const x is a unary function which evaluates to x for all inputs.

>>> const 42 "hello"
42

>>> map (const 42) [0..3]
[42,42,42,42]

flip f takes its (first) two arguments in the reverse order of f.

>>> flip (++) "hello" "world"
"worldhello"

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

Strict (call-by-value) application operator. It takes a function and an argument, evaluates the argument to weak head normal form (WHNF), then calls the function with that value.

& is a reverse application operator. This provides notational convenience. Its precedence is one higher than that of the forward application operator $, which allows & to be nested in $.

>>> 5 & (+1) & show
"6"

Since: base-4.8.0.0

fix f is the least fixed point of the function f, i.e. the least defined x such that f x = x.

For example, we can write the factorial function using direct recursion as

>>> let fac n = if n <= 1 then 1 else n * fac (n-1) in fac 5
120

This uses the fact that Haskell’s let introduces recursive bindings. We can rewrite this definition using fix,

>>> fix (\rec n -> if n <= 1 then 1 else n * rec (n-1)) 5
120

Instead of making a recursive call, we introduce a dummy parameter rec; when used within fix, this parameter then refers to fix' argument, hence the recursion is reintroduced.

on b u x y runs the binary function b on the results of applying unary function u to two arguments x and y. From the opposite perspective, it transforms two inputs and combines the outputs.

((+) `on` f) x y = f x + f y

Typical usage: sortBy (compare `on` fst).

Algebraic properties:

• (*) `on` id = (*) -- (if (*) ∉ {⊥, const ⊥})

• ((*) `on` f) `on` g = (*) `on` (f . g)

• flip on f . flip on g = flip on (g . f)

Compose functions with one argument with function with two arguments.

f .: g = \x y -> f (g x y).

until p f yields the result of applying f until p holds.

asTypeOf is a type-restricted version of const. It is usually used as an infix operator, and its typing forces its first argument (which is usually overloaded) to have the same type as the second.

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.

Uninhabited data type

Since: base-4.8.0.0

Boolean "and"

Boolean "or"

Case analysis for the Bool type. bool x y p evaluates to x when p is False, and evaluates to y when p is True.

This is equivalent to if p then y else x; that is, one can think of it as an if-then-else construct with its arguments reordered.

Examples

>>> bool "foo" "bar" True
"bar"
>>> bool "foo" "bar" False
"foo"

>>> let p = True; x = "bar"; y = "foo"
>>> bool x y p == if p then y else x
True
>>> let p = False
>>> bool x y p == if p then y else x
True

Since: base-4.7.0.0

Boolean "not"

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

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

The Maybe type encapsulates an optional value. A value of type Maybe a either contains a value of type a (represented as Just a), or it is empty (represented as Nothing). Using Maybe is a good way to deal with errors or exceptional cases without resorting to drastic measures such as error.

The Maybe type is also a monad. It is a simple kind of error monad, where all errors are represented by Nothing. A richer error monad can be built using the Either type.

The catMaybes function takes a list of Maybes and returns a list of all the Just values.

Examples

>>> catMaybes [Just 1, Nothing, Just 3]
[1,3]

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> [readMaybe x :: Maybe Int | x <- ["1", "Foo", "3"] ]
[Just 1,Nothing,Just 3]
>>> catMaybes $ [readMaybe x :: Maybe Int | x <- ["1", "Foo", "3"] ]
[1,3]

The fromMaybe function takes a default value and and Maybe value. If the Maybe is Nothing, it returns the default values; otherwise, it returns the value contained in the Maybe.

Examples

>>> fromMaybe "" (Just "Hello, World!")
"Hello, World!"

>>> fromMaybe "" Nothing
""

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> fromMaybe 0 (readMaybe "5")
5
>>> fromMaybe 0 (readMaybe "")
0

An infix form of fromMaybe with arguments flipped.

The isJust function returns True iff its argument is of the form Just _.

Examples

>>> isJust (Just 3)
True

>>> isJust (Just ())
True

>>> isJust Nothing
False

>>> isJust (Just Nothing)
True

The isNothing function returns True iff its argument is Nothing.

Examples

>>> isNothing (Just 3)
False

>>> isNothing (Just ())
False

>>> isNothing Nothing
True

>>> isNothing (Just Nothing)
False

The mapMaybe function is a version of map which can throw out elements. In particular, the functional argument returns something of type Maybe b. If this is Nothing, no element is added on to the result list. If it is Just b, then b is included in the result list.

Examples

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> let readMaybeInt = readMaybe :: String -> Maybe Int
>>> mapMaybe readMaybeInt ["1", "Foo", "3"]
[1,3]
>>> catMaybes $ map readMaybeInt ["1", "Foo", "3"]
[1,3]

>>> mapMaybe Just [1,2,3]
[1,2,3]

The maybe function takes a default value, a function, and a Maybe value. If the Maybe value is Nothing, the function returns the default value. Otherwise, it applies the function to the value inside the Just and returns the result.

