(&String.split(&1, " ")) |> Flow.partition() |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, fn word, acc -> Map.update(acc, word, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Enum.to_list() To convert from Stream to Flow, we have made two changes: 1. We have replaced the calls to `Stream` with `Flow` 2. We call `partition/1` so words are properly partitioned between stages The example above will use all available cores and will keep an ongoing flow of data instead of traversing them line by line. Once all data is computed, it is sent to the process which invoked `Enum.to_list/1`. While we gain concurrency by using Flow, many of the benefits of Flow are in partitioning the data. We will discuss the need for data partitioning next. ## Partitioning To understand the need to partition the data, let's change the example above and remove the partition call: alias Experimental.Flow File.stream!("path/to/some/file") |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.flat_map(&String.split(&1, " ")) |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, fn word, acc -> Map.update(acc, word, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Enum.to_list() This will execute the `flat_map` and `reduce` operations in parallel inside multiple stages. When running on a machine with two cores: [file stream] # Flow.from_enumerable/1 (producer) | | [M1] [M2] # Flow.flat_map/2 + Flow.reduce/3 (consumer) Now imagine that the `M1` and `M2` stages above receive the following lines: M1 - "roses are red" M2 - "violets are blue" `flat_map/2` will break them into: M1 - ["roses", "are", "red"] M2 - ["violets", "are", "blue"] Then `reduce/3` will result in each stage having the following state: M1 - %{"roses" => 1, "are" => 1, "red" => 1} M2 - %{"violets" => 1, "are" => 1, "blue" => 1} Which is converted to the list (in no particular order): [{"roses", 1}, {"are", 1}, {"red", 1}, {"violets", 1}, {"are", 1}, {"blue", 1}] Although both stages have performed word counting, we have words like "are" that appear on both stages. This means we would need to perform yet another pass on the data merging the duplicated words across stages. Partitioning solves this by introducing a new set of stages and making sure the same word is always mapped to the same stage with the help of a hash function. Let's introduce the call to `partition/1` back: alias Experimental.Flow File.stream!("path/to/some/file") |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.flat_map(&String.split(&1, " ")) |> Flow.partition() |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, fn word, acc -> Map.update(acc, word, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Enum.to_list() Now we will have the following topology: [file stream] # Flow.from_enumerable/1 (producer) | | [M1] [M2] # Flow.flat_map/2 (producer-consumer) |\ /| | \/ | |/ \ | [R1] [R2] # Flow.reduce/3 (consumer) If the `M1` and `M2` stages receive the same lines and break them into words as before: M1 - ["roses", "are", "red"] M2 - ["violets", "are", "blue"] Now, any given word will be consistently routed to `R1` or `R2` regardless of its origin. The default hashing function will route them like this: R1 - ["roses", "are", "red", "are"] R2 - ["violets", "blue"] Resulting in the reduced state of: R1 - %{"roses" => 1, "are" => 2, "red" => 1} R2 - %{"violets" => 1, "blue" => 1} Which is converted to the list (in no particular order): [{"roses", 1}, {"are", 2}, {"red", 1}, {"violets", 1}, {"blue", 1}] Each stage has a distinct subset of the data so we know that we don't need to merge the data later on, because a given word is guaranteed to have only been routed to one stage. Partitioning the data is a very useful technique. For example, if we wanted to count the number of unique elements in a dataset, we could perform such a count in each partition and then sum their results, as the partitioning guarantees the data in each partition won't overlap. A unique element would never be counted twice. The topology above alongside partitioning is very common in the MapReduce programming model which we will briefly discuss next. ### MapReduce The MapReduce programming model forces us to break our computations in two stages: map and reduce. The map stage is often quite easy to parallelize because events are processed individually and in isolation. The reduce stages need to group the data either partially or completely. In the example above, the stages executing `flat_map/2` are the mapper stages. Because the `flat_map/2` function works line by line, we can have two, four, eight or more mapper processes that will break line by line into words without any need for coordination. However, the reducing stage is a bit more complicated. Reducer stages typically aggregate some result based on their inputs, such as how many times a word has appeared. This implies reducer computations need to traverse the whole data set and, in order to do so in parallel, we partition the data into distinct datasets. The goal of the `reduce/3` operation is to accumulate a value which then becomes the partition state. Any operation that happens after `reduce/3` works on the whole state and is only executed after all the data for a partition is collected. While this approach works well for bounded (finite) data, it is quite limited for unbounded (infinite) data. After all, if the reduce operation needs to traverse the whole partition to complete, how can we do so if the data never finishes? To answer this question, we need to talk about data completion, triggers and windows. ## Data completion, windows and triggers By default, Flow uses `GenStage`'s notification system to notify stages when a producer has emitted all events. This is done automatically by Flow when using `from_enumerable/2`. Custom producers can also send such notifications by calling `GenStage.async_notification/2` from themselves: # In the case all the data is done GenStage.async_notification(self(), {:producer, :done}) # In the case the producer halted due to an external factor GenStage.async_notification(self(), {:producer, :halt}) However, when working with an unbounded stream of data, there is no such thing as data completion. So when can we consider a reduce function to be "completed"? To handle such cases, Flow provides windows and triggers. Windows allow us to split the data based on the event time while triggers tells us when to write the results we have computed so far. By introducing windows, we no longer think the events are partitioned across stages. Instead each event belongs to a window and the window is partitioned across the stages. By default, all events belong to the same window (called the global window) which is partitioned across stages. However, different windowing strategies can be used by building a `Flow.Window` and passing it to the `Flow.partition/3` function. Once a window is specified, we can create triggers that tell us when to checkpoint the data, allowing us to report our progress while the data streams through the system, regardless if the data is bounded or unbounded. Windows and triggers effectively control how the `reduce/3` function works. `reduce/3` is invoked per window while a trigger configures when `reduce/3` halts so we can checkpoint the data before resuming the computation with an old or new accumulator. See `Flow.Window` for a complete introduction into windows and triggers. ## Supervisable flows In the examples so far we have started a flow dynamically and consumed it using `Enum.to_list/1`. Unfortunately calling a function from `Enum` will cause the whole computed dataset to be sent to a single process. In many situations, this is either too expensive or completely undesirable. For example, in data-processing pipelines, it is common to receive data continuously from external sources. At the end, this data is written to disk or another storage mechanism after being processed, rather than being sent to a single process. Flow allows computations to be started as a group of processes which may run indefinitely. This can be done by starting the flow as part of a supervision tree using `Flow.start_link/2`. `Flow.into_stages/3` can also be used to start the flow as a linked process which will send the events to the given consumers. ## Performance discussions In this section we will discuss points related to performance with flows. ### Know your code There are many optimizations we could perform in the flow above that are not necessarily related to flows themselves. Let's rewrite the flow using some of them: alias Experimental.Flow # The parent process which will own the table parent = self() # Let's compile common patterns for performance empty_space = :binary.compile_pattern(" ") # BINARY File.stream!("path/to/some/file", read_ahead: 100_000) # READ_AHEAD |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Enum.flat_map(&String.split(&1, empty_space)) # BINARY |> Flow.partition() |> Flow.reduce(fn -> :ets.new(:words, []) end, fn word, ets -> # ETS :ets.update_counter(ets, word, {2, 1}, {word, 0}) ets end) |> Flow.map_state(fn ets -> # ETS :ets.give_away(ets, parent, []) [ets] end) |> Enum.to_list() We have performed three optimizations: * BINARY - the first optimization is to compile the pattern we use to split the string on * READ_AHEAD - the second optimization is to use the `:read_ahead` option for file streams allowing us to do fewer IO operations by reading large chunks of data at once * ETS - the third stores the data in a ETS table and uses its counter operations. For counters and a large dataset this provides a great performance benefit as it generates less garbage. At the end, we call `map_state/2` to transfer the ETS table to the parent process and wrap the table in a list so we can access it on `Enum.to_list/1`. This step is not strictly required. For example, one could write the table to disk with `:ets.tab2file/2` at the end of the computation ### Configuration (demand and the number of stages) `from_enumerable/2`, `from_stages/2` and `partition/3` allow a set of options to configure how flows work. In particular, we recommend that developers play with the `:min_demand` and `:max_demand` options, which control the amount of data sent between stages. The difference