3 ms·

I love this idea too. Is it possible to create a type (in F# or Typescript) to represent an idea like greaterThan2? A value whose type is greaterThan2 would hav

I love this idea too. Is it possible to create a type (in F# or Typescript) to represent an idea like greaterThan2? A value whose type is greaterThan2 would have the obvious constraint the value is always bigger than 2. Having the compiler check such a condition would be awesome. I kind of can do it for Strings by doing something like this type ValidStrings = 'name' | age | 'dob'; The easy way around this is a function to determine this function greaterThan2(num) return num > 2; but it'd be cool to express this level of dynamism as a type.

logicprog 6y ago
This is called dependent typing, and F# doesn't have it as far as I know. There are other ML-family languages that are capable of it however: Liquid Haskell and Idris are the two I can recall off the top of my head.
yawaramin 6y ago
in F#, yes, in TypeScript, not really. The technique involves using a combo of an opaque nominal type, and a smart constructor: (* GreaterThanTwo.fsi *) type t val make : int -> t option val to_int : t -> int (* GreaterThanTwo.fs *) type t = Value of int let make int = if int > 2 then Some (Value int) else None let to_int (Value int) = int Now, `GreaterThanTwo.make x` gives you a value of type `GreaterThanTwo.t option`, meaning it can be `Some` value or `None`. If it's `Some` value, that means it really does contain an int greater than two and you can get that int using `GreaterThanTwo.to_int`.
kowalgta 6y ago
As others mentioned - using smart constructor technique, but not directly as F# has no dependend type capability. Smart constructor technique works well with 'parse, don't validate' approach [0]. You can push type construction to the boundries of your system so that you can work on a domain code with more precise types. It's not always so rosy however as too much types can become a burden. [0] https://lexi-lambda.github.io/blog/2019/11/05/parse-don-t-validate/ https://lexi-lambda.github.io/blog/2019/11/05/parse-don-t-va...

logicprog 6y ago

This is called dependent typing, and F# doesn't have it as far as I know. There are other ML-family languages that are capable of it however: Liquid Haskell and Idris are the two I can recall off the top of my head.

yawaramin 6y ago

in F#, yes, in TypeScript, not really. The technique involves using a combo of an opaque nominal type, and a smart constructor: (* GreaterThanTwo.fsi *) type t val make : int -> t option val to_int : t -> int (* GreaterThanTwo.fs *) type t = Value of int let make int = if int > 2 then Some (Value int) else None let to_int (Value int) = int Now, `GreaterThanTwo.make x` gives you a value of type `GreaterThanTwo.t option`, meaning it can be `Some` value or `None`. If it's `Some` value, that means it really does contain an int greater than two and you can get that int using `GreaterThanTwo.to_int`.

kowalgta 6y ago

As others mentioned - using smart constructor technique, but not directly as F# has no dependend type capability. Smart constructor technique works well with 'parse, don't validate' approach [0]. You can push type construction to the boundries of your system so that you can work on a domain code with more precise types. It's not always so rosy however as too much types can become a burden. [0] https://lexi-lambda.github.io/blog/2019/11/05/parse-don-t-validate/ https://lexi-lambda.github.io/blog/2019/11/05/parse-don-t-va...