[Haskell-cafe] Data structure containing elements which are instances of the same type class

[Daniel Trstenjak]

Hi all,

it should be possible a call a function on all elements of the data
structure, to add and remove elements.

What I currently have:

the type class:

class Foo a where
   hasId :: a -> Int -> Maybe a


a few instances:

data A = A deriving Show
instance Foo A where
   hasId a 1 = Just a
   hasId _ _ = Nothing

data B = B deriving Show
instance Foo B where
   hasId a 2 = Just a
   hasId _ _ = Nothing

data C = C deriving Show
instance Foo C where
   hasId a 3 = Just a
   hasId _ _ = Nothing


the data structure holding any instance of Foo, which itself is a
instance of Foo:

data Foos l r = Foos l r
              | FooL l
              | FooR r
              | NoFoos deriving Show

instance (Foo l, Foo r) => Foo (Foos l r) where
   hasId (Foos l r) id =
      case (hasId l id, hasId r id) of
           (Just l, Just r) -> Just $ Foos l r
           (Just l, _     ) -> Just $ FooL l
           (_     , Just r) -> Just $ FooR r
           _                -> Nothing


combinator for Foos:

(+++) :: l -> r -> Foos l r
l +++ r = Foos l r
infixr 5 +++


Now I can write:

*Main> A +++ B +++ C +++ A
Foos A (Foos B (Foos C A))
*Main> (A +++ B +++ C +++ A) `hasId` 1
Just (Foos A (FooR (FooR A)))


Doesn't seem that nice. For every operation I would have to extend the
type class. After some operations the data structure contains many
dummy nodes (FooR, FooL).

Is there some nicer way?


Greetings,
Daniel