between `max_demand` and `min_demand` works as the batch size when the producer is full. If the producer has fewer events than requested by consumers, it usually sends the remaining events available. If stages perform IO, it may also be worth increasing the number of stages. The default value is `System.schedulers_online/0`, which is a good default if the stages are CPU bound, but if stages are waiting on external resources or other processes, increasing the number of stages may be helpful. ### Avoid single sources In the examples so far we have used a single file as our data source. In practice such should be avoided as the source could end up being the bottleneck of our whole computation. In the file stream case above, instead of having one single large file, it is preferable to break the file into smaller ones: streams = for file <- File.ls!("dir/with/files") do File.stream!("dir/with/files/#{file}", read_ahead: 100_000) end streams |> Flow.from_enumerables() |> Flow.flat_map(&String.split(&1, " ")) |> Flow.partition() |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, fn word, acc -> Map.update(acc, word, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Enum.to_list() Instead of calling `from_enumerable/1`, we now called `from_enumerables/1` which expects a list of enumerables to be used as source. Notice every stream also uses the `:read_ahead` option which tells Elixir to buffer file data in memory to avoid multiple IO lookups. If the number of enumerables is equal to or greater than the number of cores, Flow will automatically fuse the enumerables with the mapper logic. For example, if three file streams are given as enumerables to a machine with two cores, we will have the following topology: [F1][F2][F3] # file stream [M1][M2][M3] # Flow.flat_map/2 (producer) |\ /\ /| | /\/\ | |// \\| [R1][R2] # Flow.reduce_by_key/2 (consumer) """ defstruct producers: nil, window: nil, options: [], operations: [] @type t :: %Flow{producers: producers, operations: [operation], options: keyword(), window: Flow.Window.t} @typep producers :: nil | {:stages, GenStage.stage} | {:enumerables, Enumerable.t} | {:join, t, t, fun(), fun(), fun()} @typep operation :: {:mapper, atom(), [term()]} | {:partition, keyword()} | {:map_state, fun()} | {:reduce, fun(), fun()} | {:window, Flow.Window.t} ## Building @doc """ Starts a flow with the given enumerable as the producer. Calling this function is equivalent to: Flow.from_enumerable([enumerable], options) ## Examples "some/file" |> File.stream!(read_ahead: 100_000) |> Flow.from_enumerable() """ @spec from_enumerable(Enumerable.t, keyword) :: t def from_enumerable(enumerable, options \\ []) do from_enumerables([enumerable], options) end @doc """ Starts a flow with the given enumerable as producer. See `GenStage.from_enumerable/2` for information and limitations on enumerable-based stages. ## Options These options configure the stages connected to producers before partitioning. * `:window` - a window to run the next stages in, see `Flow.Window` * `:stages` - the number of stages * `:buffer_keep` - how the buffer should behave, see `c:GenStage.init/1` * `:buffer_size` - how many events to buffer, see `c:GenStage.init/1` All remaining options are sent during subscription, allowing developers to customize `:min_demand`, `:max_demand` and others. ## Examples files = [File.stream!("some/file1", read_ahead: 100_000), File.stream!("some/file2", read_ahead: 100_000), File.stream!("some/file3", read_ahead: 100_000)] Flow.from_enumerables(files) """ @spec from_enumerables([Enumerable.t], keyword) :: t def from_enumerables(enumerables, options \\ []) def from_enumerables([_ | _] = enumerables, options) do options = stages(options) {window, options} = Keyword.pop(options, :window, Flow.Window.global) %Flow{producers: {:enumerables, enumerables}, options: options, window: window} end def from_enumerables(enumerables, _options) do raise ArgumentError, "from_enumerables/2 expects a non-empty list as argument, got: #{inspect enumerables}" end @doc """ Starts a flow with the given stage as producer. Calling this function is equivalent to: Flow.from_stages([stage], options) See `from_stages/2` for more information. ## Examples Flow.from_stage(MyStage) """ @spec from_stage(GenStage.stage, keyword) :: t def from_stage(stage, options \\ []) do from_stages([stage], options) end @doc """ Starts a flow with the list of stages as producers. ## Options These options configure the stages connected to producers before partitioning. * `:window` - a window to run the next stages in, see `Flow.Window` * `:stages` - the number of stages * `:buffer_keep` - how the buffer should behave, see `c:GenStage.init/1` * `:buffer_size` - how many events to buffer, see `c:GenStage.init/1` All remaining options are sent during subscription, allowing developers to customize `:min_demand`, `:max_demand` and others. ## Examples stages = [pid1, pid2, pid3] Flow.from_stages(stages) ## Termination Producer stages can signal the flow that it has emitted all events by emitting a notification using `GenStage.async_notification/2` from themselves: # In the case all