List-flattening function in erlang feels too wordy

Question

I wrote a tail-recursive list-flattening function, but I'm not too happy with it.

a) Is tail-recursion necessary here, or will the function be optimized without it?
b) It's ugly how many clauses there are, and that I have to call out to flatten in the expression of the first clause of flatten_acc

So, how could I do better?

(To be clear, this is a function that completely flattens the list -- e.g. flatten([foo, [[[bar]], [baz]]]) == [foo, bar, baz])

flatten(List) ->
    lists:reverse(flatten_acc(List, [])).

flatten_acc([[[H|T0]|T1]|T2], Acc) ->
    flatten_acc([flatten([[H|T0]|T1])|T2], Acc);
flatten_acc([[H|T0]|T1], Acc) ->
    flatten_acc([T0|T1], [H|Acc]);
flatten_acc([[]|T], Acc) ->
    flatten_acc(T, Acc);
flatten_acc([H|T], Acc) ->
    flatten_acc(T, [H|Acc]);
flatten_acc([], Acc) ->
    Acc.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Little smaller than yours.

% flatten a list
my_flatten([])->
    [] ;
my_flatten([[]|T])->
    my_flatten(T);
my_flatten([[H|T]|T2])->
    my_flatten([H|[T|T2]]);
my_flatten([H|T])->
    [H|my_flatten(T)].

http://erlang99.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/p07-flatten-a-nested-list-structure/

my_flatten_rec(L)->
    lists:reverse(my_flatten_rec([],L)).
my_flatten_rec(Acc,[[]|T])->
    my_flatten_rec(Acc,T);
my_flatten_rec(Acc,[[H|T]|T2])->
    my_flatten_rec(Acc,[H|[T|T2]]);
my_flatten_rec(Acc,[H|T])->
    my_flatten_rec([H|Acc],T);
my_flatten_rec(Acc,[])->
    Acc.

Answer 2

I think if you're serious about learning the best way to do this, you should take a look at the source:

%% flatten(List)
%% flatten(List, Tail)
%%  Flatten a list, adding optional tail.

-spec flatten(DeepList) -> List when
      DeepList :: [term() | DeepList],
      List :: [term()].

flatten(List) when is_list(List) ->
    do_flatten(List, []).

-spec flatten(DeepList, Tail) -> List when
      DeepList :: [term() | DeepList],
      Tail :: [term()],
      List :: [term()].

flatten(List, Tail) when is_list(List), is_list(Tail) ->
    do_flatten(List, Tail).

do_flatten([H|T], Tail) when is_list(H) ->
    do_flatten(H, do_flatten(T, Tail));
do_flatten([H|T], Tail) ->
    [H|do_flatten(T, Tail)];
do_flatten([], Tail) ->
    Tail.

Answer 3

How about this:

flatten(L) -> lists:reverse(flatten(L, [])).

flatten([], Acc) -> Acc;
flatten([H | T], Acc) when is_list(H) -> flatten(T, flatten(H, Acc));
flatten([H | T], Acc) -> flatten(T, [H | Acc]).

The tail recursion is not necessary in this case but makes it much more easy to read and clarity is king.