[Haskell-cafe] What is the role of $!?

[Andrew Coppin]

PR Stanley wrote:
> Hi
> okay, so $! is a bit like $ i.e. the equivalent of putting parentheses 
> around the righthand expression. I'm still not sure of the difference 
> between $ and $!. Maybe it's because I don't understand the meaning of 
> "strict application". While we're on the subject, what's meant by 
> Haskell being a non-strict language?
> Cheers
> Paul

It simply means in Haskell, if you call a function, that function is not 
executed until you try to do something with the result.

"f $ x + y" is like "f (x + y)". The value of "x + y" will only actually 
be calculated if "f" tries to examine its value. For example,

  f1 x = 7
  f2 x = if x == 0 then 0 else 1

The "f1" function ignores "x" and always returns "7". If you did "f1 $ x 
+ y", then "x + y" would never ever be calculated at all.

However, "f2" looks at "x" to see if it's 0. So if you do "f2 $ x + y", 
the "x + y" part will be calculated.

"f $! x + y" is just like "f $ x + y", except that "x + y" will be 
calculated *before* "f" is called - regardless of whether "f" does 
anything with this data.

The usual reason for doing this is to avoid large unevaluated 
expressions accumulating inside a program loop - e.g., if you were 
calculating a total, you probably want the "total" variable to actually 
contain the total rather than just a big expression like "1 + 2 + 3 + 
...", so you could use $! to force the total to actually be calculated 
before starting the next loop [which will be a recursive function call].

Make any sense?

PS. There is a technical distinction between the terms "lazy" and 
"non-strict", and also the opposite terms "eger" and "strict". I 
couldn't tell you what that is.