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INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING

INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING. Graham Hutton University of Nottingham. What is Functional Programming?. Functional programming is style of programming in which the basic method of computation is the application of functions to arguments;

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INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING

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  1. INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING Graham Hutton University of Nottingham

  2. What is Functional Programming? • Functional programming is style of programming in which the basic method of computation is the application of functions to arguments; • A functional language is one that supports and encourages the functional style. Opinions differ, and it is difficult to give a precise definition, but generally speaking:

  3. Example Summing the integers 1 to 10 in Java: total = 0; for (i = 1; i  10; ++i) total = total+i; The computation method is variable assignment. 2

  4. Example Summing the integers 1 to 10 in Haskell: sum [1..10] The computation method is function application. 3

  5. Why is it Useful? Again, there are many possible answers to this question, but generally speaking: • The abstract nature of functional programming leads to considerably simpler programs; • It also supports a number of powerful new ways to structure and reason about programs.

  6. This Course A series of mini-lectures reviewing a number of basic concepts, using Haskell: • The Hugs system; • Types and classes; • Defining functions; • List comprehensions; • Recursive functions; • Higher-order functions; • Interactive programs; • Defining types.

  7. These concepts will be tied together at the end by developing a Haskell program to solve the numbers game from Countdown, a popular quiz show. Note: • Some prior exposure to functional programming is assumed, but not specifically Haskell; • Please ask questions during the lectures!

  8. LECTURE 1 THE HUGS SYSTEM Graham Hutton University of Nottingham

  9. What is Hugs? • An interpreter for Haskell, and the most widely used implementation of the language; • An interactive system, which is well-suited for teaching and prototyping purposes; • Hugs is freely available from: www.haskell.org/hugs

  10. The Standard Prelude When Hugs is started it first loads the library file Prelude.hs, and then repeatedly prompts the user for an expression to be evaluated. For example: > 2+3*4 14 > (2+3)*4 20

  11. The standard prelude also provides many useful functions that operate on lists. For example: > length [1,2,3,4] 4 > product [1,2,3,4] 24 > take 3 [1,2,3,4,5] [1,2,3]

  12. Function Application In mathematics, function application is denoted using parentheses, and multiplication is often denoted using juxtaposition or space. f(a,b) + c d Apply the function f to a and b, and add the result to the product of c and d.

  13. In Haskell, function application is denoted using space, and multiplication is denoted using *. f a b + c*d As previously, but in Haskell syntax.

  14. Moreover, function application is assumed to have higher priority than all other operators. f a + b Means (f a) + b, rather than f (a + b).

  15. Mathematics Haskell f x f(x) f x y f(x,y) f (g x) f(g(x)) f x (g y) f(x,g(y)) f(x)g(y) f x * g y Examples

  16. My First Script When developing a Haskell script, it is useful to keep two windows open, one running an editor for the script, and the other running Hugs. Start an editor, type in the following two function definitions, and save the script as test.hs: double x = x + x quadruple x = double (double x)

  17. Leaving the editor open, in another window start up Hugs with the new script: % hugs test.hs Now both Prelude.hs and test.hs are loaded, and functions from both scripts can be used: > quadruple 10 40 > take (double 2) [1..6] [1,2,3,4]

  18. Leaving Hugs open, return to the editor, add the following two definitions, and resave: factorial n = product [1..n] average ns = sum ns `div` length ns Note: • div is enclosed in back quotes, not forward; • x `f` y is just syntactic sugar for f x y.

  19. Hugs does not automatically reload scripts when they are changed, so a reload command must be executed before the new definitions can be used: > :reload Reading file "test.hs" > factorial 10 3628800 > average [1..5] 3

  20. Exercises (1) (2) (3) Try out some of the other functions from the standard prelude using Hugs. Work through "My First Script" using Hugs. Show how the functions last and init from the standard prelude could be re-defined using other functions from the prelude. Note: there are many possible answers!

  21. LECTURE 2 TYPES AND CLASSES (I) Graham Hutton University of Nottingham

  22. What is a Type? A type is a collection of related values. Bool The logical values False and True. All functions that map a logical value to a logical value. Bool  Bool

  23. Types in Haskell We use the notation e :: T to mean that evaluating the expression e will produce a value of type T. False :: Bool not :: Bool  Bool not False :: Bool False && True :: Bool

  24. Note: • Every expression must have a valid type, which is calculated prior to evaluating the expression by a process called type inference; • Haskell programs are type safe, because type errors can never occur during evaluation; • Type inference detects a very large class of programming errors, and is one of the most powerful and useful features of Haskell.

  25. - Logical values Bool - Single characters Char - Strings of characters String - Fixed-precision integers Int - Arbitrary-precision integers Integer Basic Types Haskell has a number of basic types, including:

  26. List Types A list is sequence of values of the same type: [False,True,False] :: [Bool] [’a’,’b’,’c’,’d’] :: [Char] In general: [T] is the type of lists with elements of type T.

