Data.Set.findMin is a partial function

Henning Thielemann lemming at henning-thielemann.de
Mon Dec 11 09:04:21 EST 2006


I'm using Set for algorithms which work this way:
   while the set is non-empty
     choose an element from the set
     do something with that element
     remove the element and some more that depend on it

However when I code this with Set.null and Set.findMin, I run into the 
same trouble like with List.null and List.head, namely Set.findMin is a 
partial function. I like to have a function like
  choose :: Set a -> Maybe a
  choose set = toMaybe (not (Set.null set)) (Set.findMin set)

  toMaybe :: Bool -> a -> Maybe a
  toMaybe False _ = Nothing
  toMaybe True  x = Just x

in Data.Set.

Opinions?


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