All:
How can I write the following in the "Curry" syntax:
let y = 2 in
let f x = x + y in
let f x = let y = 3 in f y in
f 5
I at first tried something like this:
(y -> (f -> ((f x -> f 5) (y -> f y) 3)) x + y) 2
However this does not seem evaluate properly.
Even better yet would be a Lambda-expression to see binding.
Thanks!
let v = e1 in e2 translates to lambda calculus as (\v.e2)(e1) (where I use the backslash to denote a lambda). So, your example would be
(\y1.(\f1.(\f2.f2 5)(\x2.(\y2.f1(y2))(3)))(\x1.x1+y1))(2)
I used alpha conversion to differentiate between variables that otherwise would have the same name. Observe that the f in the middle has become f1, that is the f in f y in the third line of your example uses the f defined in the second line, not the one which is about to be defined in the third line. In other words, your definition is not recursive; you have used let, not let rec.
Digression: Translating let rec into the lambda calculus requires a fixed point combinator Y (or some like technique). Y is characterized by the property that Y(f) reduces to f(Y(f)). Then, let rec v = e1 in e2 roughly translates to (\v.e2)(Y(\v.e1)).
Related
fix f = let {x = f x} in x
Talking about let, I thought that let P = Q in R would evaluate Q -> Q' then P is replaced by Q' in R, or: R[P -> Q'].
But in fix definition the Q depends on R, how to evaluate then?
I imagine that this is about lazy evaluation. Q' becomes a thunk, but I can't reason this in my head.
As a matter of context, I'm looking at Y combinator, it should find a fixed point of a function so if I have this function, one x = 1, then fix one == 1 must hold, right?
So fix one = let {x = one x} in x, but I can't see how 1 would emerge from that.
Talking about let, I thought that let P = Q in R would evaluate Q -> Q' then P is replaced by Q' in R, or: R[P -> Q'].
Morally, yes, but P is not immediately evaluated, it is evaluated when needed.
But in fix definition the Q depends on R, how to evaluate then?
Q does not depend on R, it depends on P. This makes P depend on itself, recursively. This can lead to several different outcomes. Roughly put:
If Q can not return any part of its result before evaluating P, then P represents an infinitely recursing computation, which does not terminate. For example,
let x = x + 1 in x -- loops forever with no result
-- (GHC is able to catch this specific case and raise an exception instead,
-- but it's an irrelevant detail)
If Q can instead return a part of its result before needing to evaluate P, it does so.
let x = 2 : x in x
-- x = 2 : .... can be generated immediately
-- This results in the infinite list 2:2:2:2:2:.....
let x = (32, 10 + fst x) in x
-- x = (32, ...) can be generated immediately
-- hence x = (32, 10 + fst (32, ...)) = (32, 10+32) = (32, 42)
I imagine that this is about lazy evaluation. Q' becomes a thunk, but I can't reason this in my head.
P is associated with a thunk. What matters is whether this thunk calls itself before returning some part of the output or not.
As a matter of context, I'm looking at Y combinator, it should find a fixed point of a function so if I have this function. one x = 1, then fix one == 1 must hold, right?
Yes.
So fix one = let x = one x in x, but I can't see why 1 would emerge from that
We can compute it like this:
fix one
= {- definition of fix -}
let x = one x in x
= {- definition of x -}
let x = one x in one x
= {- definition of one -}
let x = one x in 1
= {- x is now irrelevant -}
1
Just expand the definitions. Keep recursive definitions around in case you need them again.
Reading this answer, I'm getting puzzled by the very first code fragment:
data Pair a = P a a
instance Functor Pair where
fmap f (P x y) = P (f x) (f y)
instance Monad Pair where
return x = P x x
P a b >>= f = P x y
where P x _ = f a
P _ y = f b
What I see is the author redefining a data constructor two times and applying it to undefined variables.
First off, how does the second of the two definitions of P (those two that are found in the where clause of the instance Monad definition) matter if, as I believe, the first one (whichever we put first) always matches?
Second, according to what syntax rules could the expression P x y get evaluated when there are no expressions for x and y in scope, but rather some kind of a redefinition of a data constructor that happens to mention these variables' names?