  27. Note: • The type of a list says nothing about its length: [False,True] :: [Bool] [False,True,False] :: [Bool] • The type of the elements is unrestricted. For example, we can have lists of lists: [[’a’],[’b’,’c’]] :: [[Char]]

  28. Tuple Types A tuple is a sequence of values of different types: (False,True) :: (Bool,Bool) (False,’a’,True) :: (Bool,Char,Bool) In general: (T1,T2,…,Tn) is the type of n-tuples whose ith components have type Ti for any i in 1…n.

  29. Note: • The type of a tuple encodes its arity: (False,True) :: (Bool,Bool) (False,True,False) :: (Bool,Bool,Bool) • The type of the components is unrestricted: (’a’,(False,’b’)) :: (Char,(Bool,Char)) (True,[’a’,’b’]) :: (Bool,[Char])

  30. Function Types A function is a mapping from values of one type to values of another type: not :: Bool  Bool isDigit :: Char  Bool In general: T1  T2 is the type of functions that map arguments of type T1 to results of type T2.

  31. Note: • The argument and result types are unrestricted. For example, functions with multiple arguments or results are possible using lists or tuples: add :: (Int,Int)  Int add (x,y) = x+y zeroto :: Int  [Int] zeroto n = [0..n]

  32. (2) Check your answers using Hugs. (1) What are the types of the following values? Exercises [’a’,’b’,’c’] (’a’,’b’,’c’) [(False,’0’),(True,’1’)] [isDigit,isLower,isUpper]

  33. LECTURE 3 TYPES AND CLASSES (II) Graham Hutton University of Nottingham

  34. Curried Functions Functions with multiple arguments are also possible by returning functions as results: add’ :: Int  (Int  Int) add’ x y = x+y add’ takes an integer x and returns a function. In turn, this function takes an integer y and returns the result x+y.

  35. Note: • add and add’ produce the same final result, but add takes its two arguments at the same time, whereas add’ takes them one at a time: add :: (Int,Int)  Int add’ :: Int  (Int  Int) • Functions that take their arguments one at a time are called curried functions.

  36. Functions with more than two arguments can be curried by returning nested functions: mult :: Int  (Int  (Int  Int)) mult x y z = x*y*z mult takes an integer x and returns a function, which in turn takes an integer y and returns a function, which finally takes an integer z and returns the result x*y*z.

  37. Curry Conventions To avoid excess parentheses when using curried functions, two simple conventions are adopted: • The arrow  associates to the right. Int  Int  Int  Int Means Int  (Int  (Int  Int)).

  38. As a consequence, it is then natural for function application to associate to the left. mult x y z Means ((mult x) y) z. Unless tupling is explicitly required, all functions in Haskell are normally defined in curried form.

  39. Polymorphic Types The function length calculates the length of any list, irrespective of the type of its elements. > length [1,3,5,7] 4 > length ["Yes","No"] 2 > length [isDigit,isLower,isUpper] 3

  40. This idea is made precise in the type for length by the inclusion of a type variable: length :: [a]  Int For any type a, length takes a list of values of type a and returns an integer. A type with variables is called polymorphic.

  41. Note: • Many of the functions defined in the standard prelude are polymorphic. For example: fst :: (a,b)  a head :: [a]  a take :: Int  [a]  [a] zip :: [a]  [b]  [(a,b)]

  42. Overloaded Types The arithmetic operator + calculates the sum of any two numbers of the same numeric type. For example: > 1+2 3 > 1.1 + 2.2 3.3

  43. This idea is made precise in the type for + by the inclusion of a class constraint: (+) :: Num a  a  a  a For any type a in the class Num of numeric types, + takes two values of type a and returns another. A type with constraints is called overloaded.

  44. Classes in Haskell A class is a collection of types that support certain operations, called the methods of the class. Types whose values can be compared for equality and difference using (==) :: a  a  Bool (/=) :: a  a  Bool Eq

  45. Haskell has a number of basic classes, including: - Equality types Eq - Ordered types Ord - Showable types Show - Readable types Read - Numeric types Num

  46. Example methods: (==) :: Eq a  a  a  Bool (<) :: Ord a  a  a  Bool show :: Show a  a  String read :: Read a  String  a () :: Num a  a  a  a

  47. (1) (2) What are the types of the following functions? Check your answers using Hugs. Exercises second xs = head (tail xs) swap (x,y) = (y,x) pair x y = (x,y) double x = x*2 palindrome xs = reverse xs == xs twice f x = f (f x)

  48. LECTURE 4 DEFINING FUNCTIONS Graham Hutton University of Nottingham

  49. Conditional Expressions As in most programming languages, functions can be defined using conditional expressions. abs :: Int  Int abs n = if n  0 then n else -n abs takes an integer n and returns n if it is non-negative and -n otherwise.

  50. Conditional expressions can be nested: signum :: Int  Int signum n = if n < 0 then -1 else if n == 0 then 0 else 1 Note: • In Haskell, conditional expressions must always have an else branch, which avoids any possible ambiguity problems with nested conditionals.

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