I have read in Learn you a Haskell, that list comprehensions in Haskell could be rewritten as monadic joins or (which is practically the same) do-notation.
However, when I try to rewrite the following code (produce all possible lists having each element from one of given lists):
c :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
c [] = [[]]
c (x:xs) = [a:b | a <- x, b <- c xs]
in such a manner:
d :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
d [] = [[]]
d (x:xs) = do
a <- x
b <- d xs
return a:b
I get the following error:
Couldn't match type `a' with [a]
`a' is a rigid type variable bound by
the type signature for d :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
Expected type: [[a]]
Actual type: [a]
In the second argument of `(:)', namely `b'
In a stmt of a 'do' block: return a : b
if I change the last line of do
to this: return a:[b]
, I don't get errors, but the result is obviously incorrect:
ghci> c [[1, 2], [3, 4]]
[[1,3],[1,4],[2,3],[2,4]]
ghci> d [[1, 2], [3, 4]]
[[1],[3],[1],[],[1],[4],[1],[],[2],[3],[2],[],[2],[4],[2],[]]
So the questions are:
- How can I rewrite this list comprehension?
- Are list comprehension and do-notation interchangeable, how replacement can be done generically?