Haskell Cheat Sheet Strings ?· Haskell Cheat Sheet ... two functions, a number and a character. ...…


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  • Haskell Cheat Sheet

    This cheat sheet lays out the fundamental elementsof the Haskell language: syntax, keywords andother elements. It is presented as both an ex-ecutable Haskell file and a printable document.Load the source into your favorite interpreter toplay with code samples shown.

    Basic Syntax


    A single line comment starts with -- and extendsto the end of the line. Multi-line comments startwith {- and extend to -}. Comments can benested.

    Comments above function definitions shouldstart with {- | and those next to parameter typeswith -- ^ for compatibility with Haddock1, a sys-tem for documenting Haskell code.

    Reserved Words

    The following words are reserved in Haskell. It is asyntax error to give a variable or a function one ofthese names.

    case class data deriving do else if

    import in infix infixl infixr instance let

    of module newtype then type where


    "abc" Unicode string, sugar for['a','b','c'].

    'a' Single character.

    Multi-line Strings Normally, it is a syntax errorif a string has any actual newline characters. Thatis, this is a syntax error:

    string1 = "My long


    Backslashes (\) can escape a newline:

    string1 = "My long \


    The area between the backslashes is ignored. New-lines in the string must be represented explicitly:

    string2 = "My long \n\


    That is, string1 evaluates to:

    My long string.

    While string2 evaluates to:

    My long



    1 Integer or Floating point 1.0, 1e10 Floating point 1. syntax error -1 sugar for (negate 1) 2-1 sugar for ((-) 2 1)


    [1..10] List of numbers 1, 2, . . ., 10. [100..] Infinite list of numbers 100, 101,102, . . . .

    [110..100] Empty list; ranges only go for-wards.

    [0, -1 ..] Negative integers. [-100..-110] Syntax error; need[-100.. -110] for negatives.

    [1,3..100], [-1,3..100] List from 1 to100 by 2, -1 to 100 by 4.

    In fact, any value which is in the Enum class can beused:

    ['a' .. 'z'] List of characters a, b,. . ., z.

    [1.0, 1.5 .. 2] [1.0,1.5,2.0]. [UppercaseLetter ..] List ofGeneralCategory values (from Data.Char).

    Lists & Tuples

    [] Empty list. [1,2,3] List of three numbers. 1 : 2 : 3 : [] Alternate way to write lists

    using cons (:) and nil ([]). "abc" List of three characters (strings are

    lists). 'a' : 'b' : 'c' : [] List of characters

    (same as "abc"). (1,"a") 2-element tuple of a number and a

    string. (head, tail, 3, 'a') 4-element tuple of

    two functions, a number and a character.1http://haskell.org/haddock/

    c 2009 Justin Bailey. 1 jgbailey@codeslower.com


  • Layout rule, braces and semi-colons.

    Haskell can be written using braces and semi-colons, just like C. However, no one does. Instead,the layout rule is used, where spaces representscope. The general rule is: always indent. Whenthe compiler complains, indent more.

    Braces and semi-colons Semi-colons termi-nate an expression, and braces represent scope.They can be used after several keywords: where,let, do and of. They cannot be used when defin-ing a function body. For example, the below willnot compile.

    square2 x = { x * x; }

    However, this will work fine:

    square2 x = result

    where { result = x * x; }

    Function Definition Indent the body at leastone space from the function name:

    square x =

    x * x

    Unless a where clause is present. In that case, in-dent the where clause at least one space from thefunction name and any function bodies at least onespace from the where keyword:

    square x =


    where x2 =

    x * x

    Let Indent the body of the let at least one spacefrom the first definition in the let. If let appearson its own line, the body of any definition mustappear in the column after the let:

    square x =

    let x2 =

    x * x

    in x2

    As can be seen above, the in keyword must also bein the same column as let. Finally, when multipledefinitions are given, all identifiers must appear inthe same column.


    Haskell keywords are listed below, in alphabeticalorder.


    case is similar to a switch statement in C# or Java,but can match a pattern: the shape of the value be-ing inspected. Consider a simple data type:

    data Choices = First String | Second |

    Third | Fourth

    case can be used to determine which choice wasgiven:

    whichChoice ch =

    case ch of

    First _ -> "1st!"

    Second -> "2nd!"

    _ -> "Something else."

    As with pattern-matching in function definitions,the _ token is a wildcard matching any value.

    Nesting & Capture Nested matching and bind-ing are also allowed.

    data Maybe a = Just a | Nothing

    Figure 1: The definition of Maybe

    Using Maybe we can determine if any choice wasgiven using a nested match:

    anyChoice1 ch =

    case ch of

    Nothing -> "No choice!"

    Just (First _) -> "First!"

