Prism

A Prism l is a Traversal that can also be turned around with re to obtain a Getter in the opposite direction.

There are two laws that a Prism should satisfy:

First, if I re or review a value with a Prism and then preview or use (^?), I will get it back:

preview l (review l b) ≡ Just b

Second, if you can extract a value a using a Prism l from a value s, then the value s is completely described by l and a:

If preview l s ≡ Just a then review l a ≡ s

These two laws imply that the Traversal laws hold for every Prism and that we traverse at most 1 element:

lengthOf l x <= 1

It may help to think of this as a Iso that can be partial in one direction.

Every Prism is a valid Traversal.

Every Iso is a valid Prism.

For example, you might have a Prism' Integer Natural allows you to always go from a Natural to an Integer, and provide you with tools to check if an Integer is a Natural and/or to edit one if it is.

nat :: Prism' Integer Natural
nat = prism toInteger $ \ i ->
   if i < 0
   then Left i
   else Right (fromInteger i)

Now we can ask if an Integer is a Natural.

>>> 5^?nat
Just 5

>>> (-5)^?nat
Nothing

We can update the ones that are:

>>> (-3,4) & both.nat *~ 2
(-3,8)

And we can then convert from a Natural to an Integer.

>>> 5 ^. re nat -- :: Natural
5

Similarly we can use a Prism to traverse the Left half of an Either:

>>> Left "hello" & _Left %~ length
Left 5

or to construct an Either:

>>> 5^.re _Left
Left 5

such that if you query it with the Prism, you will get your original input back.

>>> 5^.re _Left ^? _Left
Just 5

Another interesting way to think of a Prism is as the categorical dual of a Lens -- a co-Lens, so to speak. This is what permits the construction of outside.

Note: Composition with a Prism is index-preserving.

A Simple Prism.

Build a Prism.

Either t a is used instead of Maybe a to permit the types of s and t to differ.

This is usually used to build a Prism', when you have to use an operation like cast which already returns a Maybe.

Check to see if this Prism matches.

>>> is _Left (Right 12)
False

>>> is hex "3f79"
True

This Prism compares for exact equality with a given value.

>>> only 4 # ()
4

>>> 5 ^? only 4
Nothing