Examples

>>> maybe False odd (Just 3)
True

>>> maybe False odd Nothing
False

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> maybe 0 (*2) (readMaybe "5")
10
>>> maybe 0 (*2) (readMaybe "")
0

>>> maybe "" show (Just 5)
"5"
>>> maybe "" show Nothing
""

The IsList class and its methods are intended to be used in conjunction with the OverloadedLists extension.

Since: base-4.7.0.0

The asList function extracts a list of Item a from the structure a. It should satisfy fromList . asList = id.

Convert between two different IsList types. This function can be used instead of the toList function originally provided by the IsList class.

Convert from Foldable to an IsList type.

break, applied to a predicate p and a list xs, returns a tuple where first element is longest prefix (possibly empty) of xs of elements that do not satisfy p and second element is the remainder of the list:

break (> 3) [1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4] == ([1,2,3],[4,1,2,3,4])
break (< 9) [1,2,3] == ([],[1,2,3])
break (> 9) [1,2,3] == ([1,2,3],[])

break p is equivalent to span (not . p).

Find the first instance of needle in haystack. The first element of the returned tuple is the prefix of haystack before needle is matched. The second is the remainder of haystack, starting with the match. If you want the remainder without the match, use stripInfix.

breakOn "::" "a::b::c" == ("a", "::b::c")
breakOn "/" "foobar"   == ("foobar", "")
\needle haystack -> let (prefix,match) = breakOn needle haystack in prefix ++ match == haystack

Similar to breakOn, but searches from the end of the string.

The first element of the returned tuple is the prefix of haystack up to and including the last match of needle. The second is the remainder of haystack, following the match.

breakOnEnd "::" "a::b::c" == ("a::b::", "c")

drop n xs returns the suffix of xs after the first n elements, or [] if n > length xs:

drop 6 "Hello World!" == "World!"
drop 3 [1,2,3,4,5] == [4,5]
drop 3 [1,2] == []
drop 3 [] == []
drop (-1) [1,2] == [1,2]
drop 0 [1,2] == [1,2]

It is an instance of the more general genericDrop, in which n may be of any integral type.

Drop a number of elements from the end of the list.

dropEnd 3 "hello"  == "he"
dropEnd 5 "bye"    == ""
dropEnd (-1) "bye" == "bye"
\i xs -> dropEnd i xs `isPrefixOf` xs
\i xs -> length (dropEnd i xs) == max 0 (length xs - max 0 i)
\i -> take 3 (dropEnd 5 [i..]) == take 3 [i..]

dropWhile p xs returns the suffix remaining after takeWhile p xs:

dropWhile (< 3) [1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3] == [3,4,5,1,2,3]
dropWhile (< 9) [1,2,3] == []
dropWhile (< 0) [1,2,3] == [1,2,3]

The dropWhileEnd function drops the largest suffix of a list in which the given predicate holds for all elements. For example:

>>> dropWhileEnd isSpace "foo\n"
"foo"

>>> dropWhileEnd isSpace "foo bar"
"foo bar"

dropWhileEnd isSpace ("foo\n" ++ undefined) == "foo" ++ undefined

Since: base-4.5.0.0

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]

The group function takes a list and returns a list of lists such that the concatenation of the result is equal to the argument. Moreover, each sublist in the result contains only equal elements. For example,

>>> group "Mississippi"
["M","i","ss","i","ss","i","pp","i"]

It is a special case of groupBy, which allows the programmer to supply their own equality test.

The groupBy function is the non-overloaded version of group.

A version of group where the equality is done on some extracted value.

A combination of group and sort.

groupSort [(1,'t'),(3,'t'),(2,'e'),(2,'s')] == [(1,"t"),(2,"es"),(3,"t")]
\xs -> map fst (groupSort xs) == sort (nub (map fst xs))
\xs -> concatMap snd (groupSort xs) == map snd (sortOn fst xs)

A combination of group and sort, using a predicate to compare on.

groupSortBy (compare `on` length) ["test","of","sized","item"] == [["of"],["test","item"],["sized"]]

A combination of group and sort, using a part of the value to compare on.

groupSortOn length ["test","of","sized","item"] == [["of"],["test","item"],["sized"]]

The inits function returns all initial segments of the argument, shortest first. For example,

>>> inits "abc"
["","a","ab","abc"]

Note that inits has the following strictness property: inits (xs ++ _|_) = inits xs ++ _|_

In particular, inits _|_ = [] : _|_

intercalate xs xss is equivalent to (concat (intersperse xs xss)). It inserts the list xs in between the lists in xss and concatenates the result.