    Just Second -> "Second!"

    _ -> "Something else."

    Binding can be used to manipulate the valuematched:

    anyChoice2 ch =

    case ch of

    Nothing -> "No choice!"

    Just score@(First "gold") ->

    "First with gold!"

    Just score@(First _) ->

    "First with something else: "

    ++ show score

    _ -> "Not first."

    Matching Order Matching proceeds from top tobottom. If anyChoice1 is reordered as follows, thefirst pattern will always succeed:

    anyChoice3 ch =

    case ch of

    _ -> "Something else."

    Nothing -> "No choice!"

    c 2009 Justin Bailey. 2 jgbailey@codeslower.com


  • Just (First _) -> "First!"

    Just Second -> "Second!"

    Guards Guards, or conditional matches, can beused in cases just like function definitions. The onlydifference is the use of the -> instead of =. Hereis a simple function which does a case-insensitivestring match:

    strcmp s1 s2 = case (s1, s2) of

    ([], []) -> True

    (s1:ss1, s2:ss2)

    | toUpper s1 == toUpper s2 ->

    strcmp ss1 ss2

    | otherwise -> False

    _ -> False


    A Haskell function is defined to work on a certaintype or set of types and cannot be defined morethan once. Most languages support the idea ofoverloading, where a function can have differentbehavior depending on the type of its arguments.Haskell accomplishes overloading through classand instance declarations. A class defines oneor more functions that can be applied to any typeswhich are members (i.e., instances) of that class. Aclass is analogous to an interface in Java or C#, andinstances to a concrete implementation of the inter-face.

    A class must be declared with one or more typevariables. Technically, Haskell 98 only allows onetype variable, but most implementations of Haskellsupport so-called multi-parameter type classes, whichallow more than one type variable.

    We can define a class which supplies a flavor fora given type:

    class Flavor a where

    flavor :: a -> String

    Notice that the declaration only gives the typesignature of the functionno implementation isgiven here (with some exceptions, see Defaultson page 3). Continuing, we can define several in-stances:

    instance Flavor Bool where

    flavor _ = "sweet"

    instance Flavor Char where

    flavor _ = "sour"

    Evaluating flavor True gives:

    > flavor True


    While flavor 'x' gives:

    > flavor 'x'


    Defaults Default implementations can be givenfor functions in a class. These are useful when cer-tain functions can be defined in terms of others inthe class. A default is defined by giving a body toone of the member functions. The canonical exam-ple is Eq, which defines /= (not equal) in terms of==. :

    class Eq a where




    Recursive definitions can be created, but aninstance declaration must always implement atleast one class member.


    So-called algebraic data types can be declared as fol-lows:

    data MyType = MyValue1 | MyValue2

    MyType is the types name. MyValue1 andMyValue are values of the type and are called con-structors. Multiple constructors are separated withthe | character. Note that type and constructornames must start with a capital letter. It is a syntaxerror otherwise.

    Constructors with Arguments The type aboveis not very interesting except as an enumeration.Constructors that take arguments can be declared,allowing more information to be stored:

    data Point = TwoD Int Int

    | ThreeD Int Int Int

    Notice that the arguments for each constructor aretype names, not constructors. That means this kindof declaration is illegal:

    data Poly = Triangle TwoD TwoD TwoD

    instead, the Point type must be used:

    data Poly = Triangle Point Point Point

    Type and Constructor Names Type and con-structor names can be the same, because they willnever be used in a place that would cause confu-sion. For example:

    data User = User String | Admin String

    which declares a type named User with two con-structors, User and Admin. Using this type in afunction makes the difference clear:

    c 2009 Justin Bailey. 3 jgbailey@codeslower.com


  • whatUser (User _) = "normal user."

    whatUser (Admin _) = "admin user."

    Some literature refers to this practice as type pun-ning.

    Type Variables Declaring so-called polymorphicdata types is as easy as adding type variables inthe declaration:

    data Slot1 a = Slot1 a | Empty1

    This declares a type Slot1 with two constructors,Slot1 and Empty1. The Slot1 constructor can takean argument of any type, which is represented bythe type variable a above.

    We can also mix type variables and specifictypes in constructors:

    data Slot2 a = Slot2 a Int | Empty2

    Above, the Slot2 constructor can take a value ofany type and an Int value.

