[Haskell-cafe] Ambiguous types for collection keys

Robert Dockins robdockins at fastmail.fm
Wed Apr 12 15:35:53 EDT 2006


On Apr 12, 2006, at 3:18 PM, Scott Weeks wrote:

>
>
>>
>> Well, if you get an "ambiguous type variable" error, you probably (I
>> think) need to add some type annotations. For example:
>>
>> class Foo a where
>>   foo :: a
>>   bar :: a -> String
>>
>> Evaluating bar foo will result in an error, but bar (foo :: Integer)
>> will work just fine.
>> ____________________
>
> The problem is that I get  an incoming value which is a key of some  
> sort. There's no way of knowing what type that value is supposed to  
> be until I compare it with the schema from the above example. where  
> I _am_ adding type annotations.
>
> coerceIndex f (Schema _ SInt SPtr _) (r,hdl,o,hdr) = f  
> (r::IdxInt,hdl,o,hdr)
> coerceIndex f (Schema _ SStr SPtr _) (r,hdl,o,hdr) = f  
> (r::IdxPS,hdl,o,hdr)
>
>
> When I try to add type annotations I get a complaint from the  
> typechecker that says (In the case of the above example) Expected  
> type: Integer, Inferred Type: PackedString.
>
> Is the alternative to write different "select" methods for each key  
> type (selectInt, selectPS, ...)? God I hope not, that would be a  
> bit scary.


I'm not 100% sure I understand your use case, but I think you might  
be able to crack this by using Data.Dynamic:

http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/libraries/base/Data- 
Dynamic.html




Speak softly and drive a Sherman tank.
Laugh hard; it's a long way to the bank.
           -- TMBG





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