Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford / 2017 / Imperative programming / 6 / b

These methods consume the receiver's remaining sequence; exists stops as soon as it finds a witness:

trait RichIter[T] extends Iter[T] {
  def foreach(f: T => Unit): Unit = {
    while (hasNext) f(next())
  }

  def exists(p: T => Boolean): Boolean = {
    while (hasNext) {
      if (p(next())) return true
    }
    false
  }

  def foldLeft[U](x: U)(f: (U,T) => U): U = {
    var result = x
    while (hasNext) result = f(result, next())
    result
  }
}

After $j$ consumed elements, foreach has invoked its callback on exactly that prefix, exists has found no witness in it unless it has already returned, and the left fold accumulator is the fold of that prefix in its original order. These loop invariants prove the finite-sequence results. On an infinite sequence, exists may still terminate when it reaches a witness; a full traversal or fold generally does not. To retain the original cursor, a caller can invoke the operation on a suitable copy.