| Copyright | (c) The University of Glasgow 2001 |
|---|---|
| License | BSD-style (see the file libraries/base/LICENSE) |
| Maintainer | libraries@haskell.org |
| Stability | stable |
| Portability | portable |
| Safe Haskell | Trustworthy |
| Language | Haskell2010 |
Data.Maybe
Description
The Maybe type, and associated operations.
Documentation
The Maybe type encapsulates an optional value. A value of type
Maybe aa (represented as Just aNothing). Using Maybe is a good way to
deal with errors or exceptional cases without resorting to drastic
measures such as error.
The Maybe type is also a monad. It is a simple kind of error
monad, where all errors are represented by Nothing. A richer
error monad can be built using the Either type.
Instances
maybe :: b -> (a -> b) -> Maybe a -> b Source #
The maybe function takes a default value, a function, and a Maybe
value. If the Maybe value is Nothing, the function returns the
default value. Otherwise, it applies the function to the value inside
the Just and returns the result.
Examples
Basic usage:
>>>maybe False odd (Just 3)True
>>>maybe False odd NothingFalse
Read an integer from a string using readMaybe. If we succeed,
return twice the integer; that is, apply (*2) to it. If instead
we fail to parse an integer, return 0 by default:
>>>import Text.Read ( readMaybe )>>>maybe 0 (*2) (readMaybe "5")10>>>maybe 0 (*2) (readMaybe "")0
Apply show to a Maybe Int. If we have Just n, we want to show
the underlying Int n. But if we have Nothing, we return the
empty string instead of (for example) "Nothing":
>>>maybe "" show (Just 5)"5">>>maybe "" show Nothing""
fromMaybe :: a -> Maybe a -> a Source #
The fromMaybe function takes a default value and and Maybe
value. If the Maybe is Nothing, it returns the default values;
otherwise, it returns the value contained in the Maybe.
Examples
Basic usage:
>>>fromMaybe "" (Just "Hello, World!")"Hello, World!"
>>>fromMaybe "" Nothing""
Read an integer from a string using readMaybe. If we fail to
parse an integer, we want to return 0 by default:
>>>import Text.Read ( readMaybe )>>>fromMaybe 0 (readMaybe "5")5>>>fromMaybe 0 (readMaybe "")0
listToMaybe :: [a] -> Maybe a Source #
The listToMaybe function returns Nothing on an empty list
or Just aa is the first element of the list.
Examples
Basic usage:
>>>listToMaybe []Nothing
>>>listToMaybe [9]Just 9
>>>listToMaybe [1,2,3]Just 1
Composing maybeToList with listToMaybe should be the identity
on singleton/empty lists:
>>>maybeToList $ listToMaybe [5][5]>>>maybeToList $ listToMaybe [][]
But not on lists with more than one element:
>>>maybeToList $ listToMaybe [1,2,3][1]
maybeToList :: Maybe a -> [a] Source #
The maybeToList function returns an empty list when given
Nothing or a singleton list when not given Nothing.
Examples
Basic usage:
>>>maybeToList (Just 7)[7]
>>>maybeToList Nothing[]
One can use maybeToList to avoid pattern matching when combined
with a function that (safely) works on lists:
>>>import Text.Read ( readMaybe )>>>sum $ maybeToList (readMaybe "3")3>>>sum $ maybeToList (readMaybe "")0
catMaybes :: [Maybe a] -> [a] Source #
The catMaybes function takes a list of Maybes and returns
a list of all the Just values.
Examples
Basic usage:
>>>catMaybes [Just 1, Nothing, Just 3][1,3]
When constructing a list of Maybe values, catMaybes can be used
to return all of the "success" results (if the list is the result
of a map, then mapMaybe would be more appropriate):
>>>import Text.Read ( readMaybe )>>>[readMaybe x :: Maybe Int | x <- ["1", "Foo", "3"] ][Just 1,Nothing,Just 3]>>>catMaybes $ [readMaybe x :: Maybe Int | x <- ["1", "Foo", "3"] ][1,3]
mapMaybe :: (a -> Maybe b) -> [a] -> [b] Source #
The mapMaybe function is a version of map which can throw
out elements. In particular, the functional argument returns
something of type Maybe bNothing, no element
is added on to the result list. If it is Just bb is
included in the result list.
Examples
Using mapMaybe f xcatMaybes $ map f x
>>>import Text.Read ( readMaybe )>>>let readMaybeInt = readMaybe :: String -> Maybe Int>>>mapMaybe readMaybeInt ["1", "Foo", "3"][1,3]>>>catMaybes $ map readMaybeInt ["1", "Foo", "3"][1,3]
If we map the Just constructor, the entire list should be returned:
>>>mapMaybe Just [1,2,3][1,2,3]