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Diffstat (limited to 'haskell.html.markdown')
| -rw-r--r-- | haskell.html.markdown | 183 |
1 files changed, 155 insertions, 28 deletions
diff --git a/haskell.html.markdown b/haskell.html.markdown index 563674c9..34df4d08 100644 --- a/haskell.html.markdown +++ b/haskell.html.markdown @@ -1,17 +1,17 @@ --- language: haskell -author: Adit Bhargava -author_url: http://adit.io +contributors: + - ["Adit Bhargava", "http://adit.io"] --- Haskell was designed as a practical, purely functional programming language. It's famous for -it's monads and it's type system, but I keep coming back to it because of it's elegance. Haskell +its monads and its type system, but I keep coming back to it because of its elegance. Haskell makes coding a real joy for me. ```haskell -- Single line comments start with two dashes. {- Multiline comments can be enclosed -in a block like this. +en a block like this. -} ---------------------------------------------------- @@ -44,15 +44,21 @@ not False -- True 1 /= 1 -- False 1 < 10 -- True +-- In the above examples, `not` is a function that takes one value. +-- Haskell doesn't need parentheses for function calls...all the arguments +-- are just listed after the function. So the general pattern is: +-- func arg1 arg2 arg3... +-- See the section on functions for information on how to write your own. + -- Strings and characters "This is a string." 'a' -- character 'You cant use single quotes for strings.' -- error! --- Strings can be added too! +-- Strings can be concatenated "Hello " ++ "world!" -- "Hello world!" --- A string can be treated like a list of characters +-- A string is a list of characters "This is a string" !! 0 -- 'T' @@ -68,14 +74,24 @@ not False -- True -- You can also have infinite lists in Haskell! [1..] -- a list of all the natural numbers --- joining two lists +-- Infinite lists work because Haskell has "lazy evaluation". This means +-- that Haskell only evaluates things when it needs to. So you can ask for +-- the 1000th element of your list and Haskell will give it to you: + +[1..] !! 999 -- 1000 + +-- And now Haskell has evaluated elements 1 - 1000 of this list...but the +-- rest of the elements of this "infinite" list don't exist yet! Haskell won't +-- actually evaluate them until it needs to. + + - joining two lists [1..5] ++ [6..10] -- adding to the head of a list 0:[1..5] -- [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5] -- indexing into a list -[0..] !! 5 -- 4 +[0..] !! 5 -- 5 -- more list operations head [1..5] -- 1 @@ -104,6 +120,10 @@ snd ("haskell", 1) -- 1 -- A simple function that takes two variables add a b = a + b +-- Note that if you are using ghci (the Haskell interpreter) +-- You'll need to use `let`, i.e. +-- let add a b = a + b + -- Using the function add 1 2 -- 3 @@ -132,19 +152,19 @@ fib x = fib (x - 1) + fib (x - 2) -- Pattern matching on tuples: foo (x, y) = (x + 1, y + 2) --- Pattern matching on arrays. Here `x` is the first element --- in the array, and `xs` is the rest of the array. We can write +-- Pattern matching on lists. Here `x` is the first element +-- in the list, and `xs` is the rest of the list. We can write -- our own map function: -map func [x] = [func x] -map func (x:xs) = func x:(map func xs) +myMap func [] = [] +myMap func (x:xs) = func x:(myMap func xs) -- Anonymous functions are created with a backslash followed by -- all the arguments. -map (\x -> x + 2) [1..5] -- [3, 4, 5, 6, 7] +myMap (\x -> x + 2) [1..5] -- [3, 4, 5, 6, 7] -- using fold (called `inject` in some languages) with an anonymous -- function. foldl1 means fold left, and use the first value in the --- array as the initial value for the accumulator. +-- list as the initial value for the accumulator. foldl1 (\acc x -> acc + x) [1..5] -- 15 ---------------------------------------------------- @@ -179,10 +199,10 @@ foo 5 -- 75 -- of parentheses: -- before -(even (double 7)) -- true +(even (fib 7)) -- true -- after -even . double $ 7 -- true +even . fib $ 7 -- true ---------------------------------------------------- -- 5. Type signatures @@ -197,13 +217,17 @@ True :: Bool -- Functions have types too. -- `not` takes a boolean and returns a boolean: -not :: Bool -> Bool +-- not :: Bool -> Bool -- Here's a function that takes two arguments: -add :: Integer -> Integer -> Integer +-- add :: Integer -> Integer -> Integer + +-- When you define a value, it's good practice to write its type above it: +double :: Integer -> Integer +double x = x * 2 ---------------------------------------------------- --- 6. Control Flow +-- 6. Control Flow and If Statements ---------------------------------------------------- -- if statements @@ -221,7 +245,7 @@ case args of _ -> putStrLn "bad args" -- Haskell doesn't have loops because it uses recursion instead. --- map a