NAME

Types::Algebraic - Algebraic data types in perl

SYNOPSIS

  use Types::Algebraic;

  data Maybe = Nothing | Just :v;

  my $sum = 0;
  my @vs = ( Nothing, Just(5), Just(7), Nothing, Just(6) );
  for my $v (@vs) {
      match ($v) {
         with (Nothing) { }
         with (Just $v) { $sum += $v; }
      }
  }
  say $sum;

DESCRIPTION

Types::Algebraic is an implementation of algebraic data types in perl.

These kinds of data types are often seen in functional languages, and allow you to create and consume structured data containers very succinctly.

The module provides two keywords: "data" for creating a new data type, and "match" to provide pattern matching on the type.

USAGE

Creating a new type with data

The data keyword is used for creating a new type.

The code

  data Maybe = Nothing | Just :v;

creates a new type, of name Maybe, which has 2 data constructors, Nothing (taking no parameters), and Just (taking 1 parameter).

You may insantiate values of this type by using one of the constructors with the appropriate number of arguments.

  my $a = Nothing;
  my $b = Just 5;

Unpacking values with match

In order to access the data stored within one of these values, you can use the match keyword.

  my $value = Just 7;
  match ($value) {
      with (Nothing) { say "There was nothing in there. :("; }
      with (Just $v) { say "I got the value $v!"; }
  }

The cases are matched from the top down, and only the first matching case is run.

You can also create a default fallback case, which will always run if reached.

  data Color = Red | Blue | Green | White | Black;
  match ($color) {
      with (Red) { say "Yay, you picked my favorite color!"; }
      default    { say "Bah. You clearly have no taste."; }
  }

Nested patterns

Note, patterns can be nested, allowing for more complex unpacking:

  data PairingHeap = Empty | Heap :head :subheaps;
  data Pair = Pair :left :right;

  # Merge two pairing heaps (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pairing_heap)
  sub merge {
      my ($h1, $h2) = @_;

      match (Pair($h1, $h2)) {
          with (Pair Empty $h) { return $h; }
          with (Pair $h Empty) { return $h; }
          with (Pair (Heap $e1 $s1) (Heap $e2 $s2)) {
              return $e1 < $e2 ? Heap($e1, [$h2, @$s1])
                               : Heap($e2, [$h1, @$s2]);
          }
      }
  }

LIMITATIONS

Currently, match statements can't be nested.

BUGS

Please report bugs directly on the project's GitHub page.

AUTHOR

Sebastian Paaske Tørholm <sebbe@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2020- Sebastian Paaske Tørholm

LICENSE

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

cpanm Types::Algebraic

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Types::Algebraic