6.4.3. Infix type constructors, classes, and type variablesΒΆ
GHC allows type constructors, classes, and type variables to be operators, and to be written infix, very much like expressions. More specifically:
A type constructor or class can be any non-reserved operator. Symbols used in types are always like capitalized identifiers; they are never variables. Note that this is different from the lexical syntax of data constructors, which are required to begin with a
:
.Data type and type-synonym declarations can be written infix, parenthesised if you want further arguments. E.g.
data a :*: b = Foo a b type a :+: b = Either a b class a :=: b where ... data (a :**: b) x = Baz a b x type (a :++: b) y = Either (a,b) y
Types, and class constraints, can be written infix. For example
x :: Int :*: Bool f :: (a :=: b) => a -> b
Back-quotes work as for expressions, both for type constructors and type variables; e.g.
Int `Either` Bool
, orInt `a` Bool
. Similarly, parentheses work the same; e.g.(:*:) Int Bool
.Fixities may be declared for type constructors, or classes, just as for data constructors. However, one cannot distinguish between the two in a fixity declaration; a fixity declaration sets the fixity for a data constructor and the corresponding type constructor. For example:
infixl 7 T, :*:
sets the fixity for both type constructor
T
and data constructorT
, and similarly for:*:
.Int `a` Bool
.The function arrow
->
isinfixr
with fixity -1.