function over every element in an array +-- map applies a function over every element in an array map (*2) [1..5] -- [2, 4, 6, 8, 10] @@ -234,6 +258,19 @@ for [0..5] $ \i -> show i -- we could've written that like this too: for [0..5] show +-- You can use foldl or foldr to reduce a list +-- foldl <fn> <initial value> <list> +foldl (\x y -> 2*x + y) 4 [1,2,3] -- 43 + +-- This is the same as +(2 * (2 * (2 * 4 + 1) + 2) + 3) + +-- foldl is left-handed, foldr is right- +foldr (\x y -> 2*x + y) 4 [1,2,3] -- 16 + +-- This is now the same as +(2 * 3 + (2 * 2 + (2 * 1 + 4))) + ---------------------------------------------------- -- 7. Data Types ---------------------------------------------------- @@ -244,22 +281,104 @@ data Color = Red | Blue | Green -- Now you can use it in a function: -say :: Color -> IO String -say Red = putStrLn "You are Red!" -say Blue = putStrLn "You are Blue!" -say Green = putStrLn "You are Green!" + +say :: Color -> String +say Red = "You are Red!" +say Blue = "You are Blue!" +say Green = "You are Green!" -- Your data types can have parameters too: data Maybe a = Nothing | Just a -- These are all of type Maybe -Nothing -Just "hello" -Just 1 +Just "hello" -- of type `Maybe String` +Just 1 -- of type `Maybe Int` +Nothing -- of type `Maybe a` for any `a` ---------------------------------------------------- --- 8. The Haskell REPL +-- 8. Haskell IO +---------------------------------------------------- + +-- While IO can't be explained fully without explaining monads, +-- it is not hard to explain enough to get going. + +-- When a Haskell program is executed, the function `main` is +-- called. It must return a value of type `IO ()`. For example: + +main :: IO () +main = putStrLn $ "Hello, sky! " ++ (say Blue) +-- putStrLn has type String -> IO () + +-- It is easiest to do IO if you can implement your program as +-- a function from String to String. The function +-- interact :: (String -> String) -> IO () +-- inputs some text, runs a function on it, and prints out the +-- output. + +countLines :: String -> String +countLines = show . length . lines + +main' = interact countLines + +-- You can think of a value of type `IO ()` as representing a +-- sequence of actions for the computer to do, much like a +-- computer program written in an imperative language. We can use +-- the `do` notation to chain actions together. For example: + +sayHello :: IO () +sayHello = do + putStrLn "What is your name?" + name <- getLine -- this gets a line and gives it the name "input" + putStrLn $ "Hello, " ++ name + +-- Exercise: write your own version of `interact` that only reads +-- one line of input. + +-- The code in `sayHello` will never be executed, however. The only +-- action that ever gets executed is the value of `main`. +-- To run `sayHello` comment out the above definition of `main` +-- and replace it with: +-- main = sayHello + +-- Let's understand better how the function `getLine` we just +-- used works. Its type is: +-- getLine :: IO String +-- You can think of a value of type `IO a` as representing a +-- computer program that will generate a value of type `a` +-- when executed (in addition to anything else it does). We can +-- store and reuse this value using `<-`. We can also +-- make our own action of type `IO String`: + +action :: IO String +action = do + putStrLn "This is a line. Duh" + input1 <- getLine + input2 <- getLine + -- The type of the `do` statement is that of its last line. + -- `return` is not a keyword, but merely a function + return (input1 ++ "\n" ++ input2) -- return :: String -> IO String + +-- We can use this just like we used `getLine`: + +main'' = do + putStrLn "I will echo two lines!" + result <- action + putStrLn result + putStrLn "This was all, folks!" + +-- The type `IO` is an example of a "monad". The way Haskell uses a monad to +-- do IO allows it to be a purely functional language. Any function that +-- interacts with the outside world (i.e. does IO) gets marked as `IO` in its +-- type signature. This lets us reason about what functions are "pure" (don't +-- interact with the outside world or modify state) and what functions aren't. + +-- This is a powerful feature, because it's easy to run pure functions +-- concurrently; so, concurrency in Haskell is very easy. + + +---------------------------------------------------- +-- 9. The Haskell REPL ---------------------------------------------------- -- Start the repl by typing `ghci`. @@ -272,6 +391,14 @@ let foo = 5 >:t foo foo :: Integer + +-- You can also run any action of type `IO ()` + +> sayHello +What is your name? +Friend! +Hello, Friend! + ``` There's a lot more to Haskell, including typeclasses and monads. These are the big ideas that make Haskell such fun to code in. I'll leave you with one final Haskell example: an implementation of quicksort in Haskell: |