Unboxing or opening boxes with different sizes causes padding with 0 for numerals and a space with literals:
v=.1 4 8 ; 2 6 4 ; 6 8 4 5; 7 8 9; 6 3 7 4 9
>v
1 4 8 0 0
2 6 4 0 0
6 8 4 5 0
7 8 9 0 0
6 3 7 4 9
The fit (!.) conjunction is usually the thing to use for these things, but
>!. _1 v
Is not supported and throws a domain error.
I've got this, but with very large arrays it's not very fast:
(>./ # every y) {.!. _1 every y
Is there an efficient way to define the padding value for opening boxes?
Setting
f =: 3 :'(>./ # every y) {.!. _1 every y'
g =: _1&paddedOpen
and (in the same spirit as your f):
h =: 3 : '((>./# &> y)&($!._1))@> y'
I get the following performances for time and space:
(100&(6!:2) ,: 7!:2) &.> 'f L';'g L';'h L'
┌─────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
│ 0.045602│0.0832403│0.0388146│
│4.72538e6│1.76356e7│4.72538e6│
└─────────┴─────────┴─────────┘
where L is a large array:
L =. (<@(+i.)/)"1 ? 50000 2 $ 10
You can slightly improve f by making it terse; for example:
f =: ] {.!._1&>~ >./@:(#&>)
I don't think that there is much room for more improvements.