I recently added the RowToList and ListToRow type classes to the 2.3.0 release of the typelevel-prelude under the Type.Row module. The idea with these two type classes is to be able to compute at the type-level with rows of types. This is achieved by converting to/from a type-level cons-list:

foreign import kind RowList
foreign import data Nil :: RowList
foreign import data Cons :: Symbol -> Type -> RowList -> RowList

This describes that entries in a RowList are pairs of symbols and types.

The RowToList type class converts from a row of types to a RowList. It is solved by the compiler (as of version 0.11.6) and is defined as:

class RowToList (row :: # Type)
                (list :: RowList) |
                row -> list

It extracts the collection of entries in a closed row of types. The list of entries is sorted by label but preserves order of duplicates.

Here are a few examples with a given input row and the computed RowList:

RowToList () Nil

RowToList (a :: A) (Cons "a" A Nil)

RowToList (b :: B, a :: A) (Cons "a" A (Cons "b" B Nil))

RowToList (a :: A0, b :: B, a :: A1) (Cons "a" A0 (Cons "a" A1 (Cons "b" B Nil)))

The (almost) inverse of this operation is ListToRow - which takes a RowList and computes a row of types from it. This type class is straight-forwardly defined by recursively applying a RowCons:

class ListToRow (list :: RowList)
                (row :: # Type) |
                list -> row

instance listToRowNil
  :: ListToRow Nil ()

instance listToRowCons
  :: ( ListToRow tail tailRow
     , RowCons label ty tailRow row )
=> ListToRow (Cons label ty tail) row

Note that a RowList need not have sorted keys for ListToRow to produce a row. The list produced by RowToList row list should produce the same row when passed to ListToRow list row, but not necessarily the other way around.

Example

A good demonstration of the kinds of things we can do with these type classes is an applyRecord function. This will accept a record of functions and a record of inputs, producing a record of outputs. Such that each key in the input and the output may have distinct types.

First we’ll write out the type of applyRecord:

applyRecord :: forall io i o.
  ApplyRecord io i o =>
  Record io -> Record i -> Record o

Here I’m using i, o, and io to indicate input, output, and functions from input to output; respectively.

Now for the type class:

class ApplyRecord (io :: # Type)
                  (i :: # Type)
                  (o :: # Type)
                  | i o -> io
                  , io o -> i
                  , io i -> o

Notice all those functional dependencies. To be able to compute the any of these types we need to know the other two.

There’s only one instance of the above type class, and it’s a fairly straight-forward conversion of each of the rows to RowList, then delegate to an ApplyRowList type class, and finally convert back to row. The conversions are constrained to be inverses of each other.

instance applyRecordImpl
  :: ( RowToList io lio
     , RowToList i li
     , RowToList o lo
     , ApplyRowList lio li lo
     , ListToRow lio io
     , ListToRow li i
     , ListToRow lo o )
  => ApplyRecord io i o

The ApplyRowList is (as you might expect) a version of ApplyRecord, except instead of working with rows of types, it works with RowList.

class ApplyRowList (io :: RowList)
                   (i :: RowList)
                   (o :: RowList)
                   | i o -> io
                   , io o -> i
                   , io i -> o

Almost exactly the same as the previous type class, just working at a different kind.

Now that we have list representations of the rows, we can recursively process them! The first case to deal with is Nil. Remember that all the records must have the same keys. So when we hit Nil, they must all be Nil:

instance applyRowListNil
  :: ApplyRowList Nil Nil Nil

Very easy.

Next up is the Cons case. Again all three lists must be Cons at the same time. Not only that, but they must have the same keys in the same order.

instance applyRowListCons
  :: ApplyRowList tio ti to
  => ApplyRowList (Cons k (i -> o) tio) (Cons k i ti) (Cons k o to)

Notice the relationship between the entries here: i -> o, i, and o.

As an instance constraint, we recursively compute on the tails of each Cons.

…and we’re done! At least the type computation part. We could write applyRecord with the FFI - which I’ll leave out as an implementation detail.

To demonstrate that this works, here are a few examples:

-- setup

foo :: {a :: Boolean -> String, b :: Int -> Boolean}
foo = {a: show, b: (_ > 0)}

bar :: {a :: Boolean, b :: Int}
bar = {a: true, b: 0}

-- examples

eg0 x = applyRecord foo x
eg1 x = applyRecord x bar
eg2 r = applyRecord r.io r.i
-- With types equivalent to the following being inferred:

eg0 :: forall i o.
  ApplyRecord (a :: Boolean -> String, b :: Int -> Boolean) i o =>
  Record i -> Record o

eg1 :: forall io o.
  ApplyRecord io (a :: Boolean, b :: Int) o =>
  Record io -> Record o

eg2 :: forall io i.
  ApplyRecord io i (a :: String, b :: Boolean) =>
  { io :: Record io, i :: Record i } ->
  { a :: String, b :: Boolean }

Conclusion

Hopefully this has given you some insight into how the RowToList and ListToRow type classes have given us super powers in dealing with rows. For example, we can now define Show and Eq instances for records!

I look forward to seeing all the fun things people do with this :)

Update 2017-09-24

In the previous version of this post I had the fundeps as:

| io -> i o
, i -> io o
, o -> io i

This was incorrect, for example knowing just the input can’t tell you the output.

Updated: