Forked from
Glasgow Haskell Compiler / GHC
32211 commits behind the upstream repository.
Gergő Érdi
authored
This patch implements Pattern Synonyms (enabled by -XPatternSynonyms),
allowing y ou to assign names to a pattern and abstract over it.
The rundown is this:
* Named patterns are introduced by the new 'pattern' keyword, and can
be either *unidirectional* or *bidirectional*. A unidirectional
pattern is, in the simplest sense, simply an 'alias' for a pattern,
where the LHS may mention variables to occur in the RHS. A
bidirectional pattern synonym occurs when a pattern may also be used
in expression context.
* Unidirectional patterns are declared like thus:
pattern P x <- x:_
The synonym 'P' may only occur in a pattern context:
foo :: [Int] -> Maybe Int
foo (P x) = Just x
foo _ = Nothing
* Bidirectional patterns are declared like thus:
pattern P x y = [x, y]
Here, P may not only occur as a pattern, but also as an expression
when given values for 'x' and 'y', i.e.
bar :: Int -> [Int]
bar x = P x 10
* Patterns can't yet have their own type signatures; signatures are inferred.
* Pattern synonyms may not be recursive, c.f. type synonyms.
* Pattern synonyms are also exported/imported using the 'pattern'
keyword in an import/export decl, i.e.
module Foo (pattern Bar) where ...
Note that pattern synonyms share the namespace of constructors, so
this disambiguation is required as a there may also be a 'Bar'
type in scope as well as the 'Bar' pattern.
* The semantics of a pattern synonym differ slightly from a typical
pattern: when using a synonym, the pattern itself is matched,
followed by all the arguments. This means that the strictness
differs slightly:
pattern P x y <- [x, y]
f (P True True) = True
f _ = False
g [True, True] = True
g _ = False
In the example, while `g (False:undefined)` evaluates to False,
`f (False:undefined)` results in undefined as both `x` and `y`
arguments are matched to `True`.
For more information, see the wiki:
https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/PatternSynonyms
https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/PatternSynonyms/Implementation
Reviewed-by:
Simon Peyton Jones <simonpj@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by:
Austin Seipp <austin@well-typed.com> Code owners
Assign users and groups as approvers for specific file changes. Learn more.