Interesting to note that, if I instead write like:
P a b >>= f = P x y
where P u _ = f a
P _ v = f b
— substituting u & v for x & y
— I will observe an error: Variable not in scope for each of x & y, even though by all sane intuition renaming a bound variable makes no difference.
The equation
P x y = z
does not define P, only x and y. This is the case in general: only the data and newtype keywords can introduce new constructors. All other equations define only term variables. To disambiguate between the two, constructors always begin with upper case (for the special case of operators, : counts as "upper case punctuation") and variables always begin with lower case.
So, the meaning of
P a b >>= f = P x y
where P x _ = f a
P _ y = f b
reads like this:
Define a new function named (>>=). It is defined when the first argument matches the pattern P a b (binding a and b to the actual values P is applied to in the first argument), and when the second argument matches the pattern f (that is, always, and binding f to the value of that second argument).
Apply f to a. Make sure the result of this matches the pattern P x _ (binding x to the first value P is applied to and throwing away the second).
Apply f to b. Make sure the result of this matches the pattern P _ y (binding y to the second value P is applied to and throwing away the first).
Return the value P x y.
f x zero = Nothing
f x y = Just $ x / y
where zero = 0
The literal-bound identifier zero simply matches all after the warning Pattern match(es) are overlapped.
That's how Haskell's syntax works; every lowercase-initial variable name in a pattern (re)binds that name. Any existing binding will be shadowed.
But even if that weren't the case, the binding for zero would not be visible to the first alternative, because of how Haskell's syntax works. A similar thing happens in the following version:
f = \v1 v2 -> case (v1, v2) of
(x, zero) -> Nothing
(x, y) -> Just $ x / y
where zero = 0
The where clause only applies to the one alternative that it's part of, not to the whole list of alternatives. That code is pretty much the same thing as
f = \v1 v2 -> case (v1, v2) of
(x, zero) -> Nothing
(x, y) -> let zero = 0 in Just $ x / y
If bound identifiers had different semantics than unbound identifiers in a pattern match, that could be quite error prone as binding a new identifier could mess up pattern matches anywhere that identifier is in scope.
For example let's say you're importing some module Foo (unqualified). And now the module Foo is changed to add the binding x = 42 for some reason. Now in your pattern match you'd suddenly be comparing the first argument against 42 rather than binding it to x. That's a pretty hard to find bug.
So to avoid this kind of scenario, identifier patterns have the same semantics regardless of whether they're already bound somewhere.
Because they are very fragile. What does this compute?
f x y z = 2*x + 3*y + z
Would you expect this to be equal to
f x 3 z = 2*x + 9 + z
f _ _ _ = error "non-exhaustive patterns!"
only because there's a y = 3 defined somewhere in the same 1000+ line module?
Also consider this:
import SomeLibrary
f x y z = 2*x + 3*y + z
What if in a future release SomeLibrary defines y? We don't want that to suddenly stop working.
Finally, what if there is no Eq instance for y?
y :: a -> a
y = id
f :: a -> (a -> a) -> a
f x y = y x
f x w = w (w x)
Sure, it is a contrived example, but there's no way the runtime can compare the input function to check whether it is equal to y or not.
To disambiguate this, some new languages like Swift uses two different syntaxes. E.g. (pseudo-code)
switch someValue {
case .a(x) : ... // compare by equality using the outer x
case .b(let x) : ... // redefine x as a new local variable, shadowing the outer one
}
zero is just a variable that occurs inside a pattern, just like y does in the second line. There is no difference between the two. When a variable that occurs inside a pattern, this introduces a new variable. If there was a binding for that variable already, the new variable shadows the old one.
So you cannot use an already bound variable inside a pattern. Instead, you should do something like that:
f x y | y == zero = Nothing
where zero = 0
f x y = Just $ x / y
Notice that I also moved the where clause to bring it in scope for the first line.
I am trying to understand lambda functions (i.e. anonymous functions) in Haskell by writing a few simple functions that use them.
In the following example, I am simply trying to take in 3 parameters and add two of the three using an anonymous function and adding the third parameter after that.
