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Elixir Cookbook

By : Paulo Pereira

4.5 (2)

Elixir Cookbook

4.5 (2)

By: Paulo Pereira

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.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Sections

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Command Line

1. Command Line

Introduction

Using the terminal to prototype and test ideas

Loading and compiling modules

Getting help and accessing documentation within IEx

Using Erlang from Elixir

Inspecting your system in IEx

Inspecting your system with Observer

Creating a simple application

Managing dependencies

Generating a supervised application

Generating umbrella applications

Managing application configuration

Creating custom Mix tasks

2. Data Types and Structures

2. Data Types and Structures

Understanding immutability

Adding and subtracting lists

Combining tuples into a list

Creating and manipulating keyword lists

Using pattern matching

Pattern matching an HTTPoison response

Creating a key/value store with a map

Mapping and reducing enumerables

Generating lazy (even infinite) sequences

Streaming a file as a resource

3. Strings and Binaries

3. Strings and Binaries

Introduction

Joining strings

Splitting strings

Replacing string codepoints with patterns

Slicing strings with ranges

Using regular expressions

Combining operations with the |> operator

Creating a word list

Determining the word frequency in a text

Reading and writing metadata from MP3 files

4. Modules and Functions

4. Modules and Functions

Introduction

Namespacing modules

Using module attributes as constants

Enforcing behaviors

Documenting modules

Using module directives

Using a module in the scripted mode

Defining functions with default arguments

Using guard clauses and pattern matching in function definitions

5. Processes and Nodes

5. Processes and Nodes

Introduction

Sending messages between processes

Making code run on all available CPUs

Using tasks to perform multiple concurrent computations

Creating a stateful server process (messages with counters)

Using agents as an abstraction around states

Using an ETS table to share the state

Creating named nodes

Connecting nodes

Executing code in a different node

6. OTP – Open Telecom Platform

6. OTP – Open Telecom Platform

Introduction

Implementing a GenServer

Expanding our server

Creating a supervisor

Using Observer to inspect supervisors and processes

Handling errors and managing exceptions

Packaging and releasing an OTP application

Deploying applications and updating a running system

7. Cowboy and Phoenix

7. Cowboy and Phoenix

Introduction

Setting up Cowboy

Serving static files

Implementing a websocket handler

Creating a Phoenix application

Defining routes

Creating a controller

Creating views and templates

Implementing topics

Protecting the Phoenix app with SSL

8. Interactions

8. Interactions

Introduction

Using Redis and Postgres

Using OS commands from within Elixir

Getting Twitter data

A. Installation and Further Reading

A. Installation and Further Reading

Installing Elixir

Installing PostgreSQL

Installing Redis

Some useful links

Index

Index

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Using the terminal to prototype and test ideas

The Elixir default installation provides an REPL (short for read-eval-print-loop) named IEx. IEx is a programming environment that takes user expressions, evaluates them, and returns the result to the user. This allows the user to test code and even create entire modules, without having to compile a source file.

To start prototyping or testing some ideas, all we need to do is use IEx via our command line.

Getting ready

To get started, we need to have Elixir installed. Instructions on how to install Elixir can be found at http://elixir-lang.org/install.html. This page covers installation on OSX, Unix and Unix-like systems, and Windows. It also gives some instructions on how to install Erlang, which is the only prerequisite to run Elixir.

How to do it…

To prototype and test the ideas using IEx, follow these steps:

Start IEx by typing iex in your command line.

Type some expressions and have them evaluated:

iex(1)> a = 2 + 2
4
iex(2)> b = a * a
16
iex(3)> a + b
20
iex(4)>

Define an anonymous function to add two numbers:

iex(5)> sum = fn(a, b) -> a + b end
Function<12.90072148/2 in :erl_eval.expr/5>

Invoke the function to add two numbers:
```
iex(6)> sum.(1,2)
3
```
Quit from IEx by pressing Ctrl + C twice.

How it works…

IEx evaluates expressions as they are typed, allowing us to get instant feedback. This allows and encourages experimenting ideas without the overhead of editing a source file and compiling it in order to see any changes made.

Note

In this recipe, we used the = operator. Unlike other languages, = is not an assignment operator but a pattern matching operator. We will get into more detail on pattern matching in the Using pattern matching and Pattern matching an HTTPoison response recipes in Chapter 2, Data Types and Structures.

In step 3, we used a dot (.) in the sum function right before the arguments, like this: sum.(1,2). The dot is used to call the anonymous function.

There's more…

It is possible to define modules inside an IEx session.

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