[Haskell-beginners] Default values for Data Types?

[Mike Sullivan]

Hi all,

I was wondering if there is syntactic sugar in Haskell for defining a
default value for fields in a data type. For instance, say I have a type
that is defined in record syntax:

type CustomerID = Int
type Address = Maybe String

data Customer = Customer {
customerID :: CustomerID
, customerName :: String
, customerAddress :: Address
} deriving (Show)

Is there any way to define default values for some (or all) fields
such that they may be omitted from a declaration, and still have it
generate a valid object?

e.g.)
a = Customer{customerID = 12, customerName="Bill"}
-- I would like a{customerAddress} to default to Nothing (for instance).

It seems to me that this would be a nice feature to have, if it does not
exist. Am I missing something?

Mike
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