the data is done GenStage.async_notification(self(), {:producer, :done}) # In the case the producer halted due to an external factor GenStage.async_notification(self(), {:producer, :halt}) Your producer may also keep track of all consumers and automatically shut down when all consumers have exited. """ @spec from_stages([GenStage.stage], keyword) :: t def from_stages(stages, options \\ []) def from_stages([_ | _] = stages, options) do options = stages(options) {window, options} = Keyword.pop(options, :window, Flow.Window.global) %Flow{producers: {:stages, stages}, options: options, window: window} end def from_stages(stages, _options) do raise ArgumentError, "from_stages/2 expects a non-empty list as argument, got: #{inspect stages}" end @joins [:inner, :left_outer, :right_outer, :full_outer] @doc """ Joins two bounded (finite) flows. It expects the `left` and `right` flow, the `left_key` and `right_key` to calculate the key for both flows and the `join` function which is invoked whenever there is a match. A join creates a new partitioned flow that subscribes to the two flows given as arguments. The newly created partitions will accumulate the data received from both flows until there is no more data. Therefore, this function is useful for merging finite flows. If used for merging infinite flows, you will eventually run out of memory due to the accumulated data. See `window_join/8` for applying a window to a join, allowing the join data to be reset per window. The join has 4 modes: * `:inner` - data will only be emitted when there is a match between the keys in left and right side * `:left_outer` - similar to `:inner` plus all items given in the left that did not have a match will be emitted at the end with `nil` for the right value * `:right_outer` - similar to `:inner` plus all items given in the right that did not have a match will be emitted at the end with `nil` for the left value * `:full_outer` - similar to `:inner` plus all items given in the left and right that did not have a match will be emitted at the end with `nil` for the right and left value respectively The joined partitions can be configured via `options` with the same values as shown on `from_enumerable/2` or `from_stages/2`. ## Examples iex> posts = [%{id: 1, title: "hello"}, %{id: 2, title: "world"}] iex> comments = [{1, "excellent"}, {1, "outstanding"}, ...> {2, "great follow up"}, {3, "unknown"}] iex> flow = Flow.bounded_join(:inner, ...> Flow.from_enumerable(posts), ...> Flow.from_enumerable(comments), ...> & &1.id, # left key ...> & elem(&1, 0), # right key ...> fn post, {_post_id, comment} -> Map.put(post, :comment, comment) end) iex> Enum.sort(flow) [%{id: 1, title: "hello", comment: "excellent"}, %{id: 2, title: "world", comment: "great follow up"}, %{id: 1, title: "hello", comment: "outstanding"}] """ @spec bounded_join(:inner | :left_outer | :right_outer | :outer, t, t, fun(), fun(), fun(), keyword()) :: t def bounded_join(mode, %Flow{} = left, %Flow{} = right, left_key, right_key, join, options \\ []) when is_function(left_key, 1) and is_function(right_key, 1) and is_function(join, 2) and mode in @joins do window_join(mode, left, right, Flow.Window.global, left_key, right_key, join, options) end @doc """ Joins two flows with the given window. It is similar to `bounded_join/7` with the addition a window can be given. The window function applies to elements of both left and right side in isolation (and not the joined value). A trigger will cause the join state to be cleared. ## Examples As an example, let's expand the example given in `bounded_join/7` and apply a window to it. The example in `bounded_join/7` returned 3 results but in this example, because we will split the posts and comments in two different windows, we will get only two results as the later comment for `post_id=1` won't have a matching comment for its window: iex> posts = [%{id: 1, title: "hello", timestamp: 0}, %{id: 2, title: "world", timestamp: 1000}] iex> comments = [{1, "excellent", 0}, {1, "outstanding", 1000}, ...> {2, "great follow up", 1000}, {3, "unknown", 1000}] iex> window = Flow.Window.fixed(1, :second, fn ...> {_, _, timestamp} -> timestamp ...> %{timestamp: timestamp} -> timestamp ...> end) iex> flow = Flow.window_join(:inner, ...> Flow.from_enumerable(posts), ...> Flow.from_enumerable(comments), ...> window, ...> & &1.id, # left key ...> & elem(&1, 0), # right key ...> fn post, {_post_id, comment, _ts} -> Map.put(post, :comment, comment) end, ...> stages: 1, max_demand: 1) iex> Enum.sort(flow) [%{id: 1, title: "hello", comment: "excellent", timestamp: 0}, %{id: 2, title: "world", comment: "great follow up", timestamp: 1000}] """ @spec window_join(:inner | :left_outer | :right_outer | :outer, t, t, Flow.Window.t, fun(), fun(), fun(), keyword()) :: t def window_join(mode, %Flow{} = left, %Flow{} = right, %{} = window, left_key, right_key, join, options \\ []) when is_function(left_key, 1) and is_function(right_key, 1) and is_function(join, 2) and mode in @joins do options = stages(options) %Flow{producers: {:join, mode, left, right, left_key, right_key, join}, options: options, window: window} end @doc """ Runs a given flow. This runs the given flow as a stream for its side-effects. No items are sent from the flow to the current process. ## Examples iex> parent = self() iex> [1, 2, 3] |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.each(&send(parent, &1)) |> Flow.run() :ok iex> receive do ...