exercism/jq/vehicle-purchase

Vehicle Purchase

Welcome to Vehicle Purchase on Exercism's jq Track. If you need help running the tests or submitting your code, check out HELP.md. If you get stuck on the exercise, check out HINTS.md, but try and solve it without using those first :)

Introduction

Compare

Comparing Numbers

In jq numbers can be compared using the following relational and equality operators.

Comparison	Operator
Greater than	a > b
Greater than or equals	a >= b
Less than	a < b
Less than or equals	a <= b
Equals	a == b
Not equals	a != b

The result of the comparison is always a boolean value, so either true or false.

1 < 3,      # => true
2 != 2,     # => false
1 == 1.0    # => true
            # All numbers are floating-points, so this is different syntax
            # for the exact same value.

Comparing Strings

The comparison operators above can also be used to compare strings. In that case, a dictionary (lexicographical) order is applied. The ordering is by unicode codepoint value.

"Apple" > "Pear",   # => false
"a" < "above",      # => true
"a" == "A"          # => false

You need to be careful when you compare two variables that appear to contain numeric values but are of type string. Due to the dictionary order, the result will not be the same as comparing values of type number.

10 < 2,     # => false
"10" < "2"  # => true (because "1" comes before "2")

"Strict" Equality

The jq == operator is like Javascript's === in the sense that things that "look" the same, but are of different types, are not equal.

"3" == 3    # => false
            # the value on the left has type string,
            # the value on the right has type number.

Comparing Arrays

Two arrays are equal if all the corresponding elements are equal.

[1, 2, 3] == [1, 2, 3]      # => true
[1, 2, 3] == [1, 3, 2]      # => false, different order
[1, 2, 3] == [1, 2, "3"]    # => false, different types

Comparing Objects

Two objects are equal if they have the same key-value pairs.

{name: "Joe", age: 42} == {age: 42, name: "Joe"}                # => true
{name: "Joe", age: 42} == {age: 42, name: "Jane"}               # => false
{name: "Joe", age: 42} == {age: "42", name: "Joe"}              # => false
{name: "Joe", age: 42} == {age: 42, name: "Joe", height: 175}   # => false

# comparisons will drill down as deeply as required
{a: {b: {c: [1, 2]}}} == {a: {b: {c: [1, 2]}}}                  # => true
{a: {b: {c: [1, 2]}}} == {a: {b: {c: [1, 2, 3]}}}               # => false

Conditionals

If Expression

jq's conditional expression is if A then B else C end.

if-then-else is a filter like all jq builtins: it takes an input and produces an output.

If the expression A produces a "truthy" value, then the if filter evaluates B. Otherwise it evaluates C. The input to the if filter will be passed to B or C.

42 | if . < 50 then "small" else "big" end      # => "small"

5 | if . % 2 == 0 then . / 2 else . * 4 end     # => 20

The `else` clause is **optional** in the current `jq` release (version 1.7):
the following two statements are equivalent.

```jq
if A then B else . end
if A then B end
```

The `else` clause is **mandatory** in the previous v1.6 release. 

Nested If-Statements

Further conditions can be added with elif.

42 | if . < 33 then "small"
     elif . < 66 then "medium"
     else "big"
     end
# => "medium"

Use as many elif clauses as you need.

Truthiness

The only "false" values in jq are: false and null. Everything else is "true", even the number zero and the empty string, array and object.

Boolean Operators

The boolean operators and and or can be used to build complex queries.

42 | if . < 33 or . > 66 then "big or small"
     else "medium"
     end

To negate, use not. This is a filter not an operator.

42 | if (. < 33 or . > 66 | not) then "medium"
     else "big or small"
     end

Alternative Operator

The alternative operator allows you to specify a "default" value if an expression is false or null.

A // B

# This is identical to
if A then A else B end

To demonstrate

[3, 5, 18] | add / 2       # => 13
[]         | add / 2       # => error: null (null) and number (2) cannot be divided
[]         | add // 0 / 2  # => 0

Instructions

In this exercise, you will write some code to help you prepare to buy a vehicle.

You have three tasks: determine if you will need to get a license; choose between two vehicles; and estimate the acceptable price for a used vehicle.

1. Determine if you will need a drivers license

Some kinds of vehicles require a drivers license to operate them. Assume only the kinds "car" and "truck" require a license; everything else can be operated without a license.

Implement the needs_license function that takes the kind of vehicle and returns a boolean indicating whether you need a license for that kind of vehicle.

"car" | needs_license
# => true

"bike" | needs_license
# => false

2. Choose between two potential vehicles to buy

You have evaluated your options of available vehicles. You managed to narrow it down to two options but you need help making the final decision. Implement the function choose_vehicle that takes an array of two vehicles as input and returns a decision, which is the option that comes first in dictionary order.

["Wuling Hongguang", "Toyota Corolla"] | choose_vehicle
# =>  "Toyota Corolla is clearly the better choice."

["Volkswagen Beetle", "Volkswagen Golf"] | choose_vehicle
# =>  "Volkswagen Beetle is clearly the better choice."

3. Calculate an estimation for the price of a used vehicle

Now that you have made your decision, you want to make sure you get a fair price at the dealership. Since you are interested in buying a used vehicle, the price depends on how old the vehicle is. For a rough estimate, assume if the vehicle is less than 3 years old, it costs 80% of the original price it had when it was brand new. If it is more than 10 years old, it costs 50%. If the vehicle is at least 3 years old but not older than 10 years, it costs 70% of the original price.

Implement the resell_price function that applies this logic using if, elif and else. It takes an object holding the original price and the age of the vehicle and returns the estimated price in the dealership.

{"original_price": 1000, "age": 1} | resell_price
# => 800

{"original_price": 1000, "age": 5} | resell_price
# => 700

{"original_price": 1000, "age": 15} | resell_price
# => 500

Source

Created by

• @glennj