6.4.19. Deferring type errors to runtime¶

While developing, sometimes it is desirable to allow compilation to succeed even if there are type errors in the code. Consider the following case:

module Main where

a :: Int
a = 'a'

main = print "b"

Even though a is ill-typed, it is not used in the end, so if all that we’re interested in is main it can be useful to be able to ignore the problems in a.

For more motivation and details please refer to the Wiki page or the original paper.

6.4.19.1. Enabling deferring of type errors¶

The flag -fdefer-type-errors controls whether type errors are deferred to runtime. Type errors will still be emitted as warnings, but will not prevent compilation. You can use -Wno-deferred-type-errors to suppress these warnings.

This flag implies the -fdefer-typed-holes and -fdefer-out-of-scope-variables flags, which enables this behaviour for typed holes and variables. Should you so wish, it is possible to enable -fdefer-type-errors without enabling -fdefer-typed-holes or -fdefer-out-of-scope-variables, by explicitly specifying -fno-defer-typed-holes or -fno-defer-out-of-scope-variables on the command-line after the -fdefer-type-errors flag.

At runtime, whenever a term containing a type error would need to be evaluated, the error is converted into a runtime exception of type TypeError. Note that type errors are deferred as much as possible during runtime, but invalid coercions are never performed, even when they would ultimately result in a value of the correct type. For example, given the following code:

x :: Int
x = 0

y :: Char
y = x

z :: Int
z = y

evaluating z will result in a runtime TypeError.

6.4.19.2. Deferred type errors in GHCi¶

The flag -fdefer-type-errors works in GHCi as well, with one exception: for “naked” expressions typed at the prompt, type errors don’t get delayed, so for example:

Prelude> fst (True, 1 == 'a')

<interactive>:2:12:
    No instance for (Num Char) arising from the literal `1'
    Possible fix: add an instance declaration for (Num Char)
    In the first argument of `(==)', namely `1'
    In the expression: 1 == 'a'
    In the first argument of `fst', namely `(True, 1 == 'a')'

Otherwise, in the common case of a simple type error such as typing reverse True at the prompt, you would get a warning and then an immediately-following type error when the expression is evaluated.

This exception doesn’t apply to statements, as the following example demonstrates:

Prelude> let x = (True, 1 == 'a')

<interactive>:3:16: Warning:
    No instance for (Num Char) arising from the literal `1'
    Possible fix: add an instance declaration for (Num Char)
    In the first argument of `(==)', namely `1'
    In the expression: 1 == 'a'
    In the expression: (True, 1 == 'a')
Prelude> fst x
True

6.4.19.3. Limitations of deferred type errors¶

The errors that can be deferred are:

Out of scope term variables
Equality constraints; e.g. ord True gives rise to an insoluble equality constraint Char ~ Bool, which can be deferred.
Type-class and implicit-parameter constraints

All other type errors are reported immediately, and cannot be deferred; for example, an ill-kinded type signature, an instance declaration that is non-terminating or ill-formed, a type-family instance that does not obey the declared injectivity constraints, etc etc.

In a few cases, even equality constraints cannot be deferred. Specifically:

Kind-equalities cannot be deferred, e.g.
```
f :: Int Bool -> Char
```
This type signature contains a kind error which cannot be deferred.
Type equalities under a forall cannot be deferred (c.f. #14605).