How can I avoid writing boilerplate code for functions performing pattern matching?

Question

In this response to another question, a little Haskell code sketch was given which uses wrapper functions to factor out some code for doing syntax checking on command line argum

Answer 1

Combinators are your friend. Try this:

take1 :: [String] -> Maybe String
take1 [x] = Just x
take1 _ = Nothing

take2 :: [String] -> Maybe (String,String)
take2 [x,y] = Just (x,y)
take2 _ = Nothing

take3 :: [String] -> Maybe ((String,String),String)
take3 [x,y,z] = Just ((x,y),z)
take3 _ = Nothing

type ErrorMsg = String

with1 :: (String -> IO ()) -> ErrorMsg -> [String] -> IO ()
with1 f msg = maybe (fail msg) f . take1

with2 :: (String -> String -> IO ()) -> ErrorMsg -> [String] -> IO ()
with2 f msg = maybe (fail msg) (uncurry f) . take2

with3 :: (String -> String -> String -> IO ()) -> ErrorMsg -> [String] -> IO ()
with3 f msg = maybe (fail msg) (uncurry . uncurry $ f) . take3

foo a b c = putStrLn $ a ++ " :: " ++ b ++ " = " ++ c

bar = with3 foo "You must send foo a name, type, definition"

main = do
  bar [ "xs", "[Int]", "[1..3]" ]
  bar [ "xs", "[Int]", "[1..3]", "What am I doing here?" ]

And if you like overpowered language extensions:

{-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses, FunctionalDependencies, FlexibleInstances, FlexibleContexts, UndecidableInstances #-}

foo a b c = putStrLn $ a ++ " :: " ++ b ++ " = " ++ c
foo_msg = "You must send foo a name, type, definition"

class ApplyArg a b | a -> b where
  appArg :: ErrorMsg -> a -> [String] -> IO b

instance ApplyArg (IO b) b where
  appArg _msg todo [] = todo
  appArg msg _todo _ = fail msg

instance ApplyArg v q => ApplyArg (String -> v) q where
  appArg msg todo (x:xs) = appArg msg (todo x) xs
  appArg msg _todo _ = fail msg

quux :: [String] -> IO ()
quux xs = appArg foo_msg foo xs

main = do
  quux [ "xs", "[int]", "[1..3]" ]
  quux [ "xs", "[int]", "[1..3]", "what am i doing here?" ]

Answer 2

Haskell has polyvariadic functions. Imagine you had a type like

data Act = Run (String -> Act) | Res (IO ())

with some functions to do what you want

runAct (Run f) x = f x
runAct (Res _) x = error "wrong function type"

takeNargs' 0 (Res b) _ = b
takeNargs' 0 (Run _) _ = error "wrong function type"
takeNargs' n act (x:xs) = takeNargs' (n-1) (runAct act x) xs
takeNargs' _ _ [] = error "not long enough list"

now, all you you need is to marshal functions into this Act type. You need some extensions

{-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances, FlexibleContexts #-}

and then you can define

class Actable a where
  makeAct :: a -> Act
  numberOfArgs :: a -> Int

instance Actable (String -> IO ()) where
  makeAct f = Run $ Res . f
  numberOfArgs _ = 1

instance Actable (b -> c) => Actable (String -> (b -> c)) where
  makeAct f = Run $ makeAct . f
  numberOfArgs f = 1 + numberOfArgs (f "")

now you can define

takeNArgs n act = takeNargs' n (makeAct act) 

which makes it easier to define your original functions

takesSingleArg :: (String -> IO ()) -> [String] -> IO ()
takesSingleArg = takeNArgs 1

takesTwoArgs :: (String -> String -> IO ()) -> [String] -> IO ()
takesTwoArgs = takeNArgs 2

But we can do even better

takeTheRightNumArgs f = takeNArgs (numberOfArgs f) f

Amazingly, this works (GHCI)

*Main> takeTheRightNumArgs putStrLn ["hello","world"]
hello
*Main> takeTheRightNumArgs (\x y -> putStrLn x >> putStrLn y)  ["hello","world"] 
hello
world

---

Edit: The code above is much more complicated than it needs to be. Really, all you want is

class TakeArgs a where
   takeArgs :: a -> [String] -> IO ()

instance TakeArgs (IO ()) where
   takeArgs a _ = a

instance TakeArgs a => TakeArgs (String -> a) where
   takeArgs f (x:xs) = takeArgs (f x) xs
   takeArgs f [] = error "end of list"

Answer 3

You might want to make use of existing libraries to deal with command line arguments. I believe the de-facto standard right now is cmdargs, but other options exist, such as ReadArgs and console-program.