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Elixir Cookbook

Elixir Cookbook

By : Paulo Pereira
4.5 (2)
Buy this Book
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Elixir Cookbook

Elixir Cookbook

4.5 (2)
By: Paulo Pereira
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

This book is intended for users with some knowledge of the Elixir language syntax and basic data types/structures. Although this is a cookbook and no sequential reading is required, the book’s structure will allow less advanced users who follow it to be gradually exposed to some of Elixir’s features and concepts specific to functional programming. To get the most out of this book, you need to be well versed with Erlang.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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What this book covers
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What you need for this book
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Who this book is for
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Sections
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Conventions
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Reader feedback
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Customer support
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1
1. Command Line
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1. Command Line
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Introduction
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Using the terminal to prototype and test ideas
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Loading and compiling modules
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Getting help and accessing documentation within IEx
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Using Erlang from Elixir
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Inspecting your system in IEx
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Inspecting your system with Observer
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Creating a simple application
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Managing dependencies
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Generating a supervised application
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Generating umbrella applications
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Managing application configuration
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Creating custom Mix tasks
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2. Data Types and Structures
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2. Data Types and Structures
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Understanding immutability
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Adding and subtracting lists
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Combining tuples into a list
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Creating and manipulating keyword lists
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Using pattern matching
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Pattern matching an HTTPoison response
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Creating a key/value store with a map
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Mapping and reducing enumerables
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Generating lazy (even infinite) sequences
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Streaming a file as a resource
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3. Strings and Binaries
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3. Strings and Binaries
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Introduction
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Joining strings
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Splitting strings
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Replacing string codepoints with patterns
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Slicing strings with ranges
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Using regular expressions
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Combining operations with the |> operator
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Creating a word list
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Determining the word frequency in a text
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Reading and writing metadata from MP3 files
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4. Modules and Functions
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4. Modules and Functions
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Introduction
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Namespacing modules
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Using module attributes as constants
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Enforcing behaviors
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Documenting modules
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Using module directives
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Using a module in the scripted mode
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Defining functions with default arguments
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Using guard clauses and pattern matching in function definitions
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5. Processes and Nodes
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5. Processes and Nodes
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Introduction
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Sending messages between processes
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Making code run on all available CPUs
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Using tasks to perform multiple concurrent computations
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Creating a stateful server process (messages with counters)
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Using agents as an abstraction around states
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Using an ETS table to share the state
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Creating named nodes
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Connecting nodes
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Executing code in a different node
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6. OTP – Open Telecom Platform
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6. OTP – Open Telecom Platform
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Introduction
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Implementing a GenServer
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Expanding our server
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Creating a supervisor
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Using Observer to inspect supervisors and processes
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Handling errors and managing exceptions
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Packaging and releasing an OTP application
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Deploying applications and updating a running system
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7. Cowboy and Phoenix
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7. Cowboy and Phoenix
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Introduction
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Setting up Cowboy
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Serving static files
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Implementing a websocket handler
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Creating a Phoenix application
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Defining routes
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Creating a controller
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Creating views and templates
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Implementing topics
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Protecting the Phoenix app with SSL
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8. Interactions
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8. Interactions
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Introduction
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Using Redis and Postgres
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Using OS commands from within Elixir
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Getting Twitter data
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A. Installation and Further Reading
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A. Installation and Further Reading
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Installing Elixir
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Installing PostgreSQL
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Installing Redis
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Some useful links
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Index
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Index

Getting help and accessing documentation within IEx

Documentation is a first-class citizen in the Elixir ecosystem, so it comes as no surprise that IEx provides convenient ways to access documentation and get help without the need to leave an IEx session.

This recipe exemplifies the use of the defined help functions.

How to do it…

We will follow these steps to get help and access documentation in an IEx session:

  1. Enter h inside a running IEx session to see the help options related to the use of IEx helpers, as shown in this screenshot:
    How to do it…
  2. If we wish, for instance, to get information regarding the c/2 function, we type h(c/2), as shown in the following screenshot:
    How to do it…
  3. Accessing a module documentation is done by invoking h(ModuleName). In the next screenshot, we access documentation related to Enum:
    How to do it…
  4. Getting information about a specific function inside a module is also possible by invoking h(ModuleName.function_name). The following screenshot shows the documentation for Enum.map:
    How to do it…

How it works…

When we define modules, it is possible to use the @moduledoc and @doc annotations to define documentation related to the whole module or to a specific function in that module.

IEx parses the documentation defined with these annotations and makes it available in a convenient way so that there's no need to leave the session when help or some more information is needed.

IEx itself has several helper functions defined (refer to the first screenshot of this recipe), and among them, we find h/0 and h/1.

Note

It is common to refer to functions by their name followed by / and a number indicating the number of arguments that function takes. Therefore, h/0 is a function named h that takes 0 arguments, and h/1 is the same h function but with 1 argument.

There's more…

There are several defined functions that allow accessing information on function specifications and types (if defined). To learn more, you can use s/1 and t/1.

As an example, to get information on the types defined for the Enum module, we would use t(Enum), and to get information on the specifications, we would use s(Enum).

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