[Haskell-beginners] understanding type classes and class constraints
Robert Krahn
robert.krahn at gmail.com
Mon Nov 18 00:47:58 UTC 2013
Hi everyone,
I'm currently enjoying to learn Haskell and came upon a problem I don't
understand:
Motivated by the Learn you a Haskell / yes-no typeclass example I tried to
create a simple "Tester" type class:
class Tester a where
test :: a -> Bool
I wasn't to define the rules when test returns True/False for various
types, e.g.
instance Tester Integer where
test 0 = False
test _ = True
For the Maybe instance I want to delegate to the value of Just and add a
class constraint:
instance (Tester m) => Tester (Maybe m) where
test Nothing = False
test (Just x) = test x
It compiles nicely and works for Just values
test (Just 3) -- True
test (Just 0) -- False
But
test Nothing
gives me
No instance for (Tester a0) arising from a use of `test'
The type variable `a0' is ambiguous
Possible fix: add a type signature that fixes these type variable(s)
Note: there are several potential instances:
instance Tester m => Tester (Maybe m)
instance Tester Integer
In the expression: test Nothing
Could you please enlighten me what's going on and how to fix my code?
Thank you!
Robert
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