Syntax confusion (do block) - haskell

Sorry for a poor title, feel free to edit. I can't understand what the problem is, so it might be altogether wrong. Below is the code (this is after I've done like a hundred of permutations and different sequences of let-do-if and tabulation, and I'm exhausted):
-- The last statement in a 'do' construct must be an expression
numberOfGoods :: IO String
numberOfGoods = do putStrLn "Enter year (2000-2012):\n"
let intYear = readYear
in if (intYear < 2000 || intYear > 2012)
then error "Year must be withing range: 2000-2012"
else
c <- readIORef connection
[Only i] <- query_ c ("select count('*')" ++
"from table" ++
"where ((acquisition_date <= " ++
(formatDate intYear) ++
") and ((sale_date is null) or " ++
"(sale_date < " ++
(formatDate intYear) ++ ")))")
return i
readYear :: Integer
readYear = do
year <- getLine
read year :: Integer
Something that would meant to be so simple... I still don't understand what is wrong with the code above. Please, if you could kindly explain the source of the error, that would be great.
I did read about do, let-in and if-then-else, and I don't see any errors here from what I could understand from the manual.
Ideally, if there are alternatives, I would like very much to reduce the amount of the wasted white space on the left.
Thank you.

readYear is not an Integer, it's an IO action that can be run to read input and convert the input to an integer -- in other words, IO Integer. And as it's an IO action, you'll need a return to use whatever read year as result of getYear. That is:
getYear :: IO Integer
getYear = do year <- getLine
return (read year)
This also means you use it like intYear <- readYear instead of using let (well, you could, but you'd store the IO action instead of running it, and the type of intYear would be wrong). That is:
numberOfGoods :: IO String
numberOfGoods = do putStrLn "Enter year (2000-2012):\n"
intYear <- readYear
...
do does not extend over if, rather you need to start again with do if you want a sequence of actions in the then or else branch. That is:
else
c <- readIORef connection
...
return i
should be roughly:
else do c <- readIORef connection
...
return i
As for reducing whitespace, consider pushing the validation logic into readYear. Implementing this is left as an exercise to the reader ;)
As an aside, you don't need in when using let in a do block (but only there!), you can simply state:
do do_something
let val = pure_compuation
something_else_using val

You need a new do for every block of monadic functions: simply writing functions in a row has no meaning, regardless of whether they're monadic or pure. And everything where the value comes from the IO monad must itself give its return value in the monad.
numberOfGoods :: IO String
numberOfGoods = do putStrLn "Enter year (2000-2012):\n" -- why extra '\n'?
intYear <- readYear -- readYear expects user input <- must be monadic
if (intYear < 2000 || intYear > 2012)
then error "Year must be withing range: 2000-2012"
else do
c <- readIORef connection
[Only i] <- query_ c ("select count('*')" ++
"from table" ++
"where ((acquisition_date <= " ++
(formatDate intYear) ++
") and ((sale_date is null) or " ++
"(sale_date < " ++
(formatDate intYear) ++ ")))")
return i
readYear :: IO Integer
readYear = do
year <- getLine
return $ read year :: Integer
Why is an extra do needed...
Well, the thing with do in Haskell is that it's really just syntactic sugar. Let's simplify your function a little
nOG :: IO String
nOG = do putStrLn "Prompt"
someInput <- inputSth
if condition someInput
then error "Bloap"
else do c <- inputSthElse
[only] <- query_ c
return only
what this actually means is
nOG :: IO String
nOG = putStrLn "Prompt"
>> inputSth
>>= (\someInput ->
if condition someInput
then error "Bloap"
else inputSthElse
>>= (\s -> query_ c
>>= (\[only] -> return only )
)
)
Where you should be able to see that if behaves in exactly the same way as it does in a pure functional expression like shade (r,g,b) = if g>r && g>b then "greenish" else "purpleish". It doesn't in any way "know" about all the IO monad stuff going on around it, so it can't infer that there should again be a do block in one of its branches.

