Documentation

Append two lists, i.e.,

[x1, ..., xm] ++ [y1, ..., yn] == [x1, ..., xm, y1, ..., yn]
[x1, ..., xm] ++ [y1, ...] == [x1, ..., xm, y1, ...]

If the first list is not finite, the result is the first list.

The value of seq a b is bottom if a is bottom, and otherwise equal to b. In other words, it evaluates the first argument a to weak head normal form (WHNF). seq is usually introduced to improve performance by avoiding unneeded laziness.

A note on evaluation order: the expression seq a b does not guarantee that a will be evaluated before b. The only guarantee given by seq is that the both a and b will be evaluated before seq returns a value. In particular, this means that b may be evaluated before a. If you need to guarantee a specific order of evaluation, you must use the function pseq from the "parallel" package.

filter, applied to a predicate and a list, returns the list of those elements that satisfy the predicate; i.e.,

filter p xs = [ x | x <- xs, p x]

zip takes two lists and returns a list of corresponding pairs.

zip [1, 2] ['a', 'b'] = [(1, 'a'), (2, 'b')]

If one input list is short, excess elements of the longer list are discarded:

zip [1] ['a', 'b'] = [(1, 'a')]
zip [1, 2] ['a'] = [(1, 'a')]

zip is right-lazy:

zip [] _|_ = []
zip _|_ [] = _|_

Create a stable pointer referring to the given Haskell value.

The print function outputs a value of any printable type to the standard output device. Printable types are those that are instances of class Show; print converts values to strings for output using the show operation and adds a newline.

For example, a program to print the first 20 integers and their powers of 2 could be written as:

main = print ([(n, 2^n) | n <- [0..19]])

Extract the first component of a pair.

Extract the second component of a pair.

otherwise is defined as the value True. It helps to make guards more readable. eg.

 f x | x < 0     = ...
     | otherwise = ...

If the first argument evaluates to True, then the result is the second argument. Otherwise an AssertionFailed exception is raised, containing a String with the source file and line number of the call to assert.

Assertions can normally be turned on or off with a compiler flag (for GHC, assertions are normally on unless optimisation is turned on with -O or the -fignore-asserts option is given). When assertions are turned off, the first argument to assert is ignored, and the second argument is returned as the result.

The lazy function restrains strictness analysis a little. The call lazy e means the same as e, but lazy has a magical property so far as strictness analysis is concerned: it is lazy in its first argument, even though its semantics is strict. After strictness analysis has run, calls to lazy are inlined to be the identity function.

This behaviour is occasionally useful when controlling evaluation order. Notably, lazy is used in the library definition of par:

par :: a -> b -> b
par x y = case (par# x) of _ -> lazy y

If lazy were not lazy, par would look strict in y which would defeat the whole purpose of par.

Like seq, the argument of lazy can have an unboxed type.

The trace function outputs the trace message given as its first argument, before returning the second argument as its result.

For example, this returns the value of f x but first outputs the message.

>>> let x = 123; f = show
>>> trace ("calling f with x = " ++ show x) (f x)
"calling f with x = 123
123"

The trace function should only be used for debugging, or for monitoring execution. The function is not referentially transparent: its type indicates that it is a pure function but it has the side effect of outputting the trace message.

The call inline f arranges that f is inlined, regardless of its size. More precisely, the call inline f rewrites to the right-hand side of f's definition. This allows the programmer to control inlining from a particular call site rather than the definition site of the function (c.f. INLINE pragmas).

This inlining occurs regardless of the argument to the call or the size of f's definition; it is unconditional. The main caveat is that f's definition must be visible to the compiler; it is therefore recommended to mark the function with an INLINABLE pragma at its definition so that GHC guarantees to record its unfolding regardless of size.

If no inlining takes place, the inline function expands to the identity function in Phase zero, so its use imposes no overhead.

map f xs is the list obtained by applying f to each element of xs, i.e.,

map f [x1, x2, ..., xn] == [f x1, f x2, ..., f xn]
map f [x1, x2, ...] == [f x1, f x2, ...]

The groupWith function uses the user supplied function which projects an element out of every list element in order to first sort the input list and then to form groups by equality on these projected elements

Application operator. This operator is redundant, since ordinary application (f x) means the same as (f $ x). However, $ has low, right-associative binding precedence, so it sometimes allows parentheses to be omitted; for example:

f $ g $ h x  =  f (g (h x))

It is also useful in higher-order situations, such as map ($ 0) xs, or zipWith ($) fs xs.

Note that ($) is levity-polymorphic in its result type, so that foo $ True where foo :: Bool -> Int# is well-typed

general coercion from integral types

general coercion to fractional types

Conditional failure of Alternative computations. Defined by

guard True  = pure ()
guard False = empty

Examples

>>> safeDiv 4 0
Nothing
>>> safeDiv 4 2
Just 2

safeDiv :: Int -> Int -> Maybe Int
safeDiv x y | y /= 0    = Just (x `div` y)
            | otherwise = Nothing

safeDiv :: Int -> Int -> Maybe Int
safeDiv x y = do
  guard (y /= 0)
  return (x `div` y)

Converts an arbitrary value into an object of type Dynamic.

The type of the object must be an instance of Typeable, which ensures that only monomorphically-typed objects may be converted to Dynamic. To convert a polymorphic object into Dynamic, give it a monomorphic type signature. For example:

   toDyn (id :: Int -> Int)

The join function is the conventional monad join operator. It is used to remove one level of monadic structure, projecting its bound argument into the outer level.

Examples

atomically :: STM a -> IO a

atomically :: STM (IO b) -> IO (IO b)
join       :: IO (IO b)  -> IO b

join . atomically :: STM (IO b) -> IO b

The Bounded class is used to name the upper and lower limits of a type. Ord is not a superclass of Bounded since types that are not totally ordered may also have upper and lower bounds.

The Bounded class may be derived for any enumeration type; minBound is the first constructor listed in the data declaration and maxBound is the last. Bounded may also be derived for single-constructor datatypes whose constituent types are in Bounded.

Class Enum defines operations on sequentially ordered types.

The enumFrom... methods are used in Haskell's translation of arithmetic sequences.

Instances of Enum may be derived for any enumeration type (types whose constructors have no fields). The nullary constructors are assumed to be numbered left-to-right by fromEnum from 0 through n-1. See Chapter 10 of the Haskell Report for more details.

For any type that is an instance of class Bounded as well as Enum, the following should hold:

• The calls succ maxBound and pred minBound should result in a runtime error.
• fromEnum and toEnum should give a runtime error if the result value is not representable in the result type. For example, toEnum 7 :: Bool is an error.
• enumFrom and enumFromThen should be defined with an implicit bound, thus:

   enumFrom     x   = enumFromTo     x maxBound
   enumFromThen x y = enumFromThenTo x y bound
     where
       bound | fromEnum y >= fromEnum x = maxBound
             | otherwise                = minBound