Ah, you came very close to getting this right. The problem is on your two putStrLn lines. For example, putStrLn "The sum is " ++ show(sum)

This parses as (putStrLn "The sum is ") ++ show(sum). Thus, it's trying to use ++ on an IO () and a string. This obviously won't work. You need one of the following:

putStrLn ("The sum is " ++ show(sum))
putStrLn $ "The sum is " ++ show(sum)

Ditto for the product line. Also, if I can make 2 other quick comments: product and sum are already defined in the prelude, so there's no need to define them here. You should also get used to putting type signatures on your functions, because it's a good practice. Otherwise, good job!

2009/3/20 ZelluX <zellux@gmail.com>
Hi, all

I'm new to haskell and currently reading yaht. I find some problems when trying to solve exercise 3.10.

The exersices asks to read a list of numbers terminated by a zero, and figure out the sum and product of the list. My program is as follows:

ex3_10 = do
  hSetBuffering stdin LineBuffering
  numbers <- getNumber
  let sum = foldr (+) 0 numbers
      product = foldr (*) 1 numbers
  putStrLn "The sum is " ++ show(sum)
  putStrLn "The product is " ++ show(product)

getNumber = do
  putStrLn "Give me a number (or 0 to stop):"
  num <- getLine
  if read num == 0
     then return []
     else do
       rest <- getNumber
       return (read num : rest)

But when i load the program, ghci reports error:
    Couldn't match expected type `[a]' against inferred type `IO ()'
    In the first argument of `(++)', namely `putStrLn "The sum is "'
    In a stmt of a 'do' expression:
          putStrLn "The sum is " ++ show (sum)

And i just don't understand the first sentence. Could you tell what does it mean?

Thanks for your reply
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