    Record Syntax Constructor arguments can bedeclared either positionally, as above, or usingrecord syntax, which gives a name to each argu-ment. For example, here we declare a Contact typewith names for appropriate arguments:

    data Contact = Contact { ctName :: String

    , ctEmail :: String

    , ctPhone :: String }

    These names are referred to as selector or accessorfunctions and are just that, functions. They muststart with a lowercase letter or underscore and can-not have the same name as another function inscope. Thus the ct prefix on each above. Mul-tiple constructors (of the same type) can use the

    same accessor function for values of the same type,but that can be dangerous if the accessor is not usedby all constructors. Consider this rather contrivedexample:

    data Con = Con { conValue :: String }

    | Uncon { conValue :: String }

    | Noncon

    whichCon con = "convalue is " ++

    conValue con

    If whichCon is called with a Noncon value, a runtimeerror will occur.

    Finally, as explained elsewhere, these namescan be used for pattern matching, argument cap-ture and updating.

    Class Constraints Data types can be declaredwith class constraints on the type variables, butthis practice is generally discouraged. It is gener-ally better to hide the raw data constructors us-ing the module system and instead export smartconstructors which apply appropriate constraints.In any case, the syntax used is:

    data (Num a) => SomeNumber a = Two a a

    | Three a a a

    This declares a type SomeNumber which has onetype variable argument. Valid types are those inthe Num class.

    Deriving Many types have common operationswhich are tedious to define yet necessary, such asthe ability to convert to and from strings, comparefor equality, or order in a sequence. These capabil-ities are defined as typeclasses in Haskell.

    Because seven of these operations are so com-mon, Haskell provides the deriving keywordwhich will automatically implement the typeclasson the associated type. The seven supported type-classes are: Eq, Read, Show, Ord, Enum, Ix, andBounded.

    Two forms of deriving are possible. The first isused when a type only derives one class:

    data Priority = Low | Medium | High

    deriving Show

    The second is used when multiple classes are de-rived:

    data Alarm = Soft | Loud | Deafening

    deriving (Read, Show)

    It is a syntax error to specify deriving for any otherclasses besides the six given above.


    See the section on deriving under the data key-word on page 4.


    The do keyword indicates that the code to followwill be in a monadic context. Statements are sepa-rated by newlines, assignment is indicated by

  • If and IO if can be tricky when used withIO. Conceptually it is no different from an if inany other context, but intuitively it is hard to de-velop. Consider the function doesFileExists fromSystem.Directory:

    doesFileExist :: FilePath -> IO Bool

    The if statement has this signature:

    if-then-else :: Bool -> a -> a -> a

    That is, it takes a Bool value and evaluates to someother value based on the condition. From the typesignatures it is clear that doesFileExist cannot beused directly by if:

    wrong fileName =

    if doesFileExist fileName

    then ...

    else ...

    That is, doesFileExist results in an IO Bool value,while if wants a Bool value. Instead, the correctvalue must be extracted by running the IO ac-tion:

    right1 fileName = do


  • -- Anything else is empty string

    sentenceCase _ = []


    See the section on module on page 6.


    See let on page 6.

    Infix, infixl and infixr

    See the section on operators on page 11.


    See the section on class on page 3.


    Local functions can be defined within a function us-ing let. The let keyword must always be followedby in. The in must appear in the same column asthe let keyword. Functions defined have access toall other functions and variables within the samescope (including those defined by let). In this ex-ample, mult multiplies its argument n by x, whichwas passed to the original multiples. mult is usedby map to give the multiples of x up to 10:

    multiples x =

    let mult n = n * x

    in map mult [1..10]

    let functions with no arguments are actuallyconstants and, once evaluated, will not evaluateagain. This is useful for capturing common por-tions of your function and re-using them. Here is a

    silly example which gives the sum of a list of num-bers, their average, and their median:

    listStats m =

    let numbers = [1,3 .. m]

    total = sum numbers

    mid = head (take (m `div` 2)


    in "total: " ++ show total ++

    ", mid: " ++ show mid

    Deconstruction The left-hand side of a let def-inition can also destructure its argument, in casesub-components are to be accessed. This definitionwould extract the first three characters from a string

    firstThree str =

    let (a:b:c:_) = str

    in "Initial three characters are: " ++

    show a ++ ", " ++

    show b ++ ", and " ++

    show c

    Note that this is different than the following, whichonly works if the string has three characters:

    onlyThree str =

    let (a:b:c:[]) = str

    in "The characters given are: " ++

    show a ++ ", " ++ show b ++

    ", and " ++ show c


    See the section on case on page 2.


    A module is a compilation unit which exports func-tions, types, classes, instances, and other modules.

    A module can only be defined in one file, thoughits exports may come from multiple sources. Tomake a Haskell file a module, just add a moduledeclaration at the top:

    module MyModule where

    Module names must start with a capital letter butotherwise can include periods, numbers and un-derscores. Periods are used to give sense of struc-ture, and Haskell compilers will use them as indi-cations of the directory a particular source file is,but otherwise they have no meaning.

    The Haskell community has standardized a setof top-level module names such as Da...


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