[Haskell-beginners] how to access command line arguments

[prad]

here's one way:

import System (getArgs)

args <- getArgs

first = head args
last  = last args
and so on.

i can also do this

(first:last:z) <- getArgs

and avoid using head and tail. in fact, this seems nicer because i can
pattern match for a specific series of inputs. however, if the inputs
aren't there (eg say program arg1 only instead of program arg1 arg2),
then the runtime pattern match failure error: 

user error (Pattern match failure in do expression at Tests.hs:14:4-14)

is understandably generated. this of course doesn't happen if i just
use args because there is no pattern matching.

is the former the better way to do it then? or are there other
alternatives?


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prad

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