On Sunday 04 July 2010 00:19:24, prad wrote:

today i'm trying to understand curry and uncurry (in 3 parts with specific questions labelled as subsections of the parts).

part 1

if we have

f (x,y) = x + y this is a function working on a single argument (x,y) albeit composed of 2 parameters. however, since all functions are curried in haskell (read that here: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Currying), what is really happening is

(f x) y

Not really, f takes a tuple as argument.

or specific to this case (+ x) y since f ends up being (+) as defined.

It would be ((+) x), which is the same as (x +) rather than (+ x)

now if we write g = curry f we are naming a function whose purpose is to (f x) whatever comes its way allowing us to do neat things like:

map (g 3) [4,5,6] [7,8,9]

which we can't do by map (f 3) [4,5,6] because

You'd have to use map (f . (,) 3) [4,5,6] generally, curry fun x is tha same as fun . (,) x the function composed with the partially applied tuple constructor.

f :: (Num t) => (t, t) -> t meaning f - is a function ... the (Num t) - applies itself ... the => - to a Pair of (Num t)s - gives back a Num t

1.1 am i reading the type statement correctly?

No, correctly, it would read f is a function taking a pair of t's and returning a t, provided t is a member of the Num class or for all members t of Num, f is a function from (t,t) to t

while g :: Integer -> Integer -> Integer means g takes an Integer, applies itself and that Integer to another Integer and computes another Integer.

1.2 how come these are Integer suddenly and not Num t?

It's the monomorphism restriction. By the monomorphism restriction, a name boud by a binding of the form val = rhs without a type signature must have a monomorphic type. Thus the natural polymorphic type of g is made monomorphic by instantiating the type variable t to Integer. You can avoid that by - giving a type signature for g - binding g by a function binding, i.e. with at least one argument to the left of '=' or - turning off the monomorphism restriction. Since the monomorphism restriction bites mostly in ghci sessions, it is generally a good idea to put the line :set -XNoMonomorphismRestriction in your .ghci file (you can turn it off in source files with {-# LANGUAGE NoMonomorphismRestriction #-} or on the command line with -XNoMonomorphismRestriction )

this is a problem because while i can do f (2.3,9.3) i get an error when i try (g 2.3) 9.3 ghci wants an instance declaration for (Fractional Integer) which puzzles me because g came about through currying f which is fine with fractions.

Since g's type was monomorphised to Integer -> Integer -> Integer, ghci tries to interpret 2.3 and 9.3 as Integers. But numeric literals of that form have type Fractional a => a (and are interpreted as fromRational 2.3) so ghci wants to have an instance of the Fractional calss for Integer to know how to interpret 2.3 and 9.3 as Integers.

part 2

now the next discovery is really strange to me.

if i name

f x y = x + y we see f :: (Num a) => a -> a -> a

Yes, f is defined with arguments to the left of '=', so it isn't subjected to the monomorphism restriction. If you'd defined f = \x y -> x + y the MR would kick in again.

which looks like the curried form of f (x,y)

not only looks it like that, it is that

in fact that's what it exactly is and i can do map (f 3) [4,5,6] [7,8,9] just as i did with g before!!

which is what the wiki statement says too:

f :: a -> b -> c is the curried form of g :: (a, b) -> c

however, it starts by stating:

"Currying is the process of transforming a function that takes multiple arguments into a function that takes just a single argument and returns another function if any arguments are still needed." http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Currying

Which is somewhat incorrect. Every function takes exactly one argument, curried or not. (It is however, much more convenient to speak of functions taking four arguments of types a1 a2 a3 a4 and returning a value of type b than of functions taking an argument of type a1 returning a function taking anargument of type a2 returning a function taking an argument of type a3 ..., so we do that usually). Some functions, however, take a tuple as argument. And there's a natural correspondence between (a,b) -> c and a -> b -> c that correspondence in one direction is curry, in the other direction, uncurry

2.1 so does all this mean that

f (x,y) is the function that takes multiple arguments and not a single argument as i initially thought

No, your initial thought is correct, f takes a single argument, which is a pair. (Well, since tuples are composed of several components, it is also a common way of speech to say that functions taking a tuple argument take several arguments. In that sense, f takes two arguments. But in Haskell- speak, it's more common to say a function fun :: a -> b -> c takes two arguments - of course, if c is a function type, we can also say that f takes three [or more] arguments.)

and

f x y is the function that actually takes a single argument twice?

That is more correct.

part 3

some of the above seems to be confirmed by looking at these types

c x y = x + y c :: (Num a) => a -> a -> a so that's curried

Yes.

u (x,y) = x + y u :: (Num t) => (t,t) -> t so that's uncurried

Yes.

