[Haskell-cafe] Re: Query on list comprehension

[Jon Fairbairn]

"Richard O'Keefe" <ok at cs.otago.ac.nz> writes:

> The problem we were asked about was specifically
>     a
>     aa
>     aaa
> The code (iterate ('a':) "\n") does not give the right answer.
> It's not just that it produces an infinite list instead of three
> strings, it doesn't even start with the right string.  It starts
> with "\n" when we need "a\n".

It was impossible to determine that from the question.

> To produce the specified output using that pattern, you need
>     (take 3 . tail . iterate ('a':)) "\n"

take 9, surely?

> or any of several other alternatives.
>
> The original poster also didn't ask "what is the best way to do
> this", but specifically asked about doing it with list
> comprehension.  Presumably this was an attempt to understand list
> comprehension better.

Perhaps, but as the OP didn't follow up to the message where
I said that it wasn't clear what the question was, by the
time Henning posted, I think he was justified in
generalising the question and taking the answer further.
This café is for discussion; it's not a suitable place for
asking a question, copying out the answer and disappearing
without further comment.

-- 
Jón Fairbairn                                 Jon.Fairbairn at cl.cam.ac.uk