Monad transformers with IO and Maybe - haskell

I am trying to stack up IO and Maybe monads but either I don't understand monad transformers well enough or this is not possible using transformers. Can some one help me understand this?
f :: String -> Maybe String
main :: IO ()
main = do
input <- getLine -- IO String
output <- f input -- Maybe String (Can't extract because it is IO do block)
writeFile "out.txt" output -- gives error because writeFile expects output :: String
In the above simplified example, I have a function f that returns a Maybe String and I would like to have a neat way of extracting this in the IO do block. I tried
f :: String -> MaybeT IO String
main :: IO ()
main = do
input <- getLine -- IO String
output <- runMaybeT (f input) -- Extracts output :: Maybe String instead of String
writeFile "out.txt" output -- gives error because writeFile expects output :: String
which lets me extract the Maybe String out in the second line of do block but I need to extract the string out of that. Is there a way to do this without using case?

Let's stick for a moment with your first snippet. If f input is a Maybe String, and you want to pass its result to writeFile "out.txt", which takes a String, you need to deal with the possibility of f input being Nothing. You don't have to literally use a case-statement. For instance:
maybe from the Prelude is case analysis packaged as a function;
fromMaybe from Data.Maybe lets you easily supply a default value, if that makes sense for your use case;
traverse_ and for_ from Data.Foldable could be used to silently ignore Nothing-ness:
for_ (f input) (writeFile "out.txt") -- Does nothing if `f input` is `Nothing`.
Still, no matter what you choose to do, it will involve handling Nothing somehow.
As for MaybeT, you don't really want monad transformers here. MaybeT IO is for when you want something like a Maybe computation but in which you can also include IO computations. If f :: String -> Maybe String already does what you want, you don't need to add an underlying IO layer to it.

Related

Haskell: read a text file of doubles and assign a list containing them to a list variable

Okay, I'm new to the Haskell community having come from Python and this is driving me crazy.
I have a text file looking something like:
"1.2
1.423
2.43".
I want to read this text file and store it as a list of doubles in list_var. So list_var = [1.2,1.423,2.43]. This list_var will be used further in the program.
I just don't seem to find an answer on how to do this, most answers can print out list_var, e.g. Haskell - Read a file containing numbers into a list but I need list_var further down the line!
I have tried:
get_coefficients :: String -> [Double]
get_coefficients file_1 = do
coefficients_fromfile <- readLines "test2.txt"
let coefficients = map readDouble coefficients_fromfile
return coefficients
which doesn't work, readLines is
readLines :: FilePath -> IO [String]
readLines = fmap lines . readFile
and readDouble is
readDouble :: String -> Double
readDouble = read
Thanks in advance!
Since you use return, your output is in a monad, in this case the IO monad. As the error message tells you, you should change this line:
get_coefficients :: String -> [Double]
To this:
get_coefficients :: String -> IO [Double]
This is because of a core principle of Haskell: referential transparency.
If you want to use the [Double] produced, you still have to keep it in an IO monad, like so:
main :: IO ()
main = do
-- This can be thought of as taking out values from the monad,
-- but requires the promise that it'll be put back into a monad later.
doubles <- get_coefficients "This argument does nothing, why?"
-- This prints the list of doubles. Note: it returns an IO (),
-- thus fufills the promise!
-- print :: Show a => a -> IO ()
print doubles

Extracting ByteString from IO context? [duplicate]

