less dry, easier to digest

gistfile1.clj

(-> [jay john mike chris]
    (->> (filter (comp (partial = "new york") :current-city)))
    (->> (group-by :employer))
    (update-in ["drw.com"] (partial map :name)))

While I was writing the entry I was thinking about clojure.set as well, but I didn't want to mix the two ideas. Thanks for the comment and bringing it all together. If we could easily use other keys, here's an example that gets us our desired output.

(def jay {:name "jay fields" :employer "drw.com" :current-city "new york"})
(def john {:name "john dydo" :employer "drw.com" :current-city "new york"})
(def mike {:name "mike ward" :employer "drw.com" :current-city "chicago"})
(def chris {:name "chris george" :employer "thoughtworks.com" :current-city "new york"})

(require 'clojure.set)

(-> #{jay john mike chris}
    (clojure.set/join #{{:current-city "new york"}})
    (clojure.set/index [:employer])
    (update-in [{:employer "drw.com"}] clojure.set/project [:name]))

;;; creates
{{:employer "thoughtworks.com"} #{{:employer "thoughtworks.com",
                                   :name "chris george",
                                   :current-city "new york"}},
 {:employer "drw.com"} #{{:name "john dydo"} {:name "jay fields"}}}</code>

Nifty! I've bumped into the same issue before, and came up with a small, not that clever but occasionally useful macro:

(defmacro thr
  "Like the threading macros, but lets you provide a symbol to which the result
   of each successive form will be bound before calling the next. Example:

   (thr x value
     (fn1 :a :b x :c)
     (fn2 x :x :y x)
     (for [v x] (fn3 v)))" 
  ([sym x form]
    `(let [~sym ~x] 
       ~form))
  ([sym x form & more]
    `(thr ~sym (thr ~sym ~x ~form) ~@more)))