Safe Haskell | Safe |
---|---|
Language | Haskell2010 |
- data Either a b :: * -> * -> *
- multiplex2 :: (Maybe [Event a], Maybe [Event b]) -> Maybe [Event (Either a b)]
- multiplex3 :: (Maybe [Event a], Maybe [Event b], Maybe [Event c]) -> Maybe [Event (Either a (Either b c))]
- deMultiplex2 :: Maybe [Event (Either a b)] -> (Maybe [Event a], Maybe [Event b])
- deMultiplex3 :: Maybe [Event (Either a (Either b c))] -> (Maybe [Event a], Maybe [Event b], Maybe [Event c])
Documentation
data Either a b :: * -> * -> * #
The Either
type represents values with two possibilities: a value of
type
is either Either
a b
or Left
a
.Right
b
The Either
type is sometimes used to represent a value which is
either correct or an error; by convention, the Left
constructor is
used to hold an error value and the Right
constructor is used to
hold a correct value (mnemonic: "right" also means "correct").
Examples
The type
is the type of values which can be either
a Either
String
Int
String
or an Int
. The Left
constructor can be used only on
String
s, and the Right
constructor can be used only on Int
s:
>>>
let s = Left "foo" :: Either String Int
>>>
s
Left "foo">>>
let n = Right 3 :: Either String Int
>>>
n
Right 3>>>
:type s
s :: Either String Int>>>
:type n
n :: Either String Int
The fmap
from our Functor
instance will ignore Left
values, but
will apply the supplied function to values contained in a Right
:
>>>
let s = Left "foo" :: Either String Int
>>>
let n = Right 3 :: Either String Int
>>>
fmap (*2) s
Left "foo">>>
fmap (*2) n
Right 6
The Monad
instance for Either
allows us to chain together multiple
actions which may fail, and fail overall if any of the individual
steps failed. First we'll write a function that can either parse an
Int
from a Char
, or fail.
>>>
import Data.Char ( digitToInt, isDigit )
>>>
:{
let parseEither :: Char -> Either String Int parseEither c | isDigit c = Right (digitToInt c) | otherwise = Left "parse error">>>
:}
The following should work, since both '1'
and '2'
can be
parsed as Int
s.
>>>
:{
let parseMultiple :: Either String Int parseMultiple = do x <- parseEither '1' y <- parseEither '2' return (x + y)>>>
:}
>>>
parseMultiple
Right 3
But the following should fail overall, since the first operation where
we attempt to parse 'm'
as an Int
will fail:
>>>
:{
let parseMultiple :: Either String Int parseMultiple = do x <- parseEither 'm' y <- parseEither '2' return (x + y)>>>
:}
>>>
parseMultiple
Left "parse error"