Learning Haskell: thunks returned by repeat - haskell

I'm learning Haskell and wrote this function:
continueWith :: [a] -> a -> [a]
continueWith [] y = repeat y
continueWith (x:xs) y = x : (continueWith xs y)
Now, I don't understand the behavior of GHCi:
GHCi> let x = continueWith [1, 2] 3
x :: [Integer]
GHCi> :sp x
x = _
GHCi> take 3 x
[1,2,3]
it :: [Integer]
GHCi> :sp x
The last sprint doesn't terminate, but I expected the thunk returned by repeat to be only evaluated up to the first cons:
...
GHCi> take 3 x
[1,2,3]
it :: [Integer]
GHCi> :sp x
x = 1 : 2 : 3 : _ <= This is not happening
What am I missing?

The "problem" is that repeat y refers to itself,
repeat y = let ys = y:ys in ys
so once the first cons cell is evaluated, repeat y is completely evaluated. In ASCII art:
(:) <-
/ \ |
y \_|
:sp prints as far as the thing is already evaluated ...

Related

Double a list (numbers in the list) in Haskell

Can someone else this codes in Haskell:
Doubling Digits
The digits need to be doubled, for this the following function can be defined:
doubleDigits :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
The function doubleDigits must double every other number starting from the right.
The second-to-last number is doubled first, then the fourth-to-last, ..., and so on.
Input: doubleDigits [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
Output: [1,4,3,8,5,12,7]
toDigitsReverse :: Integer -> [Integer]
toDigitsReverse n = reverse (toDigits n)
-- function to help double every other element of list
doubleDigitsHelper :: [Integer] -> Integer -> [Integer]
doubleDigitsHelper l t
| l == [] = []
| t == 0 = [head l] ++ (doubleDigitsHelper (drop 1 l) 1)
| t == 1 = [2*(head l)] ++ (doubleDigitsHelper (drop 1 l) 0)
-- function to double every other element
doubleDigits :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleDigits l = reverse (doubleDigitsHelper (reverse l) 0)
An alternate approach:
Let's zip the elements of the list with their indices.
[1,2,3,4,5,6,7] `zip` [0..]
We get:
[(1,0),(2,1),(3,2),(4,3),(5,4),(6,5),(7,6)]
Then we can map this to the desired result:
let f (x, i) = if even i then x else x * 2 in map f $ [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] `zip` [0..]
And the result is:
[1,4,3,8,5,12,7]
Or written a little bit differently:
doubleDigits lst = map f lst'
where
lst' = lst `zip` [0..]
f (x, i)
| even i = x
| otherwise = x * 2
Because you want to double every other element starting from the right, you can simply reverse the list, zip it with indices, map, then reserve the output.
doubleDigits lst = reverse $ map f lst'
where
lst' = (reverse lst) `zip` [0..]
f (x, i)
| even i = x
| otherwise = x * 2
I would say that first of all there is no point to reverse list, determine if accumulator (t) is even or odd (there are build in functions for that - for example even) and then act accordingly. Next what can imporve the code - use pattern matching instead of == and head/tail calls. Also I've changed the order of the helper function:
-- function to help double every other element of list
doubleDigitsHelper :: Integer -> [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleDigitsHelper _ [] = []
doubleDigitsHelper t (x:xs) | even t = x : doubleDigitsHelper (t+1) xs
| otherwise = 2*x : doubleDigitsHelper (t+1) xs
-- function to double every other element
doubleDigits :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleDigits = doubleDigitsHelper 0
You could put the alternating functions you want to apply in a list (cycle [id, (*2)]) and apply these to your list using zipWith.
doubleDigits :: Num a => [a] -> [a]
doubleDigits = reverse . zipWith ($) (cycle [id, (*2)]) . reverse
I don't see an elegant way around reversing the list if you want to alternate starting from the right. You could, for example, look at the length of the list first and change the order of the functions based on that, but that would complicate the function a little.
doubleDigits xs = zipWith ($) fs xs
where fs = (if even . length $ xs then tail else id) $ cycle [id, (*2)]