Related

Let block gives indentation error

I know what an indentation error is, but I have no idea why I'm getting this error here, while every is aligned, trying to solve it for 2 hours.
Account.hs:40:25: error:
parse error (possibly incorrect indentation or mismatched brackets)
|
40 | let amount = readLn :: IO Int
| ^
Failed, 0 modules loaded.
main = do
putStrLn $ "Press one to create a new account"
let g = getLine
enteredValue = read g :: Int
if g == 1
then do putStrLn $ "Enter your name "
let name = getLine
putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount"
let amount = readLn :: IO Int
value = Account (name,1,amount) Saving
show value
else do putStrLn $ "Nothing"
I also tried this version but this also gives incorrect indentation or mismatched brackets:
main = do
putStrLn $ "Press one to create a new account"
let g = getLine
enteredValue = read g :: Int
if g == 1
then do putStrLn $ "Enter your name "
let name = getLine
putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount"
amount = readLn :: IO Int
value = Account (name,1,amount) Saving
show value
else do putStrLn $ "Nothing"
The problem is here:
-- |<---- "column 0" of this 'do' block
then do putStrLn $ "Enter your name "
-- | still good; a 'let' statement:
let name = getLine
-- |<---- "column 0" of this 'let' block
putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount"
-- | Huh, there's no '=' in ^this^ declaration?
let amount = readLn :: IO Int
-- ^^^ Why is there a 'let' within another let binding?
-- I still haven't seen a '='. Better throw a parse error.
Basically, putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount" is aligned with name = ... in the preceding line, so the compiler reads it as a declaration (part of the same let block).
To fix your indentation errors, it should be:
main = do
putStrLn $ "Press one to create a new account"
let g = getLine
enteredValue = read g :: Int
if g == 1
then do putStrLn $ "Enter your name "
let name = getLine
putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount"
let amount = readLn :: IO Int
value = Account (name,1,amount) Saving
show value
else do putStrLn $ "Nothing"
But then you'll run into type errors:
read g is wrong: read takes a String, but g :: IO String
g == 1 is wrong: 1 is an Int, but g :: IO String
show value is wrong: show returns a String, but you're using it as an IO action
You haven't shown the declaration of Account, but you're likely going to have issues with name and amount, too
You probably want something like:
main = do
putStrLn $ "Press one to create a new account"
g <- getLine
let enteredValue = read g :: Int
if enteredValue == 1
then do putStrLn $ "Enter your name "
name <- getLine
putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount"
amount <- readLn :: IO Int
let value = Account (name,1,amount) Saving
putStrLn (show value)
else do putStrLn $ "Nothing"
Basically, use v <- expr to go from expr :: IO Something to v :: Something.
Other notes:
g <- getLine; let enteredValue = read g :: Int better written as enteredValue <- readLn :: IO Int
putStrLn (show value) can be shortened to print value
you don't need do for a single expression (nor $ for a single operand): ... else putStrLn "Nothing"
There is more wrong to your code than just the Indentation Errors - so my first suggestion would be reading a bit of learn you a haskell for great good.
Next there are two assignment operators in haskell - one binds the result of an action … <- … and the other one is a local definition/declaration of a pure computation let … = ….
Moreover you can improve your reading a value by taking account of the possible false input, that someone could give you (intentionally and unintentionally) by replacing read with readMaybe, where the latter returns a Maybe something, for example readMaybe "1" = Just 1 :: Maybe Int or readMaybe "foo" = Nothing :: Maybe Int.
Regarding your indentation it is best that you compare one solution to your program with yours own:
import Text.Read (readMaybe)
data Type = Saving | Checking
deriving (Show)
data Account = Account (String,Int,Int) Type
deriving (Show)
main :: IO ()
main = do
putStrLn "Press one to create a new account"
g <- getLine
let enteredValue = readMaybe g :: Maybe Int
here the result of getLine and entered value have the same scope so they have the same indentation - we only change the scope after the next if where the then-block - and the else-block do not share the 'declarations' of each branch, so you couldn't use name in the else-block, but enteredValue can be used in both.
if enteredValue == Just 1
then do putStrLn "Enter your name "
name <- getLine
putStrLn "Enter the initial amount"
amount' <- fmap readMaybe getLine
here again name and amount' share the same scope, and pattern matching on amount' creates a new scope where amount is visible and the match on Nothing where you cannot use this variable.
case amount' of
Just amount -> print $ Account (name,1,amount) Saving
Nothing -> putStrLn "Nothing"
else putStrLn "Nothing"
let is for binding values, which is done in the form let x = y+z, where x is the name (aka "identifier") being bound, and y+z is the expression to which it is being bound.
In your example, I see three bindings: name, amount, and value. The rest are not value bindings, but actions.
In the do notation, actions do not need a let. You just write them one after another. So:
let name = getLine
putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount"
let amount = readLn :: IO Int
let value = Account (name,1,amount) Saving
show value
But wait! This is not all!
getLine is not actually an expression of type String, as you seem to be hoping here. Rather, getLine is an action. In order to get it to "run" and "produce" a String value, you need to use the <- construct instead of let:
name <- getLine
Similarly with readLn:
amount <- readLn :: IO Int
Finally, show value is not actually an action that would print the value to the screen. show is a function that takes a value and return a String. It doesn't "do" anything (i.e. doesn't produce any outside effects), so you can't use it in place of an action in the do notation. If you wanted an action that would print a value to the screen, that would be print:
print value
Gathering everything together:
name <- getLine
putStrLn $ "Enter the initial amount"
amount <- readLn :: IO Int
let value = Account (name,1,amount) Saving
print value
And after fixing all of that, you'll have similar difficulties with the first part of your program, where you have let g = getLine instead of g <- getLine.