I wrote a bunch of code in Haskell to create an index of a text. The top function looks like this:
index :: String -> [(String, [Integer])]
index a = [...]
Now I want to give this function a String read from a file:
index readFile "input.txt"
Which won't work because readFile is of type FilePath -> IO String.
Couldn't match expected type 'String'
against inferred type 'IO String'
I see the error, but I can't find any function with type:
IO String -> String
I guess the key to success lies somewhere under some Monads, but I could not find a way to solve my problem.
You can easily enough write a function that calls the readFile action, and passes the result to your index function.
readAndIndex fileName = do
text <- readFile fileName
return $ index text
However, the IO monad taints everything that uses it, so this function has the type:
readAndIndex :: FilePath -> IO [(String, [Integer])]
There is a very good reason why there is no such function.
Haskell has the notion of functional purity. This means that a function will always return the same result when called with the same parameters. The only place where IO is allowed is inside the IO monad.
If there was* a function
index :: IO String -> String
then we could suddenly do IO actions anywhere by calling, for example:
index (launchMissiles >> deleteRoot >> return "PWNd!")
Functional purity is a very useful feature that we don't want to lose, since it allows the compiler to reorder and inline functions much more freely, they can be sparked off to different cores without changing the semantics and it also gives the programmers a sense of security since if you can know what a function can and can't do from it's type.
* Actually there is such a function. It's called unsafePerformIO and it's called that for very, very good reasons. Do not use it unless you're 100% sure of what you are doing!
Well you cannot get rid of the IO monad part of IO String. That means you will have to make your function return IO [(String, [Integer])].
I recommend learning more about monads, but for now you can get away with the liftM function:
liftM index (readFile "input.txt")
liftM has this signature:
liftM :: Monad m => (a -> b) -> m a -> m b
It takes a non-monadic function and transforms it into a monadic function.
fmap index $ readFile "input.txt"
or
readFile "input.txt" >>= return . index
You may want to look into monad and functors

After reading a file I have IO [Char], but I need [IO Char]

