---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Nenad Končar" <nlpresearcher@gmail.com<mailto:nlpresearcher@gmail.com>> To: Levent Erkok <erkokl@gmail.com<mailto:erkokl@gmail.com>> Cc: Gregory Guthrie <guthrie@miu.edu<mailto:guthrie@miu.edu>>, "haskell-cafe@haskell.org<mailto:haskell-cafe@haskell.org>" <haskell-cafe@haskell.org<mailto:haskell-cafe@haskell.org>>, Haskell Community <replies+f6607596e3ee63f105e2b0327b86f062@discourse.haskell.org<mailto:replies%2Bf6607596e3ee63f105e2b0327b86f062@discourse.haskell.org>> Bcc: Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2023 00:00:09 +0200 Subject: Re: [Haskell-cafe] GPT & Haskell On Fri, 31 Mar 2023 at 23:24, Levent Erkok <erkokl@gmail.com<mailto:erkokl@gmail.com>> wrote: This code is buggy when lo + hi overflows your integer type. Classic (extremely) corner case bug: https://ai.googleblog.com/2006/06/extra-extra-read-all-about-it-nearly.html Thank you kindly for pointing this out. GPT-4, when prompted, is able to detect and correct the overflow mistake as follows: After I introduced a purposeful mistake in the Haskel code, I prompted GPT-4 as follows: If the following Haskel code contains any logical mistakes then correct the code for me: -- Binary search in Haskell -- Precondition: the list is sorted in ascending order -- Postcondition: the function returns the index of the target element if found, or Nothing otherwise -- Invariant: the search space is always within the bounds of the list -- Variant: the search space decreases by half at each recursive call -- Internal state: the lower and upper bounds of the search space binarySearch :: Ord a => [a] -> a -> Maybe Int binarySearch xs x = go xs x 0 (length xs - 1) where go xs x lo hi | lo > hi = Nothing -- base case: search space is empty | x == midElem = Just mid -- base case: target element is found | x < midElem = go xs x lo (mid - 1) -- recursive case: search in the left half | otherwise = go xs x (mid + 1) hi -- recursive case: search in the right half where mid = (lo - hi) `div` 2 -- calculate the middle index midElem = xs !! mid -- get the middle element -- Print results using putStrLn main :: IO () main = do let xs = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9] -- a sorted list of integers let x = 5 -- a target element to search for let result = binarySearch xs x -- call the binary search function case result of -- pattern match on the result Nothing -> putStrLn "Element not found" -- print a message if Nothing is returned Just i -> putStrLn $ "Element found at index " ++ show i -- print a message with the index if Just i is returned and then GPT-4 replied: Hello, Thank you for sending me your Haskell code for binary search. I appreciate your interest in learning this functional programming language. I have reviewed your code and found a few logical mistakes that need to be corrected. Here is the revised code with some comments explaining the changes: -- Binary search in Haskell -- Precondition: the list is sorted in ascending order -- Postcondition: the function returns the index of the target element if found, or Nothing otherwise -- Invariant: the search space is always within the bounds of the list -- Variant: the search space decreases by half at each recursive call -- Internal state: the lower and upper bounds of the search space binarySearch :: Ord a => [a] -> a -> Maybe Int binarySearch xs x = go xs x 0 (length xs - 1) where go xs x lo hi | lo > hi = Nothing -- base case: search space is empty | x == midElem = Just mid -- base case: target element is found | x < midElem = go xs x lo (mid - 1) -- recursive case: search in the left half | otherwise = go xs x (mid + 1) hi -- recursive case: search in the right half where mid = lo + (hi - lo) `div` 2 -- calculate the middle index using a safer formula to avoid overflow midElem = xs !! mid -- get the middle element -- Print results using putStrLn main :: IO () main = do let xs = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9] -- a sorted list of integers let x = 5 -- a target element to search for let result = binarySearch xs x -- call the binary search function case result of -- pattern match on the result Nothing -> putStrLn "Element not found" -- print a message if Nothing is returned Just i -> putStrLn $ "Element found at index " ++ show i -- print a message with the index if Just i is returned The main mistake in your code was in the calculation of the middle index. You used `(lo - hi) `div` 2`, which is incorrect because it will always give a negative value. The correct formula is `lo + (hi - lo) `div` 2`, which ensures that the middle index is always within the bounds of the list. This formula also avoids overflow issues that might occur if you use `(lo + hi) `div` 2`. I hope this helps you understand binary search better and improve your Haskell skills. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback. I would love to hear from you and help you further. Happy coding! The improved code runs: https://onecompiler.com/haskell/3z4avpx6n On Mar 31, 2023, at 1:02 PM, Gregory Guthrie <guthrie@miu.edu<mailto:guthrie@miu.edu>> wrote: From a colleague: GPT Pretty smart(?!). But this is of course simple, and searchable. Still… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GPT-4 when prompted: Write binary search in Haskel. Print results using putStrLn. Ensure bug-free code by specifying preconditions, postconditions, invariants, variants, internal states. gives the following response: -- Binary search in Haskell -- Precondition: the list is sorted in ascending order -- Postcondition: the function returns the index of the target element if found, or Nothing otherwise -- Invariant: the search space is always within the bounds of the list -- Variant: the search space decreases by half at each recursive call -- Internal state: the lower and upper bounds of the search space binarySearch :: Ord a => [a] -> a -> Maybe Int binarySearch xs x = go xs x 0 (length xs - 1) where go xs x lo hi | lo > hi = Nothing -- base case: search space is empty | x == midElem = Just mid -- base case: target element is found | x < midElem = go xs x lo (mid - 1) -- recursive case: search in the left half | otherwise = go xs x (mid + 1) hi -- recursive case: search in the right half where mid = (lo + hi) `div` 2 -- calculate the middle index midElem = xs !! mid -- get the middle element -- Print results using putStrLn main :: IO () main = do let xs = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9] -- a sorted list of integers let x = 5 -- a target element to search for let result = binarySearch xs x -- call the binary search function case result of -- pattern match on the result Nothing -> putStrLn "Element not found" -- print a message if Nothing is returned Just i -> putStrLn $ "Element found at index " ++ show i -- print a message with the index if Just i is returned The above code runs: https://onecompiler.com/cpp/3z48yt2pp <image001.png> _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list To (un)subscribe, modify options or view archives go to: http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe Only members subscribed via the mailman list are allowed to post.