Code examples from 9/14 — recursion, lists

Pattern-matching on values

vowel :: Char -> Bool
vowel 'a' = True
vowel 'e' = True
vowel 'i' = True
vowel 'o' = True
vowel 'u' = True
vowel  _  = False

Count the length of a collatz sequence starting from n. See also the assignment 1 solutions. Note that those are backquotes on the `div` – some of you are getting that wrong. Also, pay attention to the difference between `div` (integer division) and / (float, or fractional division).

collatzCount :: Int -> Int
collatzCount n
  | n <= 1 = 0
  | even n = collatzCount (n `div` 2) + 1
  | otherwise = collatzCount (3*n+1) + 1

A really simple function that works on any numeric type (class Num).

squared x = x*x

A main function, using the do notation and output statements (side effects).

main = do
  putStrLn "Hello there"
  putStrLn "Haskell is fun"

Generating lists recursively

Produce a list with count copies of a given value elem.

genList :: a -> Int -> [a]
genList elem count
  | count == 0 = []
  | otherwise = elem : genList elem (count-1)

Examples:

• genList 3 5 ⇒ [3,3,3,3,3]
• genList 'a' 8 ⇒ "aaaaaaaa"
• genList 'x' 0 ⇒ ""

Produce a range of integers (much like the built-in notation [3..8] which is syntactic sugar for a function enumFromTo).

fromTo :: Int -> Int -> [Int]
fromTo start end
  | end < start = []
  | otherwise = start : fromTo (start+1) end

Examples:

• fromTo 3 8 ⇒ [3,4,5,6,7,8]
• fromTo 10 14 ⇒ [10,11,12,13,14]
• fromTo 10 8 ⇒ []

Duplicate each element of the list.

dupe :: [a] -> [a]
dupe [] = []
dupe (h:t) = h : h : dupe t

Examples:

• dupe [3,4,5] ⇒ [3,3,4,4,5,5]
• dupe [] ⇒ []
• dupe "Chris" ⇒ "CChhrriiss"

Square each element of a list, using direct recursion. (A more idiomatic approach would be to use map.)

squares [] = []
squares (h:t) = h*h : squares t

Examples:

• squares [3,4,5] ⇒ [9,16,25]
• squares [2,10,8] ⇒ [4,100,64]
• squares [] ⇒ []