Difference between revisions of "Pattern guard"

From HaskellWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(HaWiki conversion)
 
(Changed introduction to mention Haskell 2010; corrected links, added link to the Haskell Prime wiki page of Pattern Guards)
(4 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
Haskell 2010 changes the syntax for [[guard]]s by replacing the use of a single condition with a list of qualifiers. These qualifiers, which include both conditions and ''pattern guards'' of the form ''pat <- exp'', serve to bind/match patterns against expressions. The syntax is comparable that of a [[list comprehension]], where instead the types of ''pat'' and ''exp'' match. This makes it easy, for instance, to pattern match against (possibly failing) table lookups while deciding which definition of a function to use.
[[Category:Glossary]] [[Category:Language]]
 
 
The idea is to change the syntax for guards by replacing the use of a single condition with a list of qualifiers. These qualifiers, which include both conditions and ''pattern guards'' of the form ''pat <- exp'', serve to bind/match patterns against expressions. The syntax is comparable that of a [[list comprehension]], where instead the types of ''pat'' and ''exp'' match. This makes it easy, for instance, to pattern match against (possibly failing) table lookups while deciding which definition of a function to use.
 
   
 
Stealing a function from the note,
 
Stealing a function from the note,
Line 14: Line 12:
   
 
==See also==
 
==See also==
*[http://research.microsoft.com/Users/simonpj/Haskell/guards.html Simon Peyton Jones' note] on pattern guards
+
*[http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/Haskell/guards.html Simon Peyton Jones' note] on pattern guards
*[http://research.microsoft.com/%7Esimonpj/Papers/pat.htm Pattern Guards and Transformational Patterns].
+
*[http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/Papers/pat.htm Pattern Guards and Transformational Patterns].
  +
*[http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/users_guide/syntax-extns.html#pattern-guards GHC Manual on pattern guards]
  +
* [http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/haskell-prime/wiki/PatternGuards#BriefExplanation The Haskell Prime wiki page of Pattern Guards]
  +
 
[[Category:Glossary]]
  +
[[Category:Language extensions]]
  +
[[Category:Syntax]]

Revision as of 21:27, 24 November 2009

Haskell 2010 changes the syntax for guards by replacing the use of a single condition with a list of qualifiers. These qualifiers, which include both conditions and pattern guards of the form pat <- exp, serve to bind/match patterns against expressions. The syntax is comparable that of a list comprehension, where instead the types of pat and exp match. This makes it easy, for instance, to pattern match against (possibly failing) table lookups while deciding which definition of a function to use.

Stealing a function from the note,

addLookup env var1 var2
   | Just val1 <- lookup env var1
   , Just val2 <- lookup env var2
   = val1 + val2
{-...other equations...-}

will check to see if both lookups succeed, and bind the results to val1 and val2 before proceeding to use the equation.

See also