[Haskell-cafe] identity function

Sean Leather leather at cs.uu.nl
Tue Dec 21 08:23:04 CET 2010


> I've been reviewing the library, and have come unstuck with the *id*function.
> What's its purpose and can someone give me an example of its practical use.
>

It's purpose is simply to be the identity function. The type says exactly
what it does.

Prelude> :t id
id :: a -> a

It's often useful in combination with higher-order functions.

Prelude> :t foldr (.) id
foldr (.) id :: [a -> a] -> a -> a

Here's a slightly complicated way to add a list of numbers:

Prelude> foldr (.) id (map (+) [1..5]) 0
15

Sean
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