On 6/22/06, Sara Kenedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hello all,
Now I am trying with the function of polymorphic type: This function
returns the Nth element of list with type a. I try it as below.
getNthElem :: Int -> [a] -> Maybe a
getNthElemt _ [] = Nothing
getNthElem 0 _ = Nothing
getNthElem n s
| n > length s = Nothing
| otherwise = Just ((drop (n-1) (take n s))!!0)
>getNthElem 2 ["a","b","c"]
Just "b"
However, I do not satisfy with this function because I want to return
the Nth element of type a, not (Maybe a). For example, I want this
function:
getNthElem :: Int -> [a] -> a
But, I do not know how to define the empty element of type a.
Not all types (especially numbers) have an empty element (what does
that even mean?). Suppose you have a list
[0, 1, -2, -1, 2]
and you try getNthElemt 4 and your program assumes that the empty
element for integers is 0. How can you tell that 0 from the 0 at the
beginning of the list [0, 1, 2]? Think really hard about what you are
asking and you will see why Maybe a takes the type a and extends it,
in a way, with an empty element, Nothing. To convert it from Maybe a
to a, try, e.g.
fromJust (Just 4) ====> 4
(it will give exceptions when Nothing shows up).
getNthElemt _ [] = ????
getNthElem 0 _ = ????
One possiblity is to make a class called empty with a single member:
class Empty a where
empty :: a
instance Empty [a] where -- this also makes "" = empty for String
empty = []
instance Empty Maybe a where -- is this desirable?
empty = Nothing
instance Integer where -- or this?
empty = 0
...
and then add the constraint to your function:
getNthElem :: Empty a => Int -> [a] -> a
getNthElem :: Int -> [a] -> Maybe a
getNthElemt _ [] = empty
getNthElem 0 _ = empty
getNthElem n s
| n > length s = empty
| otherwise = ((drop (n-1) (take n s))!!0)
but you need overlapping instances to instantiate [a]. Or you could
use MonadPlus and mzero instead of Empty and empty, but that would
only work for List, Maybe and other monads and not for Integer, etc.
Note that in a dynamic language the same thing happens. In python
4 + None
raises an exception. I don't think it's possible to get away from this
whole "failure" concept (except silently ignore it---in perl 4+null
yields 4 but is that always the right behavior in all situations? It
makes bugs really hard to find.)
Jared.
--
http://www.updike.org/~jared/
reverse ")-:"
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