>>> intercalate ", " ["Lorem", "ipsum", "dolor"]
"Lorem, ipsum, dolor"

The intersperse function takes an element and a list and `intersperses' that element between the elements of the list. For example,

>>> intersperse ',' "abcde"
"a,b,c,d,e"

The isPrefixOf function takes two lists and returns True iff the first list is a prefix of the second.

>>> "Hello" `isPrefixOf` "Hello World!"
True

>>> "Hello" `isPrefixOf` "Wello Horld!"
False

The isSuffixOf function takes two lists and returns True iff the first list is a suffix of the second. The second list must be finite.

>>> "ld!" `isSuffixOf` "Hello World!"
True

>>> "World" `isSuffixOf` "Hello World!"
False

iterate f x returns an infinite list of repeated applications of f to x:

iterate f x == [x, f x, f (f x), ...]

Note that iterate is lazy, potentially leading to thunk build-up if the consumer doesn't force each iterate. See 'iterate\'' for a strict variant of this function.

'iterate\'' is the strict version of iterate.

It ensures that the result of each application of force to weak head normal form before proceeding.

lookup key assocs looks up a key in an association list.

O(n log n). The nubOrd function removes duplicate elements from a list. In particular, it keeps only the first occurrence of each element. Unlike the standard nub operator, this version requires an Ord instance and consequently runs asymptotically faster.

nubOrd "this is a test" == "this ae"
nubOrd (take 4 ("this" ++ undefined)) == "this"
\xs -> nubOrd xs == nub xs

A version of nubOrd with a custom predicate.

nubOrdBy (compare `on` length) ["a","test","of","this"] == ["a","test","of"]

A version of nubOrd which operates on a portion of the value.

nubOrdOn length ["a","test","of","this"] == ["a","test","of"]

The permutations function returns the list of all permutations of the argument.

>>> permutations "abc"
["abc","bac","cba","bca","cab","acb"]

repeat x is an infinite list, with x the value of every element.

replicate n x is a list of length n with x the value of every element. It is an instance of the more general genericReplicate, in which n may be of any integral type.

reverse xs returns the elements of xs in reverse order. xs must be finite.

scanl is similar to foldl, but returns a list of successive reduced values from the left:

scanl f z [x1, x2, ...] == [z, z `f` x1, (z `f` x1) `f` x2, ...]

Note that

last (scanl f z xs) == foldl f z xs.

scanr is the right-to-left dual of scanl. Note that

head (scanr f z xs) == foldr f z xs.

The sort function implements a stable sorting algorithm. It is a special case of sortBy, which allows the programmer to supply their own comparison function.

Elements are arranged from from lowest to highest, keeping duplicates in the order they appeared in the input.

>>> sort [1,6,4,3,2,5]
[1,2,3,4,5,6]

The sortBy function is the non-overloaded version of sort.

>>> sortBy (\(a,_) (b,_) -> compare a b) [(2, "world"), (4, "!"), (1, "Hello")]
[(1,"Hello"),(2,"world"),(4,"!")]

Sort a list by comparing the results of a key function applied to each element. sortOn f is equivalent to sortBy (comparing f), but has the performance advantage of only evaluating f once for each element in the input list. This is called the decorate-sort-undecorate paradigm, or Schwartzian transform.

Elements are arranged from from lowest to highest, keeping duplicates in the order they appeared in the input.

>>> sortOn fst [(2, "world"), (4, "!"), (1, "Hello")]
[(1,"Hello"),(2,"world"),(4,"!")]

Since: base-4.8.0.0

span, applied to a predicate p and a list xs, returns a tuple where first element is longest prefix (possibly empty) of xs of elements that satisfy p and second element is the remainder of the list:

span (< 3) [1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4] == ([1,2],[3,4,1,2,3,4])
span (< 9) [1,2,3] == ([1,2,3],[])
span (< 0) [1,2,3] == ([],[1,2,3])

span p xs is equivalent to (takeWhile p xs, dropWhile p xs)

Span, but from the end.

spanEnd isUpper "youRE" == ("you","RE")
spanEnd (not . isSpace) "x y z" == ("x y ","z")
\f xs -> uncurry (++) (spanEnd f xs) == xs
\f xs -> spanEnd f xs == swap (both reverse (span f (reverse xs)))

splitAt n xs returns a tuple where first element is xs prefix of length n and second element is the remainder of the list:

splitAt 6 "Hello World!" == ("Hello ","World!")
splitAt 3 [1,2,3,4,5] == ([1,2,3],[4,5])
splitAt 1 [1,2,3] == ([1],[2,3])
splitAt 3 [1,2,3] == ([1,2,3],[])
splitAt 4 [1,2,3] == ([1,2,3],[])
splitAt 0 [1,2,3] == ([],[1,2,3])
splitAt (-1) [1,2,3] == ([],[1,2,3])

It is equivalent to (take n xs, drop n xs) when n is not _|_ (splitAt _|_ xs = _|_). splitAt is an instance of the more general genericSplitAt, in which n may be of any integral type.

