[Haskell-beginners] boomBangs xs = [ if x < 10 then "BOOM!" else "BANG!" | x <- xs, odd x]

[Daniel Fischer]

On Tuesday 21 June 2011, 21:58:05, anthony niro wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> My name is Anthony i have few question about Haskell.
> 
> I was reading a tutorial everything goes well. but now i have few things
> that i dont understang.
> 
> HERE:
> 
> boomBangs xs = [ if x < 10 then "BOOM!" else "BANG!" | x <- xs, odd x]

That's a "list comprehension", if you want further information, searching 
for that term should turn up a few sources.

> 
> I dont understand this line except the "if" "then" "else".
> What is xs?

xs is the argument of the function boomBangs, it is a list.
(mnemonic: xs is the plural of x, it's common to denote single elements of 
a list by x, y, k, n, ... and the corresponding lists of [potentially] 
several such elements xs, ys, ...)

> what is the |  ?

It's a separator. It separates the elements of the result list from the 
generators and predicates.
List comprehension syntax is similar to set comprehension syntax, the above 
reads as

(if x < 10 then "BOOM!" else "BANG!") where x runs through/is drawn from xs 
and x is odd.

>  and why doing this  "  | x <- xs, odd x]"
> 
> why x <- xs????? what is that

"x <- xs" is the 'generator', you could also read that as "for all x in xs"
(but, as you will soon discover, it's more general, that works also for 
other things than lists).

> 
> and what is odd x?

That's a predicate or test, `odd' is a function which tests whether a 
number is odd, hence `odd x' tells you whether x is an odd number.
Appearing in that position, it acts as a filter, the expression to the left 
of the separator (`|', to reiterate) is only included in the result list if 
the test evaluates to True.

HTH,
Daniel