Haskell- parse error on input

I have the following code which
halves each even number in a list:
halfEvens :: [Int] -> [Int]
halfEvens [xs]
| x `mod` 2 == 0 = x `div` 2
| otherwise = x
where x <- xs
And I get the following error:
parse error on input '<-'
I was careful so I respected the indentations...any other ideas what I'm doing wrong?
There are two main issues in your code:
where block defines functions, so, you should use = instead of <-
Your function accepts lists with exactly one element inside
Instead of it I suggest you write separate function halfIfEven:
Prelude> let halfIfEven x = if even x then x `div` 2 else x
Then define halfEvens using map:
Prelude> let halfEvens = map halfIfEven
Prelude> halfEvens [1..10]
[1,1,3,2,5,3,7,4,9,5]
But, of course, you could write this using pattern matching, although it is less readable:
halfIfEven :: Int -> Int
halfIfEven x | even x = x `div` 2
| otherwise = x
halfEvens :: [Int] -> [Int]
halfEvens [] = []
halfEvens (x:xs) = (halfIfEven x):(halfEvens xs)

Double every other element of list from right in Haskell

I have a list and I want to double every other element in this list from the right.
There is another related question that solves this problem but it doubles from the left, not the right: Haskell: Double every 2nd element in list
For example, in my scenario, [1,2,3,4] would become [2,2,6,4], and in that question, [1,2,3,4] would become [1,4,3,8].
How would I implement this?
I think that the top answer misinterpreted the question. The title clearly states that the OP wants to double the second, fourth, etc. elements from the right of the list. Ørjan Johansen's answer is correct, but slow. Here is my more efficient solution:
doubleFromRight :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleFromRight xs = fst $ foldr (\x (acc, bool) ->
((if bool then 2 * x else x) : acc,
not bool)) ([], False) xs
It folds over the list from the right. The initial value is a tuple containing the empty list and a boolean. The boolean starts as false and flips every time. The value is multiplied by 2 only if the boolean is true.
OK, as #TomEllis mentions, everyone else seems to have interpreted your question as about odd-numbered elements from the left, instead of as even-numbered from the right, as your title implies.
Since you start checking positions from the right, there is no way to know what to double until the end of the list has been found. So the solution cannot be lazy, and will need to temporarily store the entire list somewhere (even if just on the execution stack) before returning anything.
Given this, the simplest solution might be to just apply reverse before and after the from-left solution:
doubleFromRight = reverse . doubleFromLeft . reverse
Think about it.
double = zipWith ($) (cycle [(*2),id])
EDIT I should note, this isn't really my solution it is the solution of the linked post with the (*2) and id flipped. That's why I said think about it because it was such a trivial fix.
A direct implementation would be:
doubleOddElements :: [Int] -> [Int]
doubleOddElements [] = []
doubleOddElements [x] = [2 * x]
doubleOddElements (x:y:xs) = (2*x):y:(doubleOddElements xs)
Okay, so not elegant or efficient like the other answers, but I wrote this from a beginners standpoint (I am one) in terms of readability and basic functionality.
This doubles every second number, beginning from the right.
Using this script: doubleEveryOther [1,3,6,9,12,15,18] produces [1,6,6,18,12,30,18] and doubleEveryOther [1,3,6,9,12,15] produces [2,3,12,9,24,15]
doubleEveryOther :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOther [] = []
doubleEveryOther (x:[]) = [x]
doubleEveryOther (x:y:zs)
| (length (x:y:zs)) `mod` 2 /= 0 = x : y*2 : doubleEveryOther zs
| otherwise = x*2 : y : doubleEveryOther zs
Trying to generalize the problem a bit: Since we want to double every 2nd element from the end, we can't know in advance if it'll be every odd or even from the start. So the easiest way is to construct both, count if the overall size is even or odd, and then decide.
Let's define an Applicative data structure that captures:
Having two variants of values,
keeping the parity of the length (odd/even), and
alternating the two when two such values are combined,
as follows:
import Control.Applicative
import Data.Monoid
import qualified Data.Traversable as T
data Switching m = Switching !Bool m m
deriving (Eq, Ord, Show)
instance Functor Switching where
fmap f (Switching b x y) = Switching b (f x) (f y)
instance Applicative Switching where
pure x = Switching False x x