:t uncurry c

uncurry c :: (Num a) => (a, a) -> a

:t curry u

curry u :: (Num a) => a -> a -> a

but

:t uncurry u

uncurry u :: (Num (b -> c)) => ((b -> c, b -> c), b) -> c we're trying to uncurry something that is already uncurried

Yes. To apply uncurry, u must have a type a -> b -> c u has the type (t,t) -> t [we ignore the Num constraint here, as it's not important] to match (t,t) -> t with a -> b -> c [or, with parentheses, a -> (b -> c)] we must match the types before the '->', i.e. a ~ (t,t) and the types after the '->', i.e. (b -> c) ~ t So, with these matchings, the type of u must be u :: (b -> c, b -> c) -> b -> c with a Num constraint on (b -> c) ~ t. (there's no standard Num instance for any function type, but you can write such instances [more or less sensible if the result type is a Num instance].

and

:t curry c

curry c :: (Num (a, b)) => a -> b -> (a, b) -> (a, b) we're trying to curry something that is already curried

Yes, we have c :: Num n => n -> n -> n curry :: ((a,b) -> d) -> a -> b -> d So to figure out curry c, we must match c's type to the type of curry's argument, i.e. we must match n -> n -> n to (a,b) -> d [again ignoring the Num constraint for the moment]. We must match the types before the '->', i.e. n ~ (a,b) and the types after, i.e. n -> n ~ d so c :: Num (a,b) => (a,b) -> (a,b) -> (a,b) and curry c :: Num (a,b) => a -> b -> (a,b) -> (a,b)

3.1 just what are these strange looking things and how should their types be interpreted?

HTH, Daniel

I'm sure a more thorough answer would come from a more experienced Haskell user, but I'm gonna go and through my two cents just in case it helps: part 1: 'f' takes one argument (albeit one which is not concrete), 'g' takes two arguments. The Integer/Num discrepancy you experience is due to ghci pushing the types a bit... put your code in a file for better results. part 2: 'f x y' has this type: f :: (Num t) => t -> t -> t which you could read as... f :: (Num t) => t -> (t -> t) ... to make the curry'ing more evident. You'd see that 'f' takes a single argument, a 't' which belongs to type-class Num, and returns some unknown function with type 't -> t' (where the type constrain for 't' still holds). However, to keep it simple, just say that 'f' takes two arguments ;) part 3: I refuse to put myself through that twisted experiment of yours :P Seriously, though, I have no sufficient knowledge to answer with confidence. El sáb, 03-07-2010 a las 15:19 -0700, prad escribió:

today i'm trying to understand curry and uncurry (in 3 parts with specific questions labelled as subsections of the parts).

part 1

if we have

f (x,y) = x + y this is a function working on a single argument (x,y) albeit composed of 2 parameters. however, since all functions are curried in haskell (read that here: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Currying), what is really happening is

(f x) y or specific to this case (+ x) y since f ends up being (+) as defined.

now if we write g = curry f we are naming a function whose purpose is to (f x) whatever comes its way allowing us to do neat things like:

map (g 3) [4,5,6] [7,8,9]

which we can't do by map (f 3) [4,5,6] because f :: (Num t) => (t, t) -> t meaning f - is a function ... the (Num t) - applies itself ... the => - to a Pair of (Num t)s - gives back a Num t

1.1 am i reading the type statement correctly?

while g :: Integer -> Integer -> Integer means g takes an Integer, applies itself and that Integer to another Integer and computes another Integer.

1.2 how come these are Integer suddenly and not Num t?

this is a problem because while i can do f (2.3,9.3) i get an error when i try (g 2.3) 9.3 ghci wants an instance declaration for (Fractional Integer) which puzzles me because g came about through currying f which is fine with fractions.

part 2

now the next discovery is really strange to me.

if i name

f x y = x + y we see f :: (Num a) => a -> a -> a which looks like the curried form of f (x,y) in fact that's what it exactly is and i can do map (f 3) [4,5,6] [7,8,9] just as i did with g before!!

which is what the wiki statement says too:

f :: a -> b -> c is the curried form of g :: (a, b) -> c

however, it starts by stating:

"Currying is the process of transforming a function that takes multiple arguments into a function that takes just a single argument and returns another function if any arguments are still needed." http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Currying

2.1 so does all this mean that

f (x,y) is the function that takes multiple arguments and not a single argument as i initially thought

and

f x y is the function that actually takes a single argument twice?

part 3

some of the above seems to be confirmed by looking at these types

c x y = x + y c :: (Num a) => a -> a -> a so that's curried

u (x,y) = x + y u :: (Num t) => (t,t) -> t so that's uncurried

:t uncurry c uncurry c :: (Num a) => (a, a) -> a

:t curry u curry u :: (Num a) => a -> a -> a

but

:t uncurry u uncurry u :: (Num (b -> c)) => ((b -> c, b -> c), b) -> c we're trying to uncurry something that is already uncurried

and

:t curry c curry c :: (Num (a, b)) => a -> b -> (a, b) -> (a, b) we're trying to curry something that is already curried

3.1 just what are these strange looking things and how should their types be interpreted?