Splits a list into components delimited by separators, where the predicate returns True for a separator element. The resulting components do not contain the separators. Two adjacent separators result in an empty component in the output.

split (== 'a') "aabbaca" == ["","","bb","c",""]
split (== 'a') ""        == [""]
split (== ':') "::xyz:abc::123::" == ["","","xyz","abc","","123","",""]
split (== ',') "my,list,here" == ["my","list","here"]

Break a list into pieces separated by the first list argument, consuming the delimiter. An empty delimiter is invalid, and will cause an error to be raised.

splitOn "\r\n" "a\r\nb\r\nd\r\ne" == ["a","b","d","e"]
splitOn "aaa"  "aaaXaaaXaaaXaaa"  == ["","X","X","X",""]
splitOn "x"    "x"                == ["",""]
splitOn "x"    ""                 == [""]
\s x -> s /= "" ==> intercalate s (splitOn s x) == x
\c x -> splitOn [c] x                           == split (==c) x

The subsequences function returns the list of all subsequences of the argument.

>>> subsequences "abc"
["","a","b","ab","c","ac","bc","abc"]

The tails function returns all final segments of the argument, longest first. For example,

>>> tails "abc"
["abc","bc","c",""]

Note that tails has the following strictness property: tails _|_ = _|_ : _|_

take n, applied to a list xs, returns the prefix of xs of length n, or xs itself if n > length xs:

take 5 "Hello World!" == "Hello"
take 3 [1,2,3,4,5] == [1,2,3]
take 3 [1,2] == [1,2]
take 3 [] == []
take (-1) [1,2] == []
take 0 [1,2] == []

It is an instance of the more general genericTake, in which n may be of any integral type.

Take a number of elements from the end of the list.

takeEnd 3 "hello"  == "llo"
takeEnd 5 "bye"    == "bye"
takeEnd (-1) "bye" == ""
\i xs -> takeEnd i xs `isSuffixOf` xs
\i xs -> length (takeEnd i xs) == min (max 0 i) (length xs)

takeWhile, applied to a predicate p and a list xs, returns the longest prefix (possibly empty) of xs of elements that satisfy p:

takeWhile (< 3) [1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4] == [1,2]
takeWhile (< 9) [1,2,3] == [1,2,3]
takeWhile (< 0) [1,2,3] == []

A version of takeWhile operating from the end.

takeWhileEnd even [2,3,4,6] == [4,6]

The transpose function transposes the rows and columns of its argument. For example,

>>> transpose [[1,2,3],[4,5,6]]
[[1,4],[2,5],[3,6]]

If some of the rows are shorter than the following rows, their elements are skipped:

>>> transpose [[10,11],[20],[],[30,31,32]]
[[10,20,30],[11,31],[32]]

The unfoldr function is a `dual' to foldr: while foldr reduces a list to a summary value, unfoldr builds a list from a seed value. The function takes the element and returns Nothing if it is done producing the list or returns Just (a,b), in which case, a is a prepended to the list and b is used as the next element in a recursive call. For example,

iterate f == unfoldr (\x -> Just (x, f x))

In some cases, unfoldr can undo a foldr operation:

unfoldr f' (foldr f z xs) == xs

if the following holds:

f' (f x y) = Just (x,y)
f' z       = Nothing

A simple use of unfoldr:

>>> unfoldr (\b -> if b == 0 then Nothing else Just (b, b-1)) 10
[10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1]

unzip transforms a list of pairs into a list of first components and a list of second components.

The unzip3 function takes a list of triples and returns three lists, analogous to unzip.

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 _|_ [] = _|_

zip3 takes three lists and returns a list of triples, analogous to zip.

zipWith generalises zip by zipping with the function given as the first argument, instead of a tupling function. For example, zipWith (+) is applied to two lists to produce the list of corresponding sums.

zipWith is right-lazy:

zipWith f [] _|_ = []

The zipWith3 function takes a function which combines three elements, as well as three lists and returns a list of their point-wise combination, analogous to zipWith.

tailDef [12] [] = [12]
tailDef [12] [1,3,4] = [3,4]

tailMay [] = Nothing
tailMay [1,3,4] = Just [3,4]

Non-empty (and non-strict) list type.

Since: base-4.9.0.0

scanl1 is a variant of scanl that has no starting value argument:

scanl1 f [x1, x2, ...] == x1 :| [x1 `f` x2, x1 `f` (x2 `f` x3), ...]

scanr1 is a variant of scanr that has no starting value argument.

Extract the first element of the stream.

Extract everything except the last element of the stream.

Extract the last element of the stream.

Extract the possibly-empty tail of the stream.

cycle xs returns the infinite repetition of xs:

cycle (1 :| [2,3]) = 1 :| [2,3,1,2,3,...]