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($) is the function application operator.

Applying ($) to a function f and an argument x gives the same result as applying f to x directly. The definition is akin to this:

($) :: (a -> b) -> a -> b
($) f x = f x

This is id specialized from a -> a to (a -> b) -> (a -> b) which by the associativity of (->) is the same as (a -> b) -> a -> b.

On the face of it, this may appear pointless! But it's actually one of the most useful and important operators in Haskell.

The order of operations is very different between ($) and normal function application. Normal function application has precedence 10 - higher than any operator - and associates to the left. So these two definitions are equivalent:

expr = min 5 1 + 5
expr = ((min 5) 1) + 5

($) has precedence 0 (the lowest) and associates to the right, so these are equivalent:

expr = min 5 $ 1 + 5
expr = (min 5) (1 + 5)

Examples

A common use cases of ($) is to avoid parentheses in complex expressions.

For example, instead of using nested parentheses in the following Haskell function:

-- | Sum numbers in a string: strSum "100  5 -7" == 98
strSum :: String -> Int
strSum s = sum (mapMaybe readMaybe (words s))

we can deploy the function application operator:

-- | Sum numbers in a string: strSum "100  5 -7" == 98
strSum :: String -> Int
strSum s = sum $ mapMaybe readMaybe $ words s

($) is also used as a section (a partially applied operator), in order to indicate that we wish to apply some yet-unspecified function to a given value. For example, to apply the argument 5 to a list of functions:

applyFive :: [Int]
applyFive = map ($ 5) [(+1), (2^)]
>>> [6, 32]

Technical Remark (Representation Polymorphism)

($) is fully representation-polymorphic. This allows it to also be used with arguments of unlifted and even unboxed kinds, such as unboxed integers:

fastMod :: Int -> Int -> Int
fastMod (I# x) (I# m) = I# $ remInt# x m

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.

Boolean "and", lazy in the second argument

Boolean "or", lazy in the second argument

morphism composition

Boolean "not"

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

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

Strict tuple (a,b)

Strict tuple (a,b,c)

Strict tuple (a,b,c,d)

Class of product types that have a first element

Class of product types that have a second element

Class of product types that have a third element

the identity morphism

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

Basic usage:

>>> maybe False odd (Just 3)True

>>> maybe False odd NothingFalse

Read an integer from a string using readMaybe. If we succeed, return twice the integer; that is, apply (*2) to it. If instead we fail to parse an integer, return 0 by default:

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

Apply show to a Maybe Int. If we have Just n, we want to show the underlying Int n. But if we have Nothing, we return the empty string instead of (for example) "Nothing":

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

Case analysis for the Either type. If the value is Left a, apply the first function to a; if it is Right b, apply the second function to b.

Examples

We create two values of type Either String Int, one using the Left constructor and another using the Right constructor. Then we apply "either" the Prelude.length function (if we have a String) or the "times-two" function (if we have an Int):

>>> let s = Left "foo" :: Either String Int>>> let n = Right 3 :: Either String Int>>> either length (*2) s3>>> either length (*2) n6

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

prop> flip f x y = f y x

prop> flip . flip = id

Examples

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

>>> let (.>) = flip (.) in (+1) .> show $ 5"6"

const x y always evaluates to x, ignoring its second argument.

const x = \_ -> x

This function might seem useless at first glance, but it can be very useful in a higher order context.

Examples

>>> const 42 "hello"42

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

stop execution and displays an error message

Print a string to standard output

Print a string with a newline to standard output

Returns a list of the program's command line arguments (not including the program name).

uncurry converts a curried function to a function on pairs.

Examples

>>> uncurry (+) (1,2)3

>>> uncurry ($) (show, 1)"1"

>>> map (uncurry max) [(1,2), (3,4), (6,8)][2,4,8]

Convert an uncurried function to a curried function.

Examples

>>> curry fst 1 21

Swap the components of a pair.

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.

A special case of error. It is expected that compilers will recognize this and insert error messages which are more appropriate to the context in which undefined appears.

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.

Data that can be fully evaluated in Normal Form

Conversion of values to readable Strings.

Derived instances of Show have the following properties, which are compatible with derived instances of Text.Read.Read:

• The result of show is a syntactically correct Haskell expression containing only constants, given the fixity declarations in force at the point where the type is declared. It contains only the constructor names defined in the data type, parentheses, and spaces. When labelled constructor fields are used, braces, commas, field names, and equal signs are also used.

• If the constructor is defined to be an infix operator, then showsPrec will produce infix applications of the constructor.

• the representation will be enclosed in parentheses if the precedence of the top-level constructor in x is less than d (associativity is ignored). Thus, if d is 0 then the result is never surrounded in parentheses; if d is 11 it is always surrounded in parentheses, unless it is an atomic expression.

• If the constructor is defined using record syntax, then show will produce the record-syntax form, with the fields given in the same order as the original declaration.

For example, given the declarations

infixr 5 :^:
data Tree a =  Leaf a  |  Tree a :^: Tree a

the derived instance of Show is equivalent to

instance (Show a) => Show (Tree a) where

       showsPrec d (Leaf m) = showParen (d > app_prec) $
            showString "Leaf " . showsPrec (app_prec+1) m
         where app_prec = 10

       showsPrec d (u :^: v) = showParen (d > up_prec) $
            showsPrec (up_prec+1) u .
            showString " :^: "      .
            showsPrec (up_prec+1) v
         where up_prec = 5

Note that right-associativity of :^: is ignored. For example,

• show (Leaf 1 :^: Leaf 2 :^: Leaf 3) produces the string "Leaf 1 :^: (Leaf 2 :^: Leaf 3)".

Use the Show class to create a String.

Note that this is not efficient, since an intermediate [Char] is going to be created before turning into a real String.

The Ord class is used for totally ordered datatypes.

Instances of Ord can be derived for any user-defined datatype whose constituent types are in Ord. The declared order of the constructors in the data declaration determines the ordering in derived Ord instances. The Ordering datatype allows a single comparison to determine the precise ordering of two objects.

Ord, as defined by the Haskell report, implements a total order and has the following properties:

Comparability

x <= y || y <= x

=

True

Transitivity

if

x <= y && y <= z

=

True

, then

x <= z

=

True

Reflexivity

x <= x

=

True

Antisymmetry

if

x <= y && y <= x

=

True

, then

x == y

=

True

The following operator interactions are expected to hold:

1. x >= y = y <= x

2. x < y = x <= y && x /= y

3. x > y = y < x

4. x < y = compare x y == LT

5. x > y = compare x y == GT

6. x == y = compare x y == EQ

7. min x y == if x <= y then x else y = True

8. max x y == if x >= y then x else y = True

Note that (7.) and (8.) do not require min and max to return either of their arguments. The result is merely required to equal one of the arguments in terms of (==).

Minimal complete definition: either compare or <=. Using compare can be more efficient for complex types.

The Eq class defines equality (==) and inequality (/=). All the basic datatypes exported by the Prelude are instances of Eq, and Eq may be derived for any datatype whose constituents are also instances of Eq.

The Haskell Report defines no laws for Eq. However, instances are encouraged to follow these properties:

Reflexivity

x == x

=

True

Symmetry

x == y

=

y == x

Transitivity

if

x == y && y == z

=

True

, then

x == z

=

True

Extensionality

if

x == y

=

True

and

f

is a function whose return type is an instance of

Eq

, then

f x == f y

=

True

Negation

x /= y

=

not (x == y)