I am getting an error saying that I must declare an instance first.
specialAdd x y z = (\x y -> x + y) + z
I appreciate any explanation of why my example is not working and/or any explanation that would help me better understand lambda functions.
specialAdd x y z = (\x y -> x + y) + z
In this example, what you are trying to do is add a function to a number, which is not going to work. Look at (\x y -> x + y) + z: it has the form a + b. In order for such an expression to work, the a part and the b part must be numbers of the same type.
Haskell is a bit of an unusual language, so its error messages are rarely of the form "you can't do that". So what's going on here is that Haskell sees that (\x y -> x + y) is a function, and since in an expression like a + b, b must be the same type as a, it concludes that b must also be a function. Haskell also allows you to define your own rules for adding non-built-in types; so it can't just give you an error saying "you can't add two functions," but instead the error is "you have not defined a rule that allows me to add two functions."
The following would do what you want:
specialAdd x y z = ((\x y -> x + y) x y) + z
Here you are applying the function (\x y -> x + y) to arguments x and y, then adding the result to z.
A good way to practice anonymous function is to use them with high order function as fold or map.
Using map as an entry point,
Basic definition of map,
map f [] = []
map f (x:xs) = f x : f xs
Built up an example,
>>> let list = [0..4]
>>> let f x = x + 1
Applying map we obtain,
>>> map f list
[1,2,3,4,5]
Now, we can omit the declaration of f and replace it using anonymous function,
>>> map (\x->x+1) list
[1,2,3,4,5]
then we deduce, map f list == map (\x->x+1) list, thus
f = \x-> x + 1 --- The same as f x = x + 1, but this is the equivalent lambda notation.
then starting with a simple function we see how to translate it into an anonymous function and then how an anonymous function can be rely to a lambda abstraction.
As an exercise try to translate f x = 2*x.
Now more complex, an anonymous function which take two arguments,
Again an working example,
>>> let add x y = x + y
>>> foldl' add 0 [0..4]
10
Can be rewrite using anonymous function as,
>>> foldl' (\x y -> x + y) 0 [0..4]
Again using equality we deduce that add = \x y -> x + y
Moreover as in hakell all function are function of one argument, and we can partial apply it, we can rewrite our previous anonymous function as, add = \x -> (\y -> x + y).
Then where is the trick ?? Because, I just show the use of anonymous function into high order one, and starting from that, showing how this can be exploited to rewrite function using lambda notation. I mean how can it help you to learn how to write down anonymous function ?
Simply cause I've give you (show you) an existing framework using high order function.
This framework is a huge opportunity to accommodate you with this notation.
Starting from that an infinity range of exercise can be deduce, for example try to do the following.
A - Find the corresponding anonymous function ?
1 - let f (x,y) = x + y in map f [(0,1),(2,3),(-1,1)]
2 - let f x y = x * y in foldl' f 1 [1..5]
B - Rewrite all of them using lambda notation into a declarative form (f = \x-> (\y-> ...)
And so on ....
To summarize,
A function as
(F0) f x1 x2 ... xn = {BODY of f}
can always be rewrite as,
(F1) f = \x1 x2 ... xn -> {BODY of f}
where
(F2) (\x1 x2 ... xn -> {BODY of f})
F2 form are just anonymous function, a pure translation of the function into lambda calculus form. F1 is a declarative lambda notation (because we declare f, as we define it, binding it to the anonymous F2). F0 being the usual notation of Haskeller.
A last note focusing on the fact we can put parenthesis between the argument, this create a closure. Doing that mean that a subset of the function's code can be fully evaluated using a subset of the function's argument, (mean converting to a form where no more free variable occurs), but that's another story.