> 1 -> :ok ...> end :ok """ @spec run(t) :: :ok def run(flow) do [] = flow |> emit(:nothing) |> Enum.to_list() :ok end @doc """ Starts and runs the flow as a separate process. See `into_stages/3` in case you want the flow to work as a producer for another series of stages. ## Options * `:dispatcher` - the dispatcher responsible for handling demands. Defaults to `GenStage.DemandDispatch`. May be either an atom or a tuple with the dispatcher and the dispatcher options * `:demand` - configures the demand on the flow producers to `:forward` or `:accumulate`. The default is `:forward`. See `GenStage.demand/2` for more information. """ @spec start_link(t, keyword()) :: GenServer.on_start def start_link(flow, options \\ []) do GenServer.start_link(Flow.Coordinator, {emit(flow, :nothing), :consumer, [], options}, options) end @doc """ Starts and runs the flow as a separate process which will be a producer to the given `consumers`. It expects a list of consumers to subscribe to. Each element represents the consumer or a tuple with the consumer and the subscription options as defined in `GenStage.sync_subscribe/2`. Receives the same options as `start_link/2`. """ @spec into_stages(t, consumers, keyword()) :: GenServer.on_start when consumers: [GenStage.stage | {GenStage.stage, keyword()}] def into_stages(flow, consumers, options \\ []) do GenServer.start_link(Flow.Coordinator, {flow, :producer_consumer, consumers, options}, options) end ## Mappers @doc """ Applies the given function to each input without modifying it. ## Examples iex> parent = self() iex> [1, 2, 3] |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.each(&send(parent, &1)) |> Enum.sort() [1, 2, 3] iex> receive do ...> 1 -> :ok ...> end :ok """ @spec each(t, (term -> term)) :: t def each(flow, each) when is_function(each, 1) do add_operation(flow, {:mapper, :each, [each]}) end @doc """ Applies the given function filtering each input in parallel. ## Examples iex> flow = [1, 2, 3] |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.filter(& rem(&1, 2) == 0) iex> Enum.sort(flow) # Call sort as we have no order guarantee [2] """ @spec filter(t, (term -> term)) :: t def filter(flow, filter) when is_function(filter, 1) do add_operation(flow, {:mapper, :filter, [filter]}) end @doc """ Applies the given function filtering and mapping each input in parallel. ## Examples iex> flow = [1, 2, 3] |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.filter_map(& rem(&1, 2) == 0, & &1 * 2) iex> Enum.sort(flow) # Call sort as we have no order guarantee [4] """ @spec filter_map(t, (term -> term), (term -> term)) :: t def filter_map(flow, filter, mapper) when is_function(filter, 1) and is_function(mapper, 1) do add_operation(flow, {:mapper, :filter_map, [filter, mapper]}) end @doc """ Applies the given function mapping each input in parallel. ## Examples iex> flow = [1, 2, 3] |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.map(& &1 * 2) iex> Enum.sort(flow) # Call sort as we have no order guarantee [2, 4, 6] iex> flow = Flow.from_enumerables([[1, 2, 3], 1..3]) |> Flow.map(& &1 * 2) iex> Enum.sort(flow) [2, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6] """ @spec map(t, (term -> term)) :: t def map(flow, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 1) do add_operation(flow, {:mapper, :map, [mapper]}) end @doc """ Applies the given function mapping each input in parallel and flattening the result, but only one level deep. ## Examples iex> flow = [1, 2, 3] |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.flat_map(fn(x) -> [x, x * 2] end) iex> Enum.sort(flow) # Call sort as we have no order guarantee [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 6] """ @spec flat_map(t, (term -> Enumerable.t)) :: t def flat_map(flow, flat_mapper) when is_function(flat_mapper, 1) do add_operation(flow, {:mapper, :flat_map, [flat_mapper]}) end @doc """ Applies the given function rejecting each input in parallel. ## Examples iex> flow = [1, 2, 3] |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.reject(& rem(&1, 2) == 0) iex> Enum.sort(flow) # Call sort as we have no order guarantee [1, 3] """ @spec reject(t, (term -> term)) :: t def reject(flow, filter) when is_function(filter, 1) do add_operation(flow, {:mapper, :reject, [filter]}) end ## Reducers @doc """ Creates a new partition for the given flow with the given options Every time this function is called, a new partition is created. It is typically recommended to invoke it before a reducing function, such as `reduce/3`, so data belonging to the same partition can be kept together. ## Examples flow |> Flow.partition(window: Flow.Global.window) flow |> Flow.partition(stages: 4) ## Options * `:window` - a `Flow.Window` struct which controls how the reducing function behaves, see `Flow.Window` for more information. * `:stages` - the number of partitions (reducer stages) * `:key` - the key to use when partitioning. It is a function that receives a single argument: the event and must return its key. To facilitate customization, `:key` also allows common values, such as `{:elem, integer}` and `{:key, atom}, to calculate the hash based on a tuple or a map field. See the "Key shortcuts" section below. * `:hash` - the hashing function. By default a hashing function is built on the key but a custom one may be specified as described in `GenStage.PartitionDispatcher` * `:dispatcher` - by default, `partition/2` uses `GenStage.PartitionDispatcher` with the given hash function but any other dispatcher can be given * `:min_demand` - the minimum demand for this subscription * `:max_demand` - the maximum demand for this subscription ## Key shortcuts The following shortcuts can be given to the `:hash` option: * `{:elem, pos}` - apply the hash function to the element at position `pos` in the given tuple * `{:key, key}` - apply the hash function to the key of a given map """ @spec partition(t, keyword()) :: t def partition(flow, options \\ []) when is_list(options) do merge([flow], options) end @doc """ Reduces windows over multiple partitions into a single stage. Once `departition/5` is called, computations no longer happen concurrently until the data is once again partitioned. `departition/5` is typically invoked as the last step in a flow to merge the state from all previous partitions per window. It requires a flow and three functions as arguments as described: * the accumulator function - a zero-arity function that returns the initial accumulator. This function is invoked per window. * the merger function - a function that receives the state of a given partition and the accumulator and merges them together. * the done function - a function that receives the final accumulator. A set of options may also be given to customize with the `:window`, `:min_demand` and `:max_demand`. ## Examples For example, imagine we are counting words in a document. Each partition ends up with a map of words as keys and count as values. In the examples in the module documentation, we streamed those results to a single client using `Enum.to_list/1`. However, we could use `departition/1` to reduce the data over multiple stages returning one single map with all results: File.stream!("path/to/some/file") |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.map(&String.split/1) |> Flow.partition() |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, fn event, acc -> Map.update(acc, event, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Flow.departition(&Map.new/0, &Map.merge/2, &(&1)) |> Enum.to_list The departition function expects the initial accumulator, a function that merges the data, and a final function invoked when the computation is done. Departition also works with windows and triggers. A new accumulator is created per window and the merge function is invoked with the state every time a trigger is emitted in any of the partitions. This can be useful to compute the final state as computations happen instead of one time at the end. For example, we could change the flow above so each partition emits their whole intermediary state every 1000 items, merging it into the departition more frequently: File.stream!("path/to/some/file") |> Flow.from_enumerable() |> Flow.map(&String.split/1) |> Flow.partition(window: Flow.Window.global |> Flow.Window.trigger_every(1000, :reset)) |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, fn event, acc -> Map.update(acc, event, 1, & &1 + 1) end) |> Flow.departition(&Map.new/0, &Map.merge(&1, &2, fn _, v1, v2 -> v1 + v2 end), &(&1)) |> Enum.to_list Each approach is going to have different performance characteristics and it is important to measure to verify which one will be more efficient to the problem at hand. """ def departition(%Flow{} = flow, acc_fun, merge_fun, done_fun, options \\ []) when is_function(acc_fun, 0) and is_function(merge_fun, 2) and (is_function(done_fun, 1) or is_function(done_fun, 2)) do unless has_reduce?(flow) do raise ArgumentError, "departition/5 must be called after a reduce/3 operation" end done_fun = if is_function(done_fun, 1) do fn acc, _ -> done_fun.(acc) end else done_fun end flow = map_state(flow, fn state, {partition, _}, trigger -> [{state, partition, trigger}] end) {window, options} = options |> Keyword.put(:dispatcher, GenStage.DemandDispatcher) |> Keyword.put(:stages, 1) |> Keyword.pop(:window, Flow.Window.global) %Flow{producers: {:departition, flow, acc_fun, merge_fun, done_fun}, options: options, window: window} end @doc """ Merges the given flows into a new partition with the given window and options. Similar to `partition/2`, this function will partition the data, routing events with the same characteristics to the same partition. It accepts the same options and hash shortcuts as `partition/2`. See `partition/2` for more information. ## Examples Flow.merge([flow1, flow2], window: Flow.Global.window) Flow.merge([flow1, flow2], stages: 4) """ @spec merge([t], keyword()) :: t def merge(flows, options \\ []) def merge([%Flow{} | _] = flows, options) when is_list(options) do options = stages(options) {window, options} = Keyword.pop(options, :window, Flow.Window.global) %Flow{producers: {:flows, flows}, options: options, window: window} end def merge(other, options) when is_list(options) do raise ArgumentError, "Flow.merge/2 expects a non-empty list of flows as first argument, got: #{inspect other}" end defp stages(options) do case Keyword.fetch(options, :stages) do {:ok, _} -> options :error -> stages = System.schedulers_online() [stages: stages] ++ options end end @doc """ Reduces the given values with the given accumulator. `acc_fun` is a function that receives no arguments and returns the actual accumulator. The `acc_fun` function is invoked per window whenever a new window starts. If a trigger is emitted and it is configured to reset the accumulator, the `acc_fun` function will be invoked once again. Reducing will accumulate data until a trigger is emitted or until a window completes. When that happens, the returned accumulator will be the new state of the stage and all functions after reduce will be invoked. ## Examples iex> flow = Flow.from_enumerable(["the quick brown fox"]) |> Flow.flat_map(fn word -> ...> String.graphemes(word) ...> end) iex> flow = flow |> Flow.partition |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, fn grapheme, map -> ...> Map.update(map, grapheme, 1, & &1 + 1) ...> end) iex> Enum.sort(flow) [{" ", 3}, {"b", 1}, {"c", 1}, {"e", 1}, {"f", 1}, {"h", 1}, {"i", 1}, {"k", 1}, {"n", 1}, {"o", 2}, {"q", 1}, {"r", 1}, {"t", 1}, {"u", 1}, {"w", 1}, {"x", 1}] """ @spec reduce(t, (() -> acc), (term, acc -> acc)) :: t when acc: term() def reduce(flow, acc_fun, reducer_fun) when is_function(reducer_fun, 2) do cond do has_reduce?(flow) -> raise ArgumentError, "cannot call reduce/3 on a flow after another reduce/3 operation " <> "(it must be called only once per partition, consider using map_state/2 instead)" is_function(acc_fun, 0) -> add_operation(flow, {:reduce, acc_fun, reducer_fun}) true -> raise ArgumentError, "Flow.reduce/3 expects the accumulator to be given as a function" end end @doc """ Only emit unique events. Calling this function is equivalent to: Flow.uniq_by(flow, & &1) See `uniq_by/2` for more information. """ def uniq(flow) do uniq_by(flow, & &1) end @doc """ Only emit events that are unique according to the `by` function. In order to verify if an item is unique or not, `uniq_by/2` must store the value computed by `by/1` into a set. This means that, when working with unbounded data, it is recommended to wrap `uniq_by/2` in a window otherwise the data set will grow forever, eventually using all memory available. Also keep in mind that `uniq_by/2` is applied per partition. Therefore, if the data is not uniquely divided per partition, it won't be able to calculate the unique items properly. ## Examples To get started, let's create a flow that emits only the first odd and even number for a range: iex> flow = Flow.from_enumerable(1..100) iex> flow = Flow.partition(flow, stages: 1) iex> flow |> Flow.uniq_by(&rem(&1, 2)) |> Enum.sort() [1, 2] Since we have used only one stage when partitioning, we correctly calculate `[1, 2]` for the given partition. Let's see what happens when we increase the number of stages in the partition: iex> flow = Flow.from_enumerable(1..100) iex> flow = Flow.partition(flow, stages: 4) iex> flow |> Flow.uniq_by(&rem(&1, 2)) |> Enum.sort() [1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 16, 23, 39] Now we got 8 numbers, one odd and one even *per partition*. If we want to compute the unique items per partition, we must properly hash the events into two distinct partitions, one for odd numbers and another for even numbers: iex> flow = Flow.from_enumerable(1..100) iex> flow = Flow.partition(flow, stages: 2, hash: fn event -> {event, rem(event, 2)} end) iex> flow |> Flow.uniq_by(&rem(&1, 2)) |> Enum.sort() [1, 2] """ @spec uniq_by(t, (term -> term)) :: t def uniq_by(flow, by) when is_function(by, 1) do add_operation(flow, {:uniq, by}) end @doc """ Controls which values should be emitted from now. It can either be `:events` (the default) or the current stage state as `:state`. This step must be called after the reduce operation and it will guarantee the state is a list that can be sent downstream. Most commonly, each partition will emit the events it has processed to the next stages. However, sometimes we want to emit counters or other data structures as a result of our computations. In such cases, the `:emit` option can be set to `:state`, to return the `:state` from `reduce/3` or `map_state/2` or even the processed collection as a whole. """ def emit(flow, :events) do flow end def emit(flow, :state) do unless has_reduce?