Task

Display a finite linear combination in an infinite vector basis 



(

e

1


,

e

2


,
…
)


{\displaystyle (e_{1},e_{2},\ldots )}

.

Write a function that, when given a finite list of scalars 



(

α

1


,

α

2


,
…
)


{\displaystyle (\alpha ^{1},\alpha ^{2},\ldots )}

, 
creates a string representing the linear combination 




∑

i



α

i



e

i




{\displaystyle \sum _{i}\alpha ^{i}e_{i}}

 in an explicit format often used in mathematics, that is:






α


i

1





e


i

1




±

|


α


i

2





|


e


i

2




±

|


α


i

3





|


e


i

3




±
…


{\displaystyle \alpha ^{i_{1}}e_{i_{1}}\pm |\alpha ^{i_{2}}|e_{i_{2}}\pm |\alpha ^{i_{3}}|e_{i_{3}}\pm \ldots }


where 




α


i

k




≠
0


{\displaystyle \alpha ^{i_{k}}\neq 0}







The output must comply to the following rules:

   don't show null terms, unless the whole combination is null. 
 e(1)     is fine,     e(1) + 0*e(3)     or     e(1) + 0     is wrong.
   don't show scalars when they are equal to one or minus one. 
 e(3)     is fine,     1*e(3)     is wrong.
   don't prefix by a minus sign if it follows a preceding term.   Instead you use subtraction. 
 e(4) - e(5)     is fine,     e(4) + -e(5)     is wrong.


Show here output for the following lists of scalars:

 1)    1,  2,  3
 2)    0,  1,  2,  3
 3)    1,  0,  3,  4
 4)    1,  2,  0
 5)    0,  0,  0
 6)    0
 7)    1,  1,  1
 8)   -1, -1, -1
 9)   -1, -2,  0, -3
10)   -1



def linearCombo:
  reduce to_entries[] as {key: $k,value: $v} ("";
     if $v == 0 then .
     else
        (if $v < 0 and length==0 then   "-"
         elif $v < 0 then               " - "
         elif $v > 0 and length==0 then ""
         else                           " + "
         end) as $sign
        | ($v|fabs) as $av
        | (if ($av == 1) then "" else "\($av)*" end) as $coeff
        | .  + "\($sign)\($coeff)e\($k)"
     end)
  | if length==0 then "0" else . end ;
 
# The exercise
def lpad($len): tostring | ($len - length) as $l | (" " * $l)[:$l] + .;
 
[1, 2, 3],
[0, 1, 2, 3],
[1, 0, 3, 4],
[1, 2, 0],
[0, 0, 0],
[0],
[1, 1, 1],
[-1, -1, -1],
[-1, -2, 0, -3],
[-1]
| "\(lpad(15)) => \(linearCombo)"
 