I have a file number.txt which contains a large number and I read it into an IO String like this:
readNumber = readFile "number.txt" >>= return
In another function I want to create a list of Ints, one Int for each digit…
Lets assume the content of number.txt is:
1234567890
Then I want my function to return [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0].
I tried severall versions with map, mapM(_), liftM, and, and, and, but I got several error messages everytime, which I was able to reduce to
Couldn't match expected type `[m0 Char]'
with actual type `IO String'
The last version I have on disk is the following:
module Main where
import Control.Monad
import Data.Char (digitToInt)
main = intify >>= putStrLn . show
readNumber = readFile "number.txt" >>= return
intify = mapM (liftM digitToInt) readNumber
So, as far as I understand the error, I need some function that takes IO [a] and returns [IO a], but I was not able to find such thing with hoogle… Only the other way round seemes to exist
In addition to the other great answers here, it's nice to talk about how to read [IO Char] versus IO [Char]. In particular, you'd call [IO Char] "an (immediate) list of (deferred) IO actions which produce Chars" and IO [Char] "a (deferred) IO action producing a list of Chars".
The important part is the location of "deferred" above---the major difference between a type IO a and a type a is that the former is best thought of as a set of instructions to be executed at runtime which eventually produce an a... while the latter is just that very a.
This phase distinction is key to understanding how IO values work. It's also worth noting that it can be very fluid within a program---functions like fmap or (>>=) allow us to peek behind the phase distinction. As an example, consider the following function
foo :: IO Int -- <-- our final result is an `IO` action
foo = fmap f getChar where -- <-- up here getChar is an `IO Char`, not a real one
f :: Char -> Int
f = Data.Char.ord -- <-- inside here we have a "real" `Char`
Here we build a deferred action (foo) by modifying a deferred action (getChar) by using a function which views a world that only comes into existence after our deferred IO action has run.
So let's tie this knot and get back to the question at hand. Why can't you turn an IO [Char] into an [IO Char] (in any meaningful way)? Well, if you're looking at a piece of code which has access to IO [Char] then the first thing you're going to want to do is sneak inside of that IO action
floob = do chars <- (getChars :: IO [Char])
...
where in the part left as ... we have access to chars :: [Char] because we've "stepped into" the IO action getChars. This means that by this point we've must have already run whatever runtime actions are required to generate that list of characters. We've let the cat out of the monad and we can't get it back in (in any meaningful way) since we can't go back and "unread" each individual character.
(Note: I keep saying "in any meaningful way" because we absolutely can put cats back into monads using return, but this won't let us go back in time and have never let them out in the first place. That ship has sailed.)
So how do we get a type [IO Char]? Well, we have to know (without running any IO) what kind of IO operations we'd like to do. For instance, we could write the following
replicate 10 getChar :: [IO Char]
and immediately do something like
take 5 (replicate 10 getChar)
without ever running an IO action---our list structure is immediately available and not deferred until the runtime has a chance to get to it. But note that we must know exactly the structure of the IO actions we'd like to perform in order to create a type [IO Char]. That said, we could use yet another level of IO to peek at the real world in order to determine the parameters of our action
do len <- (figureOutLengthOfReadWithoutActuallyReading :: IO Int)
return $ replicate len getChar
and this fragment has type IO [IO Char]. To run it we have to step through IO twice, we have to let the runtime perform two IO actions, first to determine the length and then second to actually act on our list of IO Char actions.
sequence :: [IO a] -> IO [a]
The above function, sequence, is a common way to execute some structure containing a, well, sequence of IO actions. We can use that to do our two-phase read
twoPhase :: IO [Char]
twoPhase = do len <- (figureOutLengthOfReadWithoutActuallyReading :: IO Int)
putStrLn ("About to read " ++ show len ++ " characters")
sequence (replicate len getChar)
>>> twoPhase
Determining length of read
About to read 22 characters
let me write 22 charac"let me write 22 charac"
You got some things mixed up:
readNumber = readFile "number.txt" >>= return
the return is unecessary, just leave it out.
Here is a working version:
module Main where
import Data.Char (digitToInt)
main :: IO ()
main = intify >>= print
readNumber :: IO String
readNumber = readFile "number.txt"
intify :: IO [Int]
intify = fmap (map digitToInt) readNumber
Such a function can't exists, because you would be able to evaluate the length of the list without ever invoking any IO.
What is possible is this:
imbue' :: IO [a] -> IO [IO a]
imbue' = fmap $ map return
Which of course generalises to
imbue :: (Functor f, Monad m) => m (f a) -> m (f (m a))
imbue = liftM $ fmap return
You can then do, say,
quun :: IO [Char]
bar :: [IO Char] -> IO Y
main = do
actsList <- imbue quun
y <- bar actsLists
...
Only, the whole thing about using [IO Char] is pointless: it's completely equivalent to the much more straightforward way of working only with lists of "pure values", only using the IO monad "outside"; how to do that is shown in Markus's answer.
Do you really need many different helper functions? Because you may write just
main = do
file <- readFile "number.txt"
let digits = map digitToInt file
print digits
or, if you really need to separate them, try to minimize the amount of IO signatures:
readNumber = readFile "number.txt" --Will be IO String
intify = map digitToInt --Will be String -> [Int], not IO
main = readNumber >>= print . intify

How can I parse the IO String in Haskell?

