Folding and Reducing List

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fold() combines all elements of a list, in order to generate a single result. Here is how we can use fold() to calculate the sum -

val list = listOf(1, 2, 3, 4)
list.fold(0) { sum, n ->
  sum + n
}
// 10

foldRight() processes elements starting from right to left, as opposed to fold() which processes the elements from left to right. This example demonstrates the difference:

val list = listOf('a', 'b', 'c', 'd')

list.fold("x") { acc, ele ->
  "$[acc] + $ele"
} // [[[[x] + a] + b] + c] + d

list.foldRight("x") { acc, ele ->
  "$[acc] + $ele"
} // [[[[x] + d] + c] + b] + a

Reduce List

fold() and foldRight() take an explicit accumulator value as the first argument. Sometimes, the first element can act as an initial value. reduce() and reduceRight() behave like fold() and foldRight() but use the first and last element respectively as the initial value:

val chars = "a b c d".split(" ")

chars.fold("x") { acc, ele -> "$acc $ele" }
// x a b c d
chars.reduce { acc, ele -> "$acc $ele" }
// a b c d

chars.foldRight("x") { acc, ele -> "$acc $ele" }
// a b c d x
chars.reduceRight { acc, ele -> "$acc $ele" }
// a b c d

Running List

runningFold() and runningReduce() produce a List containing all the intermediate steps of the process. The final value in the List is the result of the fold() or reduce():

val list = listOf(1, 2, 3, 4)

list.runningFold(10) { sum, n ->
  sum + n
} // [10, 11, 12, 13, 14]

list.runningReduce { sum, n ->
  sum + n
} // [11, 12, 13, 14]

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