[Haskell-cafe] Determining the length of a Foldable Applicative.

[David Banas]

Thanks to all, whom responded to this!
With your help, I found my way to this, which seems to work correctly:

app_len :: (Foldable f) => f a -> Int
app_len = foldl' (flip ((+) . const 1)) 0

-db

On Oct 30, 2015, at 2:47 PM, David Kraeutmann <kane at kane.cx> wrote:

> Your types don't match here, but you have the right idea.
> 
> 'sum' won't be enough. Take a look at the definition of sum:
> 
>> sum :: (Foldable t, Num a) => t a -> a
>> sum = getSum . foldMap Sum
> 
> That won't work, since that requires '(Num a)'.
> 
> We just want to count 1 up whenever we map an element.
> Try doing something with const and Data.Monoid.Sum.
> 
> 
> On 10/30/2015 9:03 PM, David Banas wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I thought I had a simple way to determine the “length" (i.e. - number of elements in) of a Foldable Applicative container:
>> 
>>    import Prelude hiding (sum)
>>    import Data.Foldable (Foldable(..), sum)
>>    import Control.Applicative
>> 
>>    -- Calculate the "length" (i.e. - number of elements in) an Applicative container.
>>    app_len :: (Applicative f, Foldable f) => f a -> Int
>>    app_len = sum $ pure 1
>> 
>> but I didn’t:
>> 
>> app_len_test.hs:9:11:
>>    Could not deduce (Foldable t0) arising from a use of ‘sum’
>>    from the context (Applicative f, Foldable f)
>>      bound by the type signature for
>>                 app_len :: (Applicative f, Foldable f) => f a -> Int
>>      at app_len_test.hs:8:12-52
>>    The type variable ‘t0’ is ambiguous
>>    Note: there are several potential instances:
>>      instance Foldable ((,) a) -- Defined in ‘Data.Foldable’
>>      instance GHC.Arr.Ix i => Foldable (GHC.Arr.Array i)
>>        -- Defined in ‘Data.Foldable’
>>      instance Foldable (Const m) -- Defined in ‘Data.Foldable’
>>      ...plus four others
>>    In the expression: sum
>>    In the expression: sum $ pure 1
>>    In an equation for ‘app_len’: app_len = sum $ pure 1
>> 
>> app_len_test.hs:9:17:
>>    Could not deduce (Applicative t0) arising from a use of ‘pure’
>>    from the context (Applicative f, Foldable f)
>>      bound by the type signature for
>>                 app_len :: (Applicative f, Foldable f) => f a -> Int
>>      at app_len_test.hs:8:12-52
>>    The type variable ‘t0’ is ambiguous
>>    Note: there are several potential instances:
>>      instance Data.Monoid.Monoid a => Applicative ((,) a)
>>        -- Defined in ‘Control.Applicative’
>>      instance Applicative ((->) a) -- Defined in ‘Control.Applicative’
>>      instance Control.Arrow.Arrow a =>
>>               Applicative (Control.Arrow.ArrowMonad a)
>>        -- Defined in ‘Control.Applicative’
>>      ...plus 14 others
>>    In the second argument of ‘($)’, namely ‘pure 1’
>>    In the expression: sum $ pure 1
>>    In an equation for ‘app_len’: app_len = sum $ pure 1
>> 
>> Can anyone help me understand what I’m missing?
>> 
>> Thanks, and have a great weekend,
>> -db
>> 
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>