Haskell: Print case number

I have written a Haskell code as:
loop = do
x <- getLine
if x == "0"
then return ()
else do arr <- replicateM (read x :: Int) getLine
let blocks = map (read :: String -> Int) $ words $ unwords arr
putStr "Case X : output = "; -- <- What should X be?
print $ solve $ blockPair blocks;
loop
main = loop
This terminates at 0 input. I also want to print the case number eg. Case 1, 2 ...
Sample run:
1
10 20 30
Case 1: Output = ...
1
6 8 10
Case 2: Output = ...
0
Does anyone know how this can be done? Also, If possible can you suggest me a way to print the output line at the very end?
Thanks in advance.
For the first part of your question, the current case number is an example of some "state" that you want to maintain during the course of your program's execution. In other languages, you'd use a mutable variable, no doubt.
In Haskell, there are several ways to deal with state. One of the simplest (though it is sometimes a little ugly) is to pass the state explicitly as a function parameter, and this will work pretty well given the way you've already structured your code:
main = loop 1
loop n = do
...
putStr ("Case " ++ show n ++ ": Output = ...")
...
loop (n+1) -- update "state" for next loop
The second part of your question is a little more involved. It looks like you wanted a hint instead of a solution. To get you started, let me show you an example of a function that reads lines until the user enters end and then returns the list of all the lines up to but not including end (together with a main function that does something interesting with the lines using mostly pure code):
readToEnd :: IO [String]
readToEnd = do
line <- getLine
if line == "end"
then return []
else do
rest <- readToEnd
return (line:rest)
main = do
lines <- readToEnd
-- now "pure" code makes complex manipulations easy:
putStr $ unlines $
zipWith (\n line -> "Case " ++ show n ++ ": " ++ line)
[1..] lines
Edit: I guess you wanted a more direct answer instead of a hint, so the way you would adapt the above approach to reading a list of blocks would be to write something like:
readBlocks :: IO [[Int]]
readBlocks = do
n <- read <$> getLine
if n == 0 then return [] else do
arr <- replicateM n getLine
let block = map read $ words $ unwords arr
blocks <- readBlocks
return (block:blocks)
and then main would look like this:
main = do
blocks <- readBlocks
putStr $ unlines $
zipWith (\n line -> "Case " ++ show n ++ ": " ++ line)
[1..] (map (show . solve . blockPair) blocks)
This is similar in spirit to K. A. Buhr's answer (the crucial move is still passing state as a parameter), but factored differently to demonstrate a neat trick. Since IO actions are just normal Haskell values, you can use the loop to build the action which will print the output without executing it:
loop :: (Int, IO ()) -> IO ()
loop (nCase, prnAccum) = do
x <- getLine
if x == "0"
then prnAccum
else do inpLines <- replicateM (read x) getLine
let blocks = map read $ words $ unwords inpLines
prnAccumAndNext = do
prnAccum
putStr $ "Case " ++ show nCase ++ " : output = "
print $ solve $ blockPair blocks
loop (nCase + 1, prnAccumAndNext)
main = loop (1, return ())
Some remarks on the solution above:
prnAccum, the action which prints the results, is threaded through the recursive loop calls just like nCase (I packaged them both in a pair as a matter of style, but it would have worked just as fine if they were passed as separate arguments).
Note how the updated action, prnAccumAndNext, is not directly in the main do block; it is defined in a let block instead. That explains why it is not executed on each iteration, but only at the end of the loop, when the final prnAccum is executed.
As luqui suggests, I have removed the type annotations you used with read. The one at the replicateM call is certainly not necessary, and the other one isn't as well as long as blockPair takes a list of Int as an argument, as it seems to be the case.
Nitpicking: I removed the semicolons, as they are not necessary. Also, if arr refers to "array" it isn't a very appropriate name (as it is a list, and not an array), so I took the liberty to change it into something more descriptive. (You can find some other ideas for useful tricks and style adjustments in K. A. Buhr's answer.)