(flow) do raise ArgumentError, "emit/2 must be called after a reduce/3 operation" end map_state(flow, fn acc, _, _ -> [acc] end) end def emit(%{operations: operations} = flow, :nothing) do case inject_to_nothing(operations) do :map_state -> map_state(flow, fn _, _, _ -> [] end) :reduce -> reduce(flow, fn -> [] end, fn _, acc -> acc end) end end def emit(_, emit) do raise ArgumentError, "unknown option for emit: #{inspect emit}" end defp inject_to_nothing([{:reduce, _, _} | _]), do: :map_state defp inject_to_nothing([_ | ops]), do: inject_to_nothing(ops) defp inject_to_nothing([]), do: :reduce @doc """ Applies the given function over the window state. This function must be called after `reduce/3` as it maps over the state accumulated by `reduce/3`. `map_state/2` is invoked per window on every stage whenever there is a trigger: this gives us an understanding of the window data while leveraging the parallelism between stages. ## The mapper function The `mapper` function may have arity 1, 2 or 3. The first argument is the state. The second argument is optional and contains the partition index. The partition index is a two-element tuple identifying the current partition and the total number of partitions as second element. For example, for a partition with 4 stages, the partition index will be the values `{0, 4}`, `{1, 4}`, `{2, 4}` and `{3, 4}`. The third argument is optional and contains the window-trigger information. This information is a three-element tuple containing the window name, the window identifier and the trigger name. For example, a global window created with `Flow.Window.global/0` will emit on termination: {:global, :global, :done} A `Flow.Window.global/0` window with a count trigger created with `Flow.Window.trigger_every/2` will also emit: {:global, :global, {:every, 20}} A `Flow.Window.fixed/3` window will emit on done: {:fixed, window, :done} Where `window` is an integer identifying the timestamp for the window being triggered. The value returned by the `mapper` function is passed forward to the upcoming flow functions. ## Examples We can use `map_state/2` to transform the collection after processing. For example, if we want to count the amount of unique letters in a sentence, we can partition the data, then reduce over the unique entries and finally return the size of each stage, summing it all: iex> flow = Flow.from_enumerable(["the quick brown fox"]) |> Flow.flat_map(fn word -> ...> String.graphemes(word) ...> end) iex> flow = Flow.partition(flow) iex> flow = Flow.reduce(flow, fn -> %{} end, &Map.put(&2, &1, true)) iex> flow |> Flow.map_state(fn map -> map_size(map) end) |> Flow.emit(:state) |> Enum.sum() 16 """ @spec map_state(t, (term -> term) | (term, term -> term) | (term, term, {Flow.Window.type, Flow.Window.id, Flow.Window.trigger} -> term)) :: t def map_state(flow, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 3) do do_map_state(flow, mapper) end def map_state(flow, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 2) do do_map_state(flow, fn acc, index, _ -> mapper.(acc, index) end) end def map_state(flow, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 1) do do_map_state(flow, fn acc, _, _ -> mapper.(acc) end) end defp do_map_state(flow, mapper) do unless has_reduce?(flow) do raise ArgumentError, "map_state/2 must be called after a reduce/3 operation" end add_operation(flow, {:map_state, mapper}) end @doc """ Applies the given function over the stage state without changing its value. It is similar to `map_state/2` except that the value returned by `mapper` is ignored. iex> parent = self() iex> flow = Flow.from_enumerable(["the quick brown fox"]) |> Flow.flat_map(fn word -> ...> String.graphemes(word) ...> end) iex> flow = flow |> Flow.partition(stages: 2) |> Flow.reduce(fn -> %{} end, &Map.put(&2, &1, true)) iex> flow = flow |> Flow.each_state(fn map -> send(parent, map_size(map)) end) iex> Flow.run(flow) iex> receive do ...> 6 -> :ok ...> end :ok iex> receive do ...> 10 -> :ok ...> end :ok """ @spec each_state(t, (term -> term) | (term, term -> term) | (term, term, {Flow.Window.type, Flow.Window.id, Flow.Window.trigger} -> term)) :: t def each_state(flow, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 3) do do_each_state(flow, fn acc, index, trigger -> mapper.(acc, index, trigger); acc end) end def each_state(flow, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 2) do do_each_state(flow, fn acc, index, _ -> mapper.(acc, index); acc end) end def each_state(flow, mapper) when is_function(mapper, 1) do do_each_state(flow, fn acc, _, _ -> mapper.(acc); acc end) end defp do_each_state(flow, mapper) do unless has_reduce?(flow) do raise ArgumentError, "each_state/2 must be called after a reduce/3 operation" end add_operation(flow, {:map_state, mapper}) end defp add_operation(%Flow{operations: operations} = flow, operation) do %{flow | operations: [operation | operations]} end defp add_operation(flow, _producers) do raise ArgumentError, "expected a flow as argument, got: #{inspect flow}" end defp has_reduce?(%{operations: operations}) do Enum.any?(operations, &match?({:reduce,_, _}, &1)) end defimpl Enumerable do def reduce(flow, acc, fun) do {producers, consumers} = Flow.Materialize.materialize(flow, &GenStage.start_link/3, :producer_consumer, []) pids = for {pid, _} <- producers, do: pid GenStage.stream(consumers, producers: pids).(acc, fun) end def count(_flow) do {:error, __MODULE__} end def member?(_flow, _value) do {:error, __MODULE__} end end end