Running queries against a list of lists in Scheme

I'm stuck in the middle of my project. I have开发者_开发问答 a list of lists like:

'((a for apple) (b is book) (c in cat) (ronn live in NY))

Now I want to make a query in the form of a list and have it display the correct entry in my list of lists. For example, if I input '(a for what) or '(what in cat) it will display (a for apple) or (c in cat). If I input '(ronn live in where) it will show (ronn live in NY).

Can anyone help me solve this problem?

How about running a filter routine across the list, and using a lambda object initialized with your query information that will then be applied to the list until it finds a match.

So for instance, you would have a lamda that would look something like

(define (filter-object query)
    (define (query-function list-input)
        ;;do something here for query function that will take the initialized
        ;;query and match it against the list-input to see if there's a match
        ;;it should return #t or #f
    )

    ;;the return of the filter-object is the query function
    query_function) 

;;my-filter-function is initialized with a specific query
(define my-filter-function (filter-object '(a for what)))

Now with the filter-object initialized, run a filter across your list

(define (filter filter-function list-of-lists)
    (cond ((eq? list-of-lists '()) '())
          ((filter-function (car list-of-lists))
           (cons (car list-of-lists)
              (filter filter-function (cdr list-of-lists)))
          (else (filter filter-function (cdr list-of-lists))))

(filter my-filter-function my-list)

This should return a one-element list of the matches (providing you aren't placing more than one copy in your list set.

Hope this helps,

Jason

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Video Lectures by Hal Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman

Lecture 4a, Pattern Matching and Rule-based Substitution