Technique for reading in multiple lines for Haskell IO

Basically I would like to find a way so that a user can enter the number of test cases and then input their test cases. The program can then run those test cases and print out the results in the order that the test cases appear.
So basically I have main which reads in the number of test cases and inputs it into a function that will read from IO that many times. It looks like this:
main = getLine >>= \tst -> w (read :: String -> Int) tst [[]]
This is the method signature of w: w :: Int -> [[Int]]-> IO ()
So my plan is to read in the number of test cases and have w run a function which takes in each test case and store the result into the [[]] variable. So each list in the list will be an output. w will just run recursively until it reaches 0 and print out each list on a separate line. I'd like to know if there is a better way of doing this since I have to pass in an empty list into w, which seems extraneous.
As #bheklilr mentioned you can't update a value like [[]]. The standard functional approach is to pass an accumulator through a a set of recursive calls. In the following example the acc parameter to the loop function is this accumulator - it consists of all of the output collected so far. At the end of the loop we return it.
myTest :: Int -> [String]
myTest n = [ "output line " ++ show k ++ " for n = " ++ show n | k <- [1..n] ]
main = do
putStr "Enter number of test cases: "
ntests <- fmap read getLine :: IO Int
let loop k acc | k > ntests = return $ reverse acc
loop k acc = do
-- we're on the kth-iteration
putStr $ "Enter parameter for test case " ++ show k ++ ": "
a <- fmap read getLine :: IO Int
let output = myTest a -- run the test
loop (k+1) (output:acc)
allOutput <- loop 1 []
print allOutput
As you get more comfortable with this kind of pattern you'll recognize it as a fold (indeed a monadic fold since we're doing IO) and you can implement it with foldM.
Update: To help explain how fmap works, here are equivalent expressions written without using fmap:
With fmap: Without fmap:
n <- fmap read getLine :: IO [Int] line <- getLine
let n = read line :: Int
vals <- fmap (map read . words) getLine line <- getLine
:: IO [Int] let vals = (map read . words) line :: [Int]
Using fmap allows us to eliminate the intermediate variable line which we never reference again anyway. We still need to provide a type signature so read knows what to do.
The idiomatic way is to use replicateM:
runAllTests :: [[Int]] -> IO ()
runAllTests = {- ... -}
main = do
numTests <- readLn
tests <- replicateM numTests readLn
runAllTests tests
-- or:
-- main = readLn >>= flip replicateM readLn >>= runAllTests

Can I be sure of order of IO actions in this example?

At the moment, I have this code in and around main:
import Control.Monad
import Control.Applicative
binSearch :: Ord a => [a] -> a -> Maybe Int
main = do
xs <- lines <$> readFile "Cars1.txt"
x <- getLine <* putStr "Registration: " -- Right?
putStrLn $ case binSearch xs x of
Just n -> "Found at position " ++ show n
Nothing -> "Not found"
My hope is for “Registration: ” to be printed, then for the program to wait for the input to x. Does what I've written imply that that will be the case? Do I need the <*, or will putting the putStr expression on the line above make things work as well?
PS: I know I have to convert binSearch to work with arrays rather than lists (otherwise it's probably not worth doing a binary search), but that's a problem for another day.
The line
x <- getLine <* putStr "Registration: "
orders the IO actions left-to-right: first a line is taken as input, then the message is printed, and finally variable x is bound to the result of getLine.
Do I need the <*, or will putting the putStr expression on the line
above make things work as well?
If you want the message to precede the input, you have to put the putStr on the line above, as follows:
main :: IO ()
main = do
xs <- lines <$> readFile "Cars1.txt"
putStr "Registration: "
x <- getLine
putStrLn $ case binSearch xs x of
Just n -> "Found at position " ++ show n
Nothing -> "Not found"
Alternatively,
x <- putStr "Registration: " *> getLine
or
x <- putStr "Registration: " >> getLine
would work, but they are less readable.
Finally, since you added the lazy-evaluation tag, let me add that your question is actually not about laziness, but about how the operator <* is defined, and in particular about the order in which it sequences the IO actions.

Trying to make a simple math equation in Haskell

I'm trying to make a simple function that gets 2 variables from the user (x,y)
makes a calculation, and prints it out.
for some reason without success:
main = do
putStrLn "Insert Number1"
x <- readLn
putStrLn "Insert Number2"
y <- readLn
z = (x * y * 0.01)
putStrLn "Result: " ++z
The Error I get:
test.hs:6:11: parse error on input `='
Use let to bind new variables. You also have a few errors on the final line: first, you must explicitly convert between Double and String (using, for example, show), and secondly, you need to remember precedence. In Haskell, function application binds tighter than anything except record updates, so what you wrote parses as (putStrLn "Result: ") ++ z, which doesn't really make sense. With these things fixed:
main = do
putStrLn "Insert Number1"
x <- readLn
putStrLn "Insert Number2"
y <- readLn
let z = x * y * 0.01
putStrLn ("Result: " ++ show z)

Resources