How to write code in F# for what functors do in OCaml?

Question

I have many programs written in OCaml, some of them use functors. Now, I am considering of writing and re-writing a part of code in F# (to benefit some advantages that OCaml doe

Answer 1

As you noticed, F# doesn't have functors - F# modules cannot be parameterized by types. You can get similar results in F# using the object oriented parts of the language - interfaces, generic classes and inheritance.

Here's a heavy handed approach at emulating your example.

type Comparison = Less | Equal | Greater

/// Interface corresponding to ORDERED_TYPE signature
type IOrderedType<'a> = 
    abstract Value: 'a
    abstract Compare: IOrderedType<'a> -> Comparison

/// Type that implements ORDERED_TYPE signature, different instantiations
/// of this type correspond to your OrderedInt/OrderedString modules.
/// The 't: comparison constraint comes from the fact that (<) operator 
/// is used in the body of Compare.
type Ordered<'t when 't: comparison> (t: 't) =
    interface IOrderedType<'t> with
        member this.Value = t
        member this.Compare (other: IOrderedType<'t>) = 
            if t = other.Value then Equal else if t < other.Value then Less else Greater

/// A generic type that works over instances of IOrderedType interface.
type Set<'t, 'ot when 't: comparison and 'ot :> IOrderedType<'t>> (coll: IOrderedType<'t> list) =

    member this.Values = 
        coll |> List.map (fun x -> x.Value)

    member this.Add(x: 't) = 
        let rec add (x: IOrderedType<'t>) s = 
            match coll with
            | [] -> [x]
            | hd::tl ->
                match x.Compare(hd) with
                | Equal   -> s         (* x is already in s *)
                | Less    -> x :: s    (* x is smaller than all elements of s *)
                | Greater -> hd :: add x tl
        Set<'t, 'ot>(add (Ordered(x)) coll)

    static member Empty = Set<'t, 'ot>(List.empty)

/// A helper function for Set.Add. Useful in pipelines. 
module Set =     
    let add x (s: Set<_,_>) =
       s.Add(x)

/// Type aliases for different instantiations of Set 
/// (these could have easily been subtypes of Set as well)
type StringSet = Set>
type IntSet = Set>

let try1 () = Set.add "foo" StringSet.Empty
let try2 () = Set.add 2 IntSet.Empty

try1().Values
try2().Values