[Haskell-cafe] Empty Input list

[Chris Smith]

On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 2:41 PM, Kevin Clees <k.clees at web.de> wrote:
> what can I do, if a function gets an empty input list? I want, that it only returns nothing.
> This is my source code:
>
> tmp:: [(Int, Int)] -> Int -> (Int, Int)
> tmp (x:xs) y
>        | y == 1 = x
>        | y > 1 = tmp xs (y-1)

It's not clear what you mean by "returns nothing" when the result is
(Int, Int)... there is no "nothing" value of that type.  But you can
add another equation to handle empty lists one you decide what to
return in that case.  For example, after (or before) the existing
equation, add:

tmp [] y = (-1, -1)

Or, you may want to use a Maybe type for the return... which would
mean there *is* a Nothing value you can return:

tmp:: [(Int, Int)] -> Int -> Maybe (Int, Int)
tmp (x:xs) y
       | y == 1 = Just x
       | y > 1  = tmp xs (y-1)
tmp [] y = Nothing

Does that help?
-- 
Chris Smith