FEnum

A drop-in replacement for Enum backed by Rust NIFs. Simply rename Enum to FEnum and your integer-list code gets up to 20x faster. For chained operations, you can get even bigger speedups.

All you need to do is to replace Enum with FEnum and your list and binary operations will run ✨magically✨ faster for many use-cases.

This library is really only needed if you work with very large lists or binaries though. The built-in Enum is just fine for any lists below 1000 elements.

Installation

Add to your mix.exs:

def deps do
  [{:f_enum, "~> 0.1.0"}]
end

Requires a Rust toolchain (rustup). Rustler compiles the NIF automatically on mix compile.

Usage

One-shot (drop-in replacement)

Just replace Enum with FEnum. It has all functions that Enum also offers.

FEnum.sort([3, 1, 4, 1, 5])              #=> [1, 1, 3, 4, 5]
FEnum.sort([3, 1, 4], :desc)             #=> [4, 3, 1]
FEnum.uniq([3, 1, 2, 1, 3])             #=> [3, 1, 2]
FEnum.frequencies([1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1])   #=> %{1 => 3, 2 => 2, 3 => 1}

# Simple operations delegate to Enum (BEAM JIT is faster)
FEnum.sum([1, 2, 3])                    #=> 6
FEnum.min([3, 1, 2])                    #=> 1
FEnum.reverse([1, 2, 3])               #=> [3, 2, 1]

Binary input

If your data is already a packed binary of native-endian signed 64-bit integers, FEnum detects it automatically and skips the list protocol entirely:

# Pack a list into binary format
binary = for i <- [3, 1, 4, 1, 5], into: <<>>, do: <<i::signed-native-64>>

# Sort returns a binary -- no list conversion overhead
sorted = FEnum.sort(binary)

# Unpack when you need a list
for <<i::signed-native-64 <- sorted>>, do: i
#=> [1, 1, 3, 4, 5]

# Scalars work too
FEnum.sum(binary)      #=> 14
FEnum.min(binary)      #=> 1
FEnum.max(binary)      #=> 5

Chain mode

For multi-step pipelines, keep data in Rust between operations:

[3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3]
|> FEnum.new()        # list -> ResourceArc (one conversion)
|> FEnum.sort()       # Ref -> Ref (zero copy, operates in Rust)
|> FEnum.dedup()      # Ref -> Ref (zero copy)
|> FEnum.take(5)      # Ref -> Ref (zero copy)
|> FEnum.run()        # ResourceArc -> list (one conversion)
#=> [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

# Scalar output -- no need for run/1
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
|> FEnum.new()
|> FEnum.filter(&(&1 > 2))
|> FEnum.sum()
#=> 12

Fallback

Non-integer-list inputs (maps, ranges, MapSets, keyword lists) are forwarded to Enum, so FEnum is always safe to use:

FEnum.sort(3..1//-1)            #=> [1, 2, 3]
FEnum.sum(1..100)               #=> 5050
FEnum.map(%{a: 1}, &elem(&1, 1))  #=> [1]

How it works

FEnum has three input modes. The same function handles all three via pattern matching:

FEnum.sort([3, 1, 2])             # List: uses NIF or delegates to Enum
FEnum.sort(<<_::binary>>)         # Binary: binary -> binary (near-zero copy to NIF)
FEnum.sort(%FEnum.Ref{} = ref)   # Chain: Ref -> Ref (data stays in Rust)
FEnum.sort(1..10)                 # Fallback: delegates to Enum

Lists go through Rustler's list protocol for expensive operations (sort, uniq, frequencies) where the Rust algorithm beats the BEAM despite the decode cost. Simple traversals (sum, min, max, reverse, member?) delegate straight to Enum because the BEAM's JIT is already optimal for single-pass operations.

Packed binaries (<<i::signed-native-64>> format) are passed to the NIF by reference with near-zero copy. This is the fastest path.

Chain mode converts once at the boundaries with new/1 and run/1. Between those calls, data stays in a Rust Vec<i64> behind a ResourceArc -- no conversion overhead between operations.

Benchmarks

All benchmarks use 1M random integers. Run them yourself with mix run bench/fenum_bench.exs.

List input delegates to Enum for simple traversals (sum, min, max, reverse, member?, dedup) where the BEAM's JIT is already optimal, and uses Rust NIFs for expensive operations (sort, uniq, frequencies). Binary input always uses the NIF via zero-copy reference passing.

One-shot: list input

One-shot: binary input

Chain mode

Chain mode: filter placement matters

Functions that take an Elixir callback (like filter/2) cause a Ref→list→Ref round-trip in chain mode. Where you place them in the pipeline affects performance:

Filtering beforenew/1 is 27% faster than filtering after — it avoids the round-trip and feeds a smaller list into Rust. When your pipeline includes callback-based operations, keep them outside the chain boundaries where possible:

# Preferred: filter in Elixir, then enter the chain with less data
list
|> Enum.filter(&(&1 > threshold))
|> FEnum.new()
|> FEnum.sort()
|> FEnum.uniq()
|> FEnum.sum()

# Slower: filter inside the chain forces Ref -> list -> Ref
list
|> FEnum.new()
|> FEnum.filter(&(&1 > threshold))
|> FEnum.sort()
|> FEnum.uniq()
|> FEnum.sum()

Supported functions

Tier 1 -- Pure NIF (fastest)

Functions that run entirely in Rust with no Elixir callbacks:

sort/1, sort/2, reverse/1, dedup/1, uniq/1, sum/1, product/1, min/1, max/1, min_max/1, count/1, at/2, fetch!/2, slice/2, take/2, drop/2, member?/2, empty?/1, concat/2, frequencies/1, join/2, with_index/1, zip/2, chunk_every/2, into/2

Tier 2 -- Hybrid (NIF + Elixir callback)

Functions that take an Elixir fun. In chain mode, data round-trips through Elixir for the callback step; Tier 1 steps before and after are still zero-copy:

filter/2, reject/2, map/2, flat_map/2, reduce/3, map_reduce/3, scan/2, find/2, find_index/2, find_value/2, any?/2, all?/2, count/2, sort_by/2, each/2, group_by/2

Protocols

FEnum.Ref implements Enumerable, so standard Enum functions work on it:

ref = FEnum.new([1, 2, 3])
Enum.to_list(ref)    #=> [1, 2, 3]
Enum.count(ref)      #=> 3
for x <- ref, do: x * 2  #=> [2, 4, 6]

Inspect is also implemented:

FEnum.new([1, 2, 3])
#=> #FEnum.Ref<[1, 2, 3] i64, length: 3>

FEnum.new(Enum.to_list(1..1_000_000))
#=> #FEnum.Ref<[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...] i64, length: 1000000>

Constraints

• Integer lists only (i64). Float support may come later.
• Rust toolchain required at compile time.
• The NIF list path only kicks in for operations where Rust beats the BEAM (sort, uniq, frequencies). Simple traversals delegate to Enum.

License

MIT