I' ve got a problem with Haskell. I have text file looking like this:
5.
7.
[(1,2,3),(4,5,6),(7,8,9),(10,11,12)].
I haven't any idea how can I get the first 2 numbers (2 and 7 above) and the list from the last line. There are dots on the end of each line.
I tried to build a parser, but function called 'readFile' return the Monad called IO String. I don't know how can I get information from that type of string.
I prefer work on a array of chars. Maybe there is a function which can convert from 'IO String' to [Char]?
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding about IO in Haskell. Particularly, you say this:
Maybe there is a function which can convert from 'IO String' to [Char]?
No, there isn't1, and the fact that there is no such function is one of the most important things about Haskell.
Haskell is a very principled language. It tries to maintain a distinction between "pure" functions (which don't have any side-effects, and always return the same result when give the same input) and "impure" functions (which have side effects like reading from files, printing to the screen, writing to disk etc). The rules are:
You can use a pure function anywhere (in other pure functions, or in impure functions)
You can only use impure functions inside other impure functions.
The way that code is marked as pure or impure is using the type system. When you see a function signature like
digitToInt :: String -> Int
you know that this function is pure. If you give it a String it will return an Int and moreover it will always return the same Int if you give it the same String. On the other hand, a function signature like
getLine :: IO String
is impure, because the return type of String is marked with IO. Obviously getLine (which reads a line of user input) will not always return the same String, because it depends on what the user types in. You can't use this function in pure code, because adding even the smallest bit of impurity will pollute the pure code. Once you go IO you can never go back.
You can think of IO as a wrapper. When you see a particular type, for example, x :: IO String, you should interpret that to mean "x is an action that, when performed, does some arbitrary I/O and then returns something of type String" (note that in Haskell, String and [Char] are exactly the same thing).
So how do you ever get access to the values from an IO action? Fortunately, the type of the function main is IO () (it's an action that does some I/O and returns (), which is the same as returning nothing). So you can always use your IO functions inside main. When you execute a Haskell program, what you are doing is running the main function, which causes all the I/O in the program definition to actually be executed - for example, you can read and write from files, ask the user for input, write to stdout etc etc.
You can think of structuring a Haskell program like this:
All code that does I/O gets the IO tag (basically, you put it in a do block)
Code that doesn't need to perform I/O doesn't need to be in a do block - these are the "pure" functions.
Your main function sequences together the I/O actions you've defined in an order that makes the program do what you want it to do (interspersed with the pure functions wherever you like).
When you run main, you cause all of those I/O actions to be executed.
So, given all that, how do you write your program? Well, the function
readFile :: FilePath -> IO String
reads a file as a String. So we can use that to get the contents of the file. The function
lines:: String -> [String]
splits a String on newlines, so now you have a list of Strings, each corresponding to one line of the file. The function
init :: [a] -> [a]
Drops the last element from a list (this will get rid of the final . on each line). The function
read :: (Read a) => String -> a
takes a String and turns it into an arbitrary Haskell data type, such as Int or Bool. Combining these functions sensibly will give you your program.
Note that the only time you actually need to do any I/O is when you are reading the file. Therefore that is the only part of the program that needs to use the IO tag. The rest of the program can be written "purely".
It sounds like what you need is the article The IO Monad For People Who Simply Don't Care, which should explain a lot of your questions. Don't be scared by the term "monad" - you don't need to understand what a monad is to write Haskell programs (notice that this paragraph is the only one in my answer that uses the word "monad", although admittedly I have used it four times now...)
Here's the program that (I think) you want to write
run :: IO (Int, Int, [(Int,Int,Int)])
run = do
contents <- readFile "text.txt" -- use '<-' here so that 'contents' is a String
let [a,b,c] = lines contents -- split on newlines
let firstLine = read (init a) -- 'init' drops the trailing period
let secondLine = read (init b)
let thirdLine = read (init c) -- this reads a list of Int-tuples
return (firstLine, secondLine, thirdLine)
To answer npfedwards comment about applying lines to the output of readFile text.txt, you need to realize that readFile text.txt gives you an IO String, and it's only when you bind it to a variable (using contents <-) that you get access to the underlying String, so that you can apply lines to it.
Remember: once you go IO, you never go back.
1 I am deliberately ignoring unsafePerformIO because, as implied by the name, it is very unsafe! Don't ever use it unless you really know what you are doing.
As a programming noob, I too was confused by IOs. Just remember that if you go IO you never come out. Chris wrote a great explanation on why. I just thought it might help to give some examples on how to use IO String in a monad. I'll use getLine which reads user input and returns an IO String.
line <- getLine
All this does is bind the user input from getLine to a value named line. If you type this this in ghci, and type :type line it will return:
:type line
line :: String
But wait! getLine returns an IO String
:type getLine
getLine :: IO String
So what happened to the IOness from getLine? <- is what happened. <- is your IO friend. It allows you to bring out the value that is tainted by the IO within a monad and use it with your normal functions. Monads are easily identified because they begin with do. Like so:
main = do
putStrLn "How much do you love Haskell?"
amount <- getLine
putStrln ("You love Haskell this much: " ++ amount)
If you're like me, you'll soon discover that liftIO is your next best monad friend, and that $ help reduce the number of parenthesis you need to write.
So how do you get the information from readFile? Well if readFile's output is IO String like so:
:type readFile
readFile :: FilePath -> IO String
Then all you need is your friendly <-:
yourdata <- readFile "samplefile.txt"
Now if type that in ghci and check the type of yourdata you'll notice it's a simple String.
:type yourdata
text :: String
As people already say, if you have two functions, one is readStringFromFile :: FilePath -> IO String, and another is doTheRightThingWithString :: String -> Something, then you don't really need to escape a string from IO, since you can combine this two functions in various ways:
With fmap for IO (IO is Functor):
fmap doTheRightThingWithString readStringFromFile
With (<$>) for IO (IO is Applicative and (<$>) == fmap):
import Control.Applicative
...
doTheRightThingWithString <$> readStringFromFile
With liftM for IO (liftM == fmap):
import Control.Monad
...
liftM doTheRightThingWithString readStringFromFile
With (>>=) for IO (IO is Monad, fmap == (<$>) == liftM == \f m -> m >>= return . f):
readStringFromFile >>= \string -> return (doTheRightThingWithString string)
readStringFromFile >>= \string -> return $ doTheRightThingWithString string
readStringFromFile >>= return . doTheRightThingWithString
return . doTheRightThingWithString =<< readStringFromFile
With do notation:
do
...
string <- readStringFromFile
-- ^ you escape String from IO but only inside this do-block
let result = doTheRightThingWithString string
...
return result
Every time you will get IO Something.
Why you would want to do it like that? Well, with this you will have pure and
referentially transparent programs (functions) in your language. This means that every function which type is IO-free is pure and referentially transparent, so that for the same arguments it will returns the same values. For example, doTheRightThingWithString would return the same Something for the same String. However readStringFromFile which is not IO-free can return different strings every time (because file can change), so that you can't escape such unpure value from IO.
If you have a parser of this type:
myParser :: String -> Foo
and you read the file using
readFile "thisfile.txt"
then you can read and parse the file using
fmap myParser (readFile "thisfile.txt")
The result of that will have type IO Foo.
The fmap means myParser runs "inside" the IO.
Another way to think of it is that whereas myParser :: String -> Foo, fmap myParser :: IO String -> IO Foo.