(Switching False f g) <*> (Switching b2 x y) = Switching b2 (f x) (g y)
(Switching True f g) <*> (Switching b2 x y) = Switching (not b2) (f y) (g x)
So traversing a list will yield two lists looking like this:
x1 y2 x3 y4 ...
y1 x2 y3 x4 ...
two zig-zag-ing copies. Now we can compute
double2 :: (Num m) => m -> Switching m
double2 x = Switching True (2 * x) x
double2ndRight :: (Num m, T.Traversable f) => f m -> f m
double2ndRight k = case T.traverse double2 k of
Switching True _ y -> y
Switching False x _ -> x
Here are mine two solutions, note that I'm complete beginner in Haskell.
First one uses list functions, head, tail and lenght:
doubleSecondFromEnd :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleSecondFromEnd [] = [] -- Do nothing on empty list
doubleSecondFromEnd n
| length n `mod` 2 == 0 = head n * 2 : doubleSecondFromEnd (tail n)
| otherwise = head n : doubleSecondFromEnd (tail n)
Second one, similar but with a different approach only uses length function:
doubleSecondFromEnd2 :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleSecondFromEnd2 [] = [] -- Do nothing on empty list
doubleSecondFromEnd2 (x:y)
| length y `mod` 2 /= 0 = x * 2 : doubleSecondFromEnd2 y
| otherwise = x : doubleSecondFromEnd2 y
I am just learning Haskell so please find the following beginner solution. I try to use limited cool functions like zipWith , cycle, or reverse
doubleEveryOther :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOther [] = []
doubleEveryOther s#(x:xs)
| (length s) `mod` 2 == 0 = (x * 2) : (doubleEveryOther xs)
| otherwise = x : (doubleEveryOther xs)
The key thing to note that when doubling every element from the right you can put the doubling into two cases:
If the list is even length, you will ultimately end up doubling the first element of the list.
If the list is odd length, you will not be doubling the first element of the list.
I answered this as part of the homework assignment from CS194
My first thought was:
doubleOdd (x:xs) = (2*x):(doubleEven xs)
doubleOdd [] = []
doubleEven (x:xs) = x:(doubleOdd xs)
doubleEven [] = []
DiegoNolan's solution is more elegant, in that the function and sequence length are more easily altered, but it took me a moment to grok.
Adding the requirement to operate from the right makes it a little more complex. foldr is a neat starting point for doing something from the right, so let me try:
doubleOddFromRight = third . foldr builder (id,double,[])
where third (_,_,x) = x
builder x (fx,fy,xs) = (fy, fx, fx x : xs)
double x = 2 * x
This swaps the two functions fx and fy for each entry. To find the value of any entry will require a traversal to the end of the list, finding whether the length was odd or even.
This is my answer to this CIS 194 homework assignment. It's implemented using just the stuff that was introduced in lecture 1 + reverse.
doubleEveryOtherLeftToRight :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOtherLeftToRight [] = []
doubleEveryOtherLeftToRight (x:[]) = [x]
doubleEveryOtherLeftToRight (x:y:zs) = x:y*2:(doubleEveryOtherLeftToRight zs)
doubleEveryOther :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOther xs = reverse (doubleEveryOtherLeftToRight (reverse xs))
How about this for simplicity?
doubleEveryOtherRev :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOtherRev l = doubleRev (reverse l) []
where
doubleRev [] a = a
doubleRev (x:[]) a = (x:a)
doubleRev (x:y:zs) a = doubleRev zs (2*y:x:a)
You would have to feed a reversed list of digits, in case you followed that course's recommendation, because it will double every other element as it reverses again. I think that this is different than using twice the reverse function, with another to double every other digit in between, because you won't need to know the full extent of their list by the second time. In other words, it solves that course's problem, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.
We can also do it like this:
doubleEveryOther = reverse . zipWith (*) value . reverse
where
value = 1 : 2 : value
Some answers seems not deal with odd/even length of list.
doubleEveryOtherEvenList = zipWith ($) (cycle [(*2),id])
doubleEveryOther :: [Int] -> [Int]
doubleEveryOther n
| length n `mod` 2 == 0 = doubleEveryOtherEvenList n
| otherwise = (head n) : doubleEveryOtherEvenList (tail n)
Taking an edx course in haskell, this is my noob solution.
doubleSecondR :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleSecondR xs = reverse(zipWith (*) (reverse xs) ys)
where ys = repeat' [1,2]
repeat' :: [a] -> [a]
repeat' xs = xs ++ repeat' xs
