Haskell using Eq=> in function definitions

Question

I have a function which contains an abstract data type as a parameter. In order for me to be able to equate this abstract data type I used:

myfunction:: Eq x=> [x]->[x]->[x]

So it takes in two lists of x, and outputs a list of [x]

However, when I call it from another function:

anotherfunction::[x] -> [x] -> [x]
anotherfunction a b = myfunction a b

it says

No instance for (Eq x) arising from a use of myfunction, in the expression myfunction ab

However, if I call myfunction from the console, with the two arguments it works fine.

How do I solve this?

Answer 1

Use Eq in the type of anotherfunction .

anotherfunction::Eq x => [x] -> [x] -> [x]
anotherfunction a b = myfunction a b

myfunction works only with types that are in the Eq class. But your current definition of anotherfunction claims it can work with any type. This would cause a problem if you called anotherfunction with a type that is not in the Eq class - it wouldn't be able to call myfunction .

Answer 2

myfunction:: Eq x=> [x]->[x]->[x]

Here x has to have an instance declaration for Eq class.

anotherfunction::[x] -> [x] -> [x]
anotherfunction a b = myfunction a b

Here myfunction assumes type of a and b to belong to Eq class, but the type of anotherfunction makes no such constraint.

The correct way would be to specify this constraint in anotherfunction also.

anotherfunction:: Eq x => [x] -> [x] -> [x]
anotherfunction a b = myfunction a b

If you have any confusion, the easiest way would be not to give any type to anotherfunction and load the file in ghci and see what type is inferred for anotherfunction .

> :t anotherfunction 
anotherfunction :: Eq x => [x] -> [x] -> [x]

ghc will infer the most generic type so if you want type to be more specific then it is better to give explicit type for x. Like

anotherfunction :: [Int] -> [Int] -> [Int]

Here Eq instance for Int is already defined so you don't get any error. So If you assign the polymorphic type x to any specific type then you just need to make sure it has the instances for constrained classes.