Writing an IO String to stdout in Haskell

How do we print the output of a function that returns an IO String to the stdout? I am not able to use show or print.
If you want to print the result of the function foo :: Int -> IO String (for example), you can do
main = do
str <- foo 12
putStrLn str
or, without the do-notation,
main = foo 12 >>= putStrLn.
The do-notation is syntactic sugar for the second, which uses the fundamental (>>=) combinator, which has the type
(>>=) :: Monad m => m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b
IO is an instance of the Monad class, so you can use it here.
foo :: Int -> IO String
foo 12 :: IO String
putStrLn :: String -> IO ()
(foo 12) >>= putStrLn :: IO ()
How do we print the output of a function that returns an IO String to the stdout?
Well let's see. Here's a function that returns an IO String:
dumbFunction :: a -> IO String
dumbFunction x = getLine
dumbFunction is a dumb function (but a function nonetheless!). It ignores its input, and then returns getLine, which has the type IO String.
So you tell me, how do you print getLine :: IO String? The answer is, you don't! This is what we call an "IO action". Note that an IO action is not a function, because it does not take input. (However, IO actions might acquire input from, well, IO operations such as reading stdin, as getLine does. But it is not considered a "function" because it does not accept any traditional input)
So instead of printing out the action itself, you probably want to run the action, and then print the result. This can be done as Daniel Fischer described (with <-, which can be thought of as the "run" operator).

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