Here is correct form:
specialAdd a b c = ((\x y -> x + y) a b) + c
Example from Learn You a Haskell...:
zipWith (\a b -> (a * 30 + 3) / b) [5,4,3,2,1] [1,2,3,4,5]
Great explanation:
http://learnyouahaskell.com/higher-order-functions#lambdas
From what I understand Labmbda/Anonymous functions help you declare a function "inline" without the need to give it a name. The "\" (ASCII for the Greek, λ) precedes the variable names for the expression that follows the "->". For example,
(\x y -> x + y)
is an anonymous (lambda) function similar to (+). It takes two parameters of type Num and returns their sum:
Prelude> :type (+)
(+) :: Num a => a -> a -> a
Prelude> :type (\x y -> x + y)
(\x y -> x + y) :: Num a => a -> a -> a
Your example is not working because, as others have pointed out, the right hand side of it is using a lambda function, (\x y -> x + y), as a parameter for the (+) operator, which is defined by default only for parameters of type Num. Some of the beauty of the lambda function can be in its "anonymous" use. Vladimir showed how you can use the lambda function in your declaration by passing it the variables from the left side. A more "anonymous" use could be simply calling it, with variables, without giving the function a name (hence anonymous). For example,
Prelude> (\x y z -> x + y + z) 1 2 3
6
and if you like writing parentheses:
Prelude> (((+).) . (+)) 1 2 3
6
Or in a longer expression (as in your example declaration), e.g.,
Prelude> filter (\x -> length x < 3) [[1],[1,2],[1,2,3]]
[[1],[1,2]]
You are trying to use (+) as something like (Num a) => (a -> a -> a) -> a -> ?? which is not correct.
(+) is defined in the class Num and (a -> a -> a) is not an instance of this class.
What exactly are you trying to achieve ?
Consider following function definition in ghci.
let myF = sin . cos . sum
where, . stands for composition of two function (right associative). This I can call
myF [3.14, 3.14]
and it gives me desired result. Apparently, it passes list [3.14, 3.14] to function 'sum' and its 'result' is passed to cos and so on and on. However, if I do this in interpreter
let myF y = sin . cos . sum y
or
let myF y = sin . cos (sum y)
then I run into troubles. Modifying this into following gives me desired result.
let myF y = sin . cos $ sum y
or
let myF y = sin . cos . sum $ y
The type of (.) suggests that there should not be a problem with following form since 'sum y' is also a function (isn't it? After-all everything is a function in Haskell?)
let myF y = sin . cos . sum y -- this should work?
What is more interesting that I can make it work with two (or many) arguments (think of passing list [3.14, 3.14] as two arguments x and y), I have to write the following
let (myF x) y = (sin . cos . (+ x)) y
myF 3.14 3.14 -- it works!
let myF = sin . cos . (+)
myF 3.14 3.14 -- -- Doesn't work!
There is some discussion on HaskellWiki regarding this form which they call 'PointFree' form http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Pointfree . By reading this article, I am suspecting that this form is different from composition of two lambda expressions. I am getting confused when I try to draw a line separating both of these styles.
Let's look at the types. For sin and cos we have:
cos, sin :: Floating a => a -> a
For sum:
sum :: Num a => [a] -> a
Now, sum y turns that into a
sum y :: Num a => a
which is a value, not a function (you could name it a function with no arguments but this is very tricky and you also need to name () -> a functions - there was a discussion somewhere about this but I cannot find the link now - Conal spoke about it).
Anyway, trying cos . sum y won't work because . expects both sides to have types a -> b and b -> c (signature is (b -> c) -> (a -> b) -> (a -> c)) and sum y cannot be written in this style. That's why you need to include parentheses or $.
As for point-free style, the simples translation recipe is this:
take you function and move the last argument of function to the end of the expression separated by a function application. For example, in case of mysum x y = x + y we have y at the end but we cannot remove it right now. Instead, rewriting as mysum x y = (x +) y it works.
remove said argument. In our case mysum x = (x +)
repeat until you have no more arguments. Here mysum = (+)
(I chose a simple example, for more convoluted cases you'll have to use flip and others)
No, sum y is not a function. It's a number, just like sum [1, 2, 3] is. It therefore makes complete sense that you cannot use the function composition operator (.) with it.
Not everything in Haskell are functions.
The obligatory cryptic answer is this: (space) binds more tightly than .
Most whitespace in Haskell can be thought of as a very high-fixity $ (the "apply" function). w x . y z is basically the same as (w $ x) . (y $ z)
When you are first learning about $ and . you should also make sure you learn about (space) as well, and make sure you understand how the language semantics implicitly parenthesize things in ways that may not (at first blush) appear intuitive.