Why doesn't Haskell accept arguments after a function composition?

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轻奢々
轻奢々 2021-01-22 16:23

Considering Haskell has currying functions, we can do this:

foo a b = a + b -- equivalent to `foo a = \\b -> a + b`

foo 1 -- ok, returns `\\b -> 1 + b`
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  •  醉梦人生
    2021-01-22 17:03

    Let's assume that you've define the following in GHCi:

    λ> let foo a b = a + b
    λ> let bar x = x * x
    

    Based on some of your follow-up comments, it seems that you believe

    bar . foo 1 2
    

    to be equivalent to

    (bar . foo 1) 2
    

    However, remember that function application (space) has higher precedence than the composition operator (.); therefore

    bar . foo 1 2
    

    is really equivalent to

    bar . ((foo 1) 2)
    

    Now, let's look at the types:

    • . has type (b -> c) -> (a -> b) -> a -> c; its two arguments are functions (that can be composed).
    • bar has type Num a => a -> a, and is therefore compatible with the type (b -> c) of the first argument of ..
    • foo 1 2 has type Num a => a; it's a (polymorphic) numeric constant, not a function, and is therefore not compatible with the type (a -> b) of the second argument of ..

    That's why you're getting a type error in bar . foo 1 2. What you can do, though, is

    bar $ foo 1 2
    

    because the $ operator has type (a -> b) -> a -> b. See Haskell: difference between . (dot) and $ (dollar sign)

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