Data.Proxy

Short note on Data.Proxy based on this Stackoverflow answer.

First, a few imports:

> {-# LANGUAGE RankNTypes          #-}
> {-# LANGUAGE ScopedTypeVariables #-}
>
> module Proxy where
>
> import Data.Proxy
> import Text.Read

Suppose we want to check if some fuzzy real world data can be read as certain concrete types. We could write a few helper functions using readMaybe:

> readableAsInt :: String -> Bool
> readableAsInt s
>   = case readMaybe s of
>       Just (_ :: Int) -> True
>       _               -> False
>
> readableAsDouble :: String -> Bool
> readableAsDouble s
>   = case readMaybe s of
>       Just (_ :: Double) -> True
>       _                  -> False
>
> readableAsBool :: String -> Bool
> readableAsBool s
>   = case readMaybe s of
>       Just (_ :: Bool) -> True
>       _                -> False

These are all basically the same. How to generalise? Let’s try a typeclass.

> class ReadableAs t where
>    readableAs :: String -> Bool

This doesn’t work since readableAs doesn’t depend on the type t:

    The class method ‘readableAs’
    mentions none of the type or kind variables of the class ‘ReadableAs t’
    When checking the class method: readableAs :: String -> Bool
    In the class declaration for ‘ReadableAs’
Failed, modules loaded: none.

So put the type in:

> class ReadableAs' t where
>    readableAs' :: t -> String -> Bool

This compiles, so let’s write some instances:

> instance ReadableAs' Int where
>   readableAs' _ s
>      = case readMaybe s of
>          Just (_ :: Int) -> True
>          _               -> False
>
> instance ReadableAs' Double where
>   readableAs' _ s
>      = case readMaybe s of
>          Just (_ :: Double) -> True
>          _                  -> False
>
> instance ReadableAs' Bool where
>   readableAs' _ s
>      = case readMaybe s of
>          Just (_ :: Bool) -> True
>          _                -> False

Using it is clunky since we have to come up with a concrete value for the first argument:

 > readableAs' (0::Int) "0"
 True
 > readableAs' (0::Double) "0"
 True

For some types we could use Data.Default for this placeholder value. But for other types nothing will make sense. How do we choose a default value for Foo?

> data Foo = Cat | Dog

Haskell has non-strict evaluation so we can use undefined, but, ugh. Bad idea.

 > readableAs' (undefined::Int) "0"
 True

So let’s try out Proxy. It has a single constructor and a free type variable that we can set:

 > :t Proxy
 Proxy :: Proxy t

 > Proxy :: Proxy Bool
 Proxy
 > Proxy :: Proxy Int
 Proxy
 > Proxy :: Proxy Double
 Proxy

Let’s use Proxy t instead of t:

> class ReadableAsP t where
>    readableAsP :: Proxy t -> String -> Bool
>
> instance ReadableAsP Int where
>   readableAsP _ s
>      = case readMaybe s of
>          Just (_ :: Int) -> True
>          _               -> False
>
> instance ReadableAsP Double where
>   readableAsP _ s
>      = case readMaybe s of
>          Just (_ :: Double) -> True
>          _                  -> False
>
> instance ReadableAsP Bool where
>   readableAsP _ s
>      = case readMaybe s of
>          Just (_ :: Bool) -> True
>          _                -> False

This works, and we don’t have to come up with the unused concrete value:

 > readableAsP (Proxy :: Proxy Bool) "0"
 False
 > readableAsP (Proxy :: Proxy Bool) "True"
 True
 > readableAsP (Proxy :: Proxy Int) "0"
 True
 > readableAsP (Proxy :: Proxy Double) "0"
 True
 > readableAsP (Proxy :: Proxy Double) "0.0"
 True

Still, there’s a lot of duplication in the class and instances. We can do away with the class entirely. With the ScopedTypeVariables language extension and the forall, the t in the type signature can be referred to in the body:

> readableAs :: forall t. Read t => Proxy t -> String -> Bool
> readableAs _ s
>      = case readMaybe s of
>          Just (_ :: t) -> True
>          _             -> False

 > readableAs (Proxy :: Proxy Int) "0"
 True
 > readableAs (Proxy :: Proxy Int) "foo"
 False

Archived comments

---

Franklin Chen

2017-03-25 02:23:07.94742 UTC

This can also now be done without Proxy, thanks to explicit type application:

{-# LANGUAGE TypeApplications #-}
{-# LANGUAGE AllowAmbiguousTypes #-}

import Data.Maybe (isJust)

readableAs :: forall t. Read t => String -> Bool
readableAs = isJust @t . readMaybe

example1 = readableAs @Int "0"
example2 = readableAs @Int "foo"
example3 = readableAs @Double "0.1"