I'm too coming to this question from the CIS 194 course.
I did this two ways. First I figured that the point of the question should only rely on functions or ways of programming mentioned in either of the 3 possible sources listed. The course lecture 1, Real World Haskell ch. 1,2 and Learn You a Haskell ch. 2.
So OK:
Recursion, conditionals
reverse, basic functions like max, min, odd, even
list functions e.g. head, tail, ...
Not OK:
foldr, foldl, map
Higher Order functions
Anything beyond these
First solution, just using recursion with a counter:
doubleEveryOther :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOther xs = loopDoubles xs 1
loopDoubles :: [Integer] -> Integer -> [Integer]
loopDoubles [] _ = []
loopDoubles xs n = loopDoubles (init xs) (n + 1) ++ [doubleEven (last xs) n]
doubleEven :: Integer -> Integer -> Integer
doubleEven x n = if even n then x * 2 else x
This method uses recursion, but avoids calculating the length at each level of the recursion.
Second method breaking the aforemention rules of mine:
doubleEveryOther' :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOther' xs = map (\x -> if even (fst x) then (snd x) * 2 else snd x) $ zip (reverse [1..n]) xs
where n = length(xs)
This second one works by building up a reversed set of indexes and then mapping over these. This does calculate the length but only once.
e.g. [1,1,1,1] -> [(4,1),(3,1),(2,1),(1,1)]
Both of these are following the requirement of doubling every other element from the right.
> doubleEveryOther [1,2,3,4]
[2,2,6,4]
> doubleEveryOther [1,2,3]
[1,4,3]
> doubleEveryOther' [1,2,3,4]
[2,2,6,4]
> doubleEveryOther' [1,2,3]
[1,4,3]
I'm guessing the OP posed this question while researching an answer to the Homework 1 assignment from Haskell CIS194 Course. Very little Haskell has been imparted to the student at that stage of the course, so while the above answers are correct, they're beyond the comprehension of the learning student because elements such as lambdas, function composition (.), and even library routines like length and reverse haven't been introduced yet. Here is an answer that matches the stage of teaching in the course:
doubleEveryOtherEven :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOtherEven [] = []
doubleEveryOtherEven (x:y:xs) = x*2 : y : doubleEveryOtherEven xs
doubleEveryOtherOdd :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOtherOdd (x:[]) = [x]
doubleEveryOtherOdd (x:y:xs) = x : y*2 : doubleEveryOtherOdd xs
integerListLen :: [Integer] -> Integer
integerListLen [] = 0
integerListLen (x:xs) = 1 + integerListLen xs
doubleEveryOther :: [Integer] -> [Integer]
doubleEveryOther xs
| integerListLen xs `mod` 2 == 0 = doubleEveryOtherEven xs -- also handles empty list case
| otherwise = doubleEveryOtherOdd xs
The calculation requires foreknowledge on whether the list has an even or odd number of elements, to determine which digit in each pair of digits should be doubled. However, basic Haskell pattern-matching only permits matching list elements from left-to-right (example: x:xs), which means you can't determine if there are an odd or even number of elements until you've reached the end of the list, but by then it's too late since you need to do calculations on each left-hand pair of elements while working through the list to reach the end.
The solution is to split the doubling logic into two functions - one which handles even-length lists and another which handles odd-length lists. A third function is needed to determine which of those two functions to call for a given list, which in turn needs an additional function that can calculate the length of the list so we can establish whether the list has an odd or even number of elements (again, since the length library function hasn't been introduced at this stage of the course).
This solution is also in keeping with the advisory in the Week 1 lesson, which states: "It’s good Haskell style to build up more complex functions by combining many simple ones."
Here is my answer for CIS 194 homework1.
I took idea from toDigits and toDigitsRev. It's not fancy, but works.
takeLastTwo :: [Int] -> [Int]
takeLastTwo [] = []
takeLastTwo (x : y : []) = [x, y]
takeLastTwo (x : xs) = takeLastTwo xs
removeLastTwo :: [Int] -> [Int]
removeLastTwo [] = []
removeLastTwo (x : y : []) = []
removeLastTwo (x : xs) = x : removeLastTwo xs
doubleEveryOther :: [Int] -> [Int]
doubleEveryOther [] = []
doubleEveryOther (x : []) = [x]
doubleEveryOther (x : y : []) = (2 * x) : y : []
doubleEveryOther xs = doubleEveryOther (removeLastTwo xs) ++ doubleEveryOther (takeLastTwo xs)

