Hi, What I'm trying to do is create a parser so as when I enter say 1+1 it will return Add(Val 1)(Val 1). A couple of questions do I have to state three basic parser. As in item, fail, synbol and then combine them with below. And by the way the one below seems to be all wrong. parse :: String -> expr parse expr = [(expr,string)] expr :: Parser value expr = do t <- term do char '+' e <- expr return Add (Val t)(Val e) +++ return t (+++) :: Parser a -> Parser a -> Parser a t +++ w inp = case t inp of [] -> w inp [(v,out)] -> [(v,out)] This is what I mean by item fail and symbol type Parser s a = [s] -> [(a,[s])] item [] = [] item (c:cs) = [(c,cs)] pFail :: Parser s a pFail = \cs -> [] pSymbol :: Eq s => s -> Parser s s pSymbol a (b:bs) |a == b = [(b,bs)] |otherwise = [] I know this is a bit of a mess, but could someone explain where I should start and if I should use any of the code above. Also to point out I want to write the complete parser without using prelude and other built in functions as I will be changing as I go. John