How to have multiple infinite ranges in list comprehensions?

In haskell I have a list comprehension like this:
sq = [(x,y,z) | x <- v, y <- v, z <- v, x*x + y*y == z*z, x < y, y < z]
where v = [1..]
However when I try take 10 sq, it just freezes...
Is there a way to handle multiple infinite ranges?
Thanks
In addition to the other answers explaining the problem, here is an alternative solution, generalized to work with level-monad and stream-monad that lend themselves for searches over infinite search spaces (It is also compatible with the list monad and logict, but those won't play nicely with infinite search spaces, as you already found out):
{-# LANGUAGE MonadComprehensions #-}
module Triples where
import Control.Monad
sq :: MonadPlus m => m (Int, Int, Int)
sq = [(x, y, z) | x <- v, y <- v, z <- v, x*x + y*y == z*z, x < y, y < z]
where v = return 0 `mplus` v >>= (return . (1+))
Now, for a fast breadth first search:
*Triples> :m +Control.Monad.Stream
*Triples Control.Monad.Stream> take 10 $ runStream sq
[(3,4,5),(6,8,10),(5,12,13),(9,12,15),(8,15,17),(12,16,20),(7,24,25),
(15,20,25),(10,24,26),(20,21,29)]
Alternatively:
*Triples> :m +Control.Monad.Levels
*Triples Control.Monad.Levels> take 5 $ bfs sq -- larger memory requirements
[(3,4,5),(6,8,10),(5,12,13),(9,12,15),(8,15,17)]
*Triples Control.Monad.Levels> take 5 $ idfs sq -- constant space, slower, lazy
[(3,4,5),(5,12,13),(6,8,10),(7,24,25),(8,15,17)]
List comprehensions are translated into nested applications of the concatMap function:
concatMap :: (a -> [b]) -> [a] -> [b]
concatMap f xs = concat (map f xs)
concat :: [[a]] -> [a]
concat [] = []
concat (xs:xss) = xs ++ concat xss
-- Shorter definition:
--
-- > concat = foldr (++) []
Your example is equivalent to this:
sq = concatMap (\x -> concatMap (\y -> concatMap (\z -> test x y z) v) v) v
where v = [1..]
test x y z =
if x*x + y*y == z*z
then if x < y
then if y < z
then [(x, y, z)]
else []
else []
else []
This is basically a "nested loops" approach; it'll first try x = 1, y = 1, z = 1, then move on to x = 1, y = 1, z = 2 and so on, until it tries all of the list's elements as values for z; only then can it move on to try combinations with y = 2.
But of course you can see the problem—since the list is infinite, we never run out of values to try for z. So the combination (3, 4, 5) can only occur after infinitely many other combinations, which is why your code loops forever.
To solve this, we need to generate the triples in a smarter way, such that for any possible combination, the generator reaches it after some finite number of steps. Study this code (which handles only pairs, not triples):
-- | Take the Cartesian product of two lists, but in an order that guarantees
-- that all combinations will be tried even if one or both of the lists is
-- infinite:
cartesian :: [a] -> [b] -> [(a, b)]
cartesian [] _ = []
cartesian _ [] = []
cartesian (x:xs) (y:ys) =
[(x, y)] ++ interleave3 vertical horizontal diagonal
where
-- The trick is to split the problem into these four pieces:
--
-- |(x0,y0)| (x0,y1) ... horiz
-- +-------+------------
-- |(x1,y0)| .
-- | . | .
-- | . | .
-- | . | .
-- vert diag
vertical = map (\x -> (x,y)) xs
horizontal = map (\y -> (x,y)) ys
diagonal = cartesian xs ys
interleave3 :: [a] -> [a] -> [a] -> [a]
interleave3 xs ys zs = interleave xs (interleave ys zs)
interleave :: [a] -> [a] -> [a]
interleave xs [] = xs
interleave [] ys = ys
interleave (x:xs) (y:ys) = x : y : interleave xs ys
To understand this code (and fix it if I messed up!) look at this blog entry on how to count infinite sets, and at the fourth diagram in particular—the function is an algorithm based on that "zigzag"!
I just tried a simple version of your sq using this; it finds (3,4,5) almost instantly, but then takes very long to get to any other combination (in GHCI at least). But I think the key lessons to take away from this are:
List comprehensions just don't work well for nested infinite lists.
Don't spend too much time playing around with list comprehensions. Everything that they can do, functions like map, filter and concatMap can do—plus there are many other useful functions in the list library, so concentrate your effort on that.
Your code freeze because yours predicate will never been satisfied.
Why ?
Let's take an example without any predicate to understand.
>>> let v = [1..] in take 10 $ [ (x, y, z) | x <- v, y <- v, z <- v ]
[(1,1,1),(1,1,2),(1,1,3),(1,1,4),(1,1,5),(1,1,6),(1,1,7),(1,1,8),(1,1,9),(1,1,10)]
As you see x and y will always be evaluated to 1 as z will never stop to rise.
Then your predicate can't be.
Any workaround ?
Try "Nested list" comprehension.
>>> [[ fun x y | x <- rangeX, predXY] | y <- rangeY, predY ]
Or parallel list comprehension which can be activated using,
>>> :set -XParallelListComp
lookup on the doc
This is possible, but you'll have to come up with an order in which to generate the numbers. The following generates the numbers you want; note that the x < y test can be replaced by generating only y that are >x and similarly for z (which is determined once x and y are bound):
[(x, y, z) | total <- [1..]
, x <- [1..total-2]
, y <- [x..total-1]
, z <- [total - x - y]
, x*x + y*y == z*z]

Having trouble with H-15

I am doing Problem 15. Which states:
(**) Replicate the elements of a list a given number of times.
Example:
* (repli '(a b c) 3)
(A A A B B B C C C)
Example in Haskell:
> repli "abc" 3
"aaabbbccc"
My plan was to do something like this:
repli :: [a] -> Integer -> [a]
repli [] y = []
repli (x:xs) y | appendNo x y == [] = repli(xs) y
| otherwise = appendNo x y : (x:xs)
where
appendNo :: a -> Integer -> [a]
appendNo a 0 = []
appendNo a y = a:appendNo a (y-1)
Where I would make a function called appendNo that returns a list of 1 element y times then append it to the original list. Then take the body of the list and repeat this process until there are no more body elements left. But, I get the error:
H15.hs:6:30:
Couldn't match type `a' with `[a]'
`a' is a rigid type variable bound by
the type signature for repli :: [a] -> Integer -> [a] at H15.hs:3:1
In the return type of a call of `appendNo'
In the first argument of `(:)', namely `appendNo x y'
In the expression: appendNo x y : (x : xs)
Failed, modules loaded: none.
6:30 is at the on the p in appendNo in this line:
| otherwise = appendNo x y : (x:xs)
Ok thanks dave4420 I was able to figure it out by doing:
repli :: [a] -> Integer -> [a]
repli [] y = []
repli (x:xs) y = appendNo x y ++ repli(xs) y
where
appendNo :: a -> Integer -> [a]
appendNo a 0 = []
appendNo a y = a:appendNo a (y-1)
| otherwise = appendNo x y : (x:xs)
There is a type error in this line. So ask yourself:
What is the type of appendNo x y?
What is the type of (x:xs)?
What is the type of (:)?
Then you should be able to see why they don't match up.
If you still can't see why they don't match up, ask yourself
What is the type of x?
What is the type of xs?
What is the type of (:)?
Bear in mind that this time the types do match up.
As the problem is solved, let me give you a hint: You should try to think in transformations, not in "loops". Start with some concrete values like n = 3 and list = "ABCD". Then you should think along the lines "I need every element three times". There is already a function for doing the replication, which is surprisingly called replicate. So the sentence can be translated to map (replicate 3) "ABCD", which gives you ["AAA","BBB","CCC","DDD"]. That's almost what you want, you just need to concat the elements. This gives:
repli list n = concat (map (replicate n) list)
Because this operation is very common, there is a concatMap function combining concat and map, as well as the operator (>>=) doing the same, just with flipped arguments. So a very short solution would be:
repli list n = list >>= replicate n
This can be translated to the do-notation or a list comprehension as well:
repli list n = do
x <- list
y <- replicate n x
return y
repli list n = [